IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jbrese/v189y2025ics0148296324005964.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

ESG rating uncertainty and corporate financial misconduct

Author

Listed:
  • Zhou, Jian
  • Lei, Xiaodong

Abstract

Drawing on the fraud triangle theory, we examine the impact of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) rating uncertainty on corporate financial misconduct. Using a dataset of Chinese listed companies, we find a positive relationship between ESG rating uncertainty and corporate financial misconduct. The mediation analysis results suggest that this relationship can be explained by increased financial constraints and reduced institutional investor monitoring. Furthermore, we find that the positive relationship between ESG rating uncertainty and corporate financial misconduct is more pronounced in heavily polluting industries and those facing intense competition, whereas board governance, the legal system, and Confucian culture help weaken this positive relationship. Overall, our study provides new evidence that ESG rating uncertainty leads to more corporate financial misconduct, thereby emphasizing the significance of being vigilant to the dark side of divergent ESG ratings in capital market regulation.

Suggested Citation

  • Zhou, Jian & Lei, Xiaodong, 2025. "ESG rating uncertainty and corporate financial misconduct," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 189(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jbrese:v:189:y:2025:i:c:s0148296324005964
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jbusres.2024.115092
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0148296324005964
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jbusres.2024.115092?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.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ester Clementino & Richard Perkins, 2021. "How Do Companies Respond to Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) ratings? Evidence from Italy," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 171(2), pages 379-397, June.
    2. Andreas Georg Scherer & Christian Voegtlin, 2020. "Corporate Governance for Responsible Innovation: Approaches to Corporate Governance and Their Implications for Sustainable Development," Post-Print hal-02623585, HAL.
    3. Michelle L. Zorn & Christine Shropshire & John A. Martin & James G. Combs & David J. Ketchen Jr., 2017. "Home Alone: The Effects of Lone-Insider Boards on CEO Pay, Financial Misconduct, and Firm Performance," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 38(13), pages 2623-2646, December.
    4. Chen, Jun & Dong, Wang & Tong, Yixing & Zhang, Feida, 2020. "Corporate philanthropy and corporate misconduct: Evidence from China," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 65(C), pages 17-31.
    5. Lisic, Ling Lei & Silveri, Sabatino (Dino) & Song, Yanheng & Wang, Kun, 2015. "Accounting fraud, auditing, and the role of government sanctions in China," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 68(6), pages 1186-1195.
    6. Christopher A. Parsons & Johan Sulaeman & Sheridan Titman, 2018. "The Geography of Financial Misconduct," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 73(5), pages 2087-2137, October.
    7. Christopher A. Hennessy & Toni M. Whited, 2007. "How Costly Is External Financing? Evidence from a Structural Estimation," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 62(4), pages 1705-1745, August.
    8. Olga Hawn & Ioannis Ioannou, 2016. "Mind the gap: The interplay between external and internal actions in the case of corporate social responsibility," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 37(13), pages 2569-2588, December.
    9. Martin J. Conyon & Lerong He, 2016. "Executive Compensation and Corporate Fraud in China," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 134(4), pages 669-691, April.
    10. Allen, Franklin & Qian, Jun & Qian, Meijun, 2005. "Law, finance, and economic growth in China," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 77(1), pages 57-116, July.
    11. Cuili Qian & Heli Wang & Xuesong Geng & Yangxin Yu, 2017. "Rent appropriation of knowledge-based assets and firm performance when institutions are weak: A study of Chinese publicly listed firms," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 38(4), pages 892-911, April.
    12. Liuyang Ren & Xi Zhong & Liangyong Wan, 2022. "Missing Analyst Forecasts and Corporate Fraud: Evidence from China," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 181(1), pages 171-194, November.
    13. Seung Ho Park & Yadong Luo, 2001. "Guanxi and organizational dynamics: organizational networking in Chinese firms," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 22(5), pages 455-477, May.
    14. Yingyi Qian & Barry R. Weingast, 1997. "Federalism as a Commitment to Reserving Market Incentives," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 11(4), pages 83-92, Fall.
