IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/bracre/v56y2024i1s0890838923001373.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

How can regulators affect corporate social responsibility? Evidence from regulatory disclosures of consumer complaints in the U.S

Author

Listed:
  • Wang, Yujie
  • Tsang, Albert
  • Xiang, Yi
  • Yan, Shuo

Abstract

Regulators are increasingly seeking ways to incentivize firms to improve corporate social responsibility (CSR) while minimizing criticism of direct interventions in firm behavior. This study takes advantage of two exogenous regulatory shocks initiated by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) in the US. In 2011, the CFPB enabled the private filing of consumer complaints against financial firms, and in 2013, these complaints were publicly disclosed. Our findings reveal a positive association between consumer complaints and subsequent CSR performance of the targeted financial firms (referred to as focal firms). Notably, this association becomes significant only after the public disclosure of complaints. Furthermore, we observe a spillover effect on the CSR performance of non-focal firms operating in the same area as the focal firms. Collectively, these findings suggest that mandatory disclosure of consumer complaints is one effective regulatory strategy to motivate both focal and non-focal firms to enhance their CSR performance.

Suggested Citation

  • Wang, Yujie & Tsang, Albert & Xiang, Yi & Yan, Shuo, 2024. "How can regulators affect corporate social responsibility? Evidence from regulatory disclosures of consumer complaints in the U.S," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 56(1).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:bracre:v:56:y:2024:i:1:s0890838923001373
    DOI: 10.1016/j.bar.2023.101280
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0890838923001373
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.bar.2023.101280?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:bracre:v:56:y:2024:i:1:s0890838923001373. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.journals.elsevier.com/the-british-accounting-review .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.