    15. Samuel Drempetic & Christian Klein & Bernhard Zwergel, 2020. "The Influence of Firm Size on the ESG Score: Corporate Sustainability Ratings Under Review," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 167(2), pages 333-360, November.
    16. Stefano Bonini & Justin Deng & Mascia Ferrari & Kose John & David Gaddis Ross, 2022. "Long‐tenured independent directors and firm performance," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 43(8), pages 1602-1634, August.
    17. Amir Amel-Zadeh & George Serafeim, 2018. "Why and How Investors Use ESG Information: Evidence from a Global Survey," Financial Analysts Journal, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 74(3), pages 87-103, July.
    18. Ali, Usman & Hirshleifer, David, 2017. "Opportunism as a firm and managerial trait: Predicting insider trading profits and misconduct," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 126(3), pages 490-515.
    19. Raghunandan, Aneesh, 2024. "Government subsidies and corporate misconduct," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 122855, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    20. DeFond, Mark & Li, Zengquan & Wong, T.J. & Wu, Kaiwen, 2024. "Competence vs. Independence: Auditors' connections with members of their clients’ business community," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 78(1).
    21. Neilson, Jed J., 2022. "Investor information gathering and the resolution of uncertainty," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 74(1).
    22. George Serafeim & Aaron Yoon, 2023. "Stock price reactions to ESG news: the role of ESG ratings and disagreement," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 28(3), pages 1500-1530, September.
    23. Dayuan Li & Jialin Jiang & Lu Zhang & Chen Huang & Ding Wang, 2023. "Do CEOs with Sent-Down Movement Experience Foster Corporate Environmental Responsibility?," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 185(1), pages 147-168, June.
    24. Leung, T.Y. & Sharma, Piyush, 2021. "Demystifying the dark side of board political capital," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 126(C), pages 307-318.
    25. Andrei, Daniel & Friedman, Henry & Ozel, N. Bugra, 2023. "Economic uncertainty and investor attention," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 149(2), pages 179-217.
    26. Rahman, Mahabubur, 2023. "The virtuous circle between green product innovation and performance: The role of financial constraint and corporate brand," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 154(C).
    27. Chen, Shuo & Ding, Haoyuan & Lin, Shu & Ye, Haichun, 2022. "From past lies to current misconduct: The long shadow of China's Great Leap Forward," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 157(C).
    28. Sariyer, Gorkem & Kumar Mangla, Sachin & Chowdhury, Soumyadeb & Erkan Sozen, Mert & Kazancoglu, Yigit, 2024. "Predictive and prescriptive analytics for ESG performance evaluation: A case of Fortune 500 companies," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 181(C).
    29. Emma Avetisyan & Kai Hockerts, 2017. "The Consolidation of the ESG Rating Industry as an Enactment of Institutional Retrogression," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 26(3), pages 316-330, March.
    30. He, Wen & Luo, Jin-hui, 2018. "Agency problems in firms with an even number of directors: Evidence from China," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 93(C), pages 139-150.
    31. Jian Zhang, 2018. "Public Governance and Corporate Fraud: Evidence from the Recent Anti-corruption Campaign in China," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 148(2), pages 375-396, March.
    32. Gao, Yongqiang & Yang, Haibin & Zhang, Miaohan, 2021. "Too bad to fear, too good to dare? Performance feedback and corporate misconduct," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 131(C), pages 1-11.
    33. Lars Helge Hass & Monika Tarsalewska & Feng Zhan, 2016. "Equity Incentives and Corporate Fraud in China," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 138(4), pages 723-742, November.
    34. Florian Berg & Julian F Kölbel & Roberto Rigobon, 2022. "Aggregate Confusion: The Divergence of ESG Ratings [Corporate social responsibility and firm risk: theory and empirical evidence]," Review of Finance, European Finance Association, vol. 26(6), pages 1315-1344.
    35. Dan Amiram & Serene Huang & Shiva Rajgopal, 2020. "Does financial reporting misconduct pay off even when discovered?," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 25(3), pages 811-854, September.
    36. Feng He & Xin Huang & Guanchun Liu & Ziqiao Wang, 2024. "Does CSR Engagement Deter Corporate Misconduct? Quasi-natural Experimental Evidence from Firms Joining a Government-Initiated Social Program in China," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 193(3), pages 555-587, September.
    37. Rajna Gibson Brandon & Philipp Krueger & Peter Steffen Schmidt, 2021. "ESG Rating Disagreement and Stock Returns," Financial Analysts Journal, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 77(4), pages 104-127, October.
    38. Francis, Bill B. & Hasan, Iftekhar & Zhu, Yun, 2021. "The impact of political uncertainty on institutional ownership," Journal of Financial Stability, Elsevier, vol. 57(C).
    39. Chen, Gongmeng & Firth, Michael & Gao, Daniel N. & Rui, Oliver M., 2006. "Ownership structure, corporate governance, and fraud: Evidence from China," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 12(3), pages 424-448, June.
    40. Waymond Rodgers & Arne Söderbom & Andrés Guiral, 2015. "Corporate Social Responsibility Enhanced Control Systems Reducing the Likelihood of Fraud," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 131(4), pages 871-882, November.
    41. Aneesh Raghunandan, 2024. "Government Subsidies and Corporate Misconduct," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 62(4), pages 1449-1496, September.
    42. Gormley, Todd A. & Gupta, Vishal K. & Matsa, David A. & Mortal, Sandra C. & Yang, Lukai, 2023. "The Big Three and board gender diversity: The effectiveness of shareholder voice," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 149(2), pages 323-348.
    43. Jeffrey M. Wooldridge, 2015. "Control Function Methods in Applied Econometrics," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 50(2), pages 420-445.
    44. Nikolaos Kavadis & Steen Thomsen, 2023. "Sustainable corporate governance: A review of research on long‐term corporate ownership and sustainability," Post-Print hal-04694665, HAL.
    45. Jiafeng Chen & Jonathan Roth, 2024. "Logs with Zeros? Some Problems and Solutions," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 139(2), pages 891-936.
    46. Aaron K. Chatterji & Michael W. Toffel, 2010. "How firms respond to being rated," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(9), pages 917-945, September.
    47. Weiwen Li & Yan ‘Anthea’ Zhang & Xinchun Li, 2024. "Reducing Symbolic Compliance: The Presence of Multiple Large Shareholders as an Internal Monitoring Mechanism," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 61(5), pages 1946-1984, July.
    48. Michael D. Kimbrough & Xu (Frank) Wang & Sijing Wei & Jiarui (Iris) Zhang, 2024. "Does Voluntary ESG Reporting Resolve Disagreement among ESG Rating Agencies?," European Accounting Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 33(1), pages 15-47, January.
    49. Grundy, Bruce D. & Verwijmeren, Patrick, 2020. "The external financing of investment," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).
    50. Natalia Semenova & Lars Hassel, 2015. "On the Validity of Environmental Performance Metrics," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 132(2), pages 249-258, December.
    51. Xu, Aiting & Zhu, Yuhan & Wang, Wenpu, 2023. "Micro green technology innovation effects of green finance pilot policy—From the perspectives of action points and green value," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 159(C).
    52. Wang Dong & Hongling Han & Yun Ke & Kam C. Chan, 2018. "Social Trust and Corporate Misconduct: Evidence from China," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 151(2), pages 539-562, August.
    53. Jiandong Chen & Douglas Cumming & Wenxuan Hou & Edward Lee, 2016. "Does the External Monitoring Effect of Financial Analysts Deter Corporate Fraud in China?," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 134(4), pages 727-742, April.
    54. Chu, Shaner & Oldford, Erin & Wang, Jun, 2023. "Corporate social responsibility and corporate fraud in China: The perspective of moderating effect of board gender diversity," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 88(C), pages 1582-1601.
    55. Wenqin Li & John Ziyang Zhang & Rong Ding, 2023. "Impact of Directors’ Network on Corporate Social Responsibility Disclosure: Evidence from China," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 183(2), pages 551-583, March.
    56. Cohn, Jonathan B. & Liu, Zack & Wardlaw, Malcolm I., 2022. "Count (and count-like) data in finance," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 146(2), pages 529-551.
    57. Xingqiang Du, 2015. "Does Confucianism Reduce Minority Shareholder Expropriation? Evidence from China," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 132(4), pages 661-716, December.
    58. Mahabubur Rahman, 2023. "The virtuous circle between green product innovation and performance: The role of financial constraint and corporate brand," Post-Print hal-03903677, HAL.
    59. Jian Zhou & Xiaodong Lei & Jianglong Yu, 2024. "ESG rating divergence and corporate green innovation," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(4), pages 2911-2930, May.
    60. Wang, Cong & Xie, Fei & Zhu, Min, 2015. "Industry Expertise of Independent Directors and Board Monitoring," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 50(5), pages 929-962, October.
    61. Braun, Matías & Briones, Ignacio & Islas, Gonzalo, 2019. "Interlocking directorates, access to credit, and business performance in Chile during early industrialization," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 105(C), pages 381-388.
    62. Irmela F. Koch‐Bayram & Georg Wernicke, 2018. "Drilled to obey? Ex‐military CEOs and financial misconduct," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 39(11), pages 2943-2964, November.
    63. Wu, Fang & Cao, June & Zhang, Xiaosan, 2023. "Do non-executive employees matter in curbing corporate financial fraud?," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 163(C).
    64. Emma Avetisyan & Kai Hockerts, 2017. "Consolidation of the ESG Rating Industry as an Enactment of Institutional Retrogression," Post-Print hal-01695693, HAL.
    65. Zhong, Xi & Ren, Liuyang & Song, Tiebo, 2021. "Different effects of internal and external tournament incentives on corporate financial misconduct: Evidence from China," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 134(C), pages 329-341.
    66. Zaman, Rashid & Atawnah, Nader & Baghdadi, Ghasan A. & Liu, Jia, 2021. "Fiduciary duty or loyalty? Evidence from co-opted boards and corporate misconduct," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 70(C).
    67. Jenny Chu & Patricia M. Dechow & Kai Wai Hui & Annika Yu Wang, 2019. "Maintaining a Reputation for Consistently Beating Earnings Expectations and the Slippery Slope to Earnings Manipulation," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 36(4), pages 1966-1998, December.
    68. Steven Scalet & Thomas Kelly, 2010. "CSR Rating Agencies: What is Their Global Impact?," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 94(1), pages 69-88, June.
    69. Jared Harris & Philip Bromiley, 2007. "Incentives to Cheat: The Influence of Executive Compensation and Firm Performance on Financial Misrepresentation," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 18(3), pages 350-367, June.
    70. Geng, Chunxiao & Li, Donghui & Sun, Jian & Yuan, Chun, 2023. "Functional distance and bank loan pricing: Evidence from the opening of high-speed railway in China," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 149(C).
    71. Luis L. Martins, 2005. "A Model of the Effects of Reputational Rankings on Organizational Change," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 16(6), pages 701-720, December.
    72. Fuxiu Jiang & Kenneth A Kim, 2020. "Corporate Governance in China: A Survey [The role of boards of directors in corporate governance: a conceptual framework and survey]," Review of Finance, European Finance Association, vol. 24(4), pages 733-772.
    73. Mansouri, Sasan & Momtaz, Paul P., 2022. "Financing sustainable entrepreneurship: ESG measurement, valuation, and performance," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 37(6).
    74. Chen, Shihua & Chen, Yulin & Jebran, Khalil, 2023. "Beyond the glass ceiling: Informal gender-based status hierarchy and corporate misconduct," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 169(C).
    75. Leroy Gonsalves, 2023. "When Do Firms Crack Under Pressure? Legal Professionals, Negative Role Models, and Organizational Misconduct," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 34(2), pages 754-776, March.
    76. Jeffrey Pittman & Baolei Qi & Yi Si & Zi-Tian Wang & Chongwu Xia, 2024. "Individual Auditor Social Responsibility and Audit Quality: Evidence from China," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 194(1), pages 119-144, September.
    77. Chen, Guang & Wang, Min, 2023. "Stock market liberalization and earnings management: Evidence from the China–Hong Kong Stock Connects," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 58(PB).
    78. Heese, Jonas & Pérez-Cavazos, Gerardo & Peter, Caspar David, 2022. "When the local newspaper leaves town: The effects of local newspaper closures on corporate misconduct," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 145(2), pages 445-463.
    79. Aaron K. Chatterji & Rodolphe Durand & David I. Levine & Samuel Touboul, 2016. "Do ratings of firms converge? Implications for managers, investors and strategy researchers," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 37(8), pages 1597-1614, August.
    80. Xing Li & Jeong-Bon Kim & Haibin Wu & Yangxin Yu, 2021. "Corporate Social Responsibility and Financial Fraud: The Moderating Effects of Governance and Religiosity," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 170(3), pages 557-576, May.
    81. Steven N. Kaplan & Luigi Zingales, 1997. "Do Investment-Cash Flow Sensitivities Provide Useful Measures of Financing Constraints?," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 112(1), pages 169-215.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Ren, Hao, 2025. "ESG rating disagreement and corporate digital transformation," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 75(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Jian Zhou & Xiaodong Lei & Jianglong Yu, 2024. "ESG rating divergence and corporate green innovation," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(4), pages 2911-2930, May.
    2. Chen, Xuchang & Zhang, Zhu, 2025. "Fintech development and corporate misconduct," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 213(C).
    3. Staněk Gyönyör, Lucie & Horváth, Matúš & Stašek, Daniel & Stachoň, Martin, 2025. "The role of ESG factor in stock clustering based on risk-return-liquidity dimensions," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).
    4. Zhong, Xi & Ren, Liuyang & Song, Tiebo, 2021. "Different effects of internal and external tournament incentives on corporate financial misconduct: Evidence from China," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 134(C), pages 329-341.
    5. Kryzanowski, Lawrence & Li, Mingyang & Xu, Sheng & Zhang, Jie, 2025. "Share pledging and corporate misconduct," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 57(3).
    6. Tsang, Albert & Wang, Yujie & Xiang, Yi & Yu, Li, 2024. "The rise of ESG rating agencies and management of corporate ESG violations," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 169(C).
    7. Chen, Fengwen & Wang, Bing & Wang, Wei & Hu, Chen, 2024. "The secret of imitating wrongdoing: Accidental or deliberate," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 69(C).
    8. Wu, Fang & Cao, June & Zhang, Xiaosan, 2023. "Do non-executive employees matter in curbing corporate financial fraud?," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 163(C).
    9. Clementino, Ester & Perkins, Richard, 2020. "How do companies respond to environmental, social and governance (ESG) ratings? Evidence from Italy," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 103046, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    10. Wang, Ziwei & Yao, Shouyu & Sensoy, Ahmet & Goodell, John W. & Cheng, Feiyang, 2022. "Learning from failures: Director interlocks and corporate misconduct," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).
    11. Ju, Chunhua & Fang, Xusheng & Shen, Zhonghua, 2025. "ESG rating divergence and stock price crash risk," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).
    12. Yin, Libo & Zhu, Xiaoye & Su, Zhi & Guo, Hongliang, 2025. "Is disagreement beneficial for market efficiency? Evidence from ESG ratings," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 154(C).
    13. Wang Dong & Yuan Meng & Jun Chen & Yun Ke, 2025. "Financial Shared Service Centers and Corporate Misconduct: Evidence from China," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 199(1), pages 113-139, June.
    14. Ester Clementino & Richard Perkins, 2021. "How Do Companies Respond to Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) ratings? Evidence from Italy," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 171(2), pages 379-397, June.
    15. Staněk Gyönyör, Lucie & Horváth, Matúš, 2024. "Does ESG affect stock market dependence? An empirical exploration of S&P 1200 companies shows the divergent nature of E–S–G pillars," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 69(C).
    16. Zhou, Jian & Yu, Jianglong & Lei, Xiaodong, 2024. "Do sanctions imposed on peers have a deterrence effect on related-party transactions of observing firms? Evidence from Chinese listed firms," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 141(C).
    17. Liuyang Ren & Xi Zhong & Liangyong Wan, 2022. "Missing Analyst Forecasts and Corporate Fraud: Evidence from China," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 181(1), pages 171-194, November.
    18. Ruan, Lei & Li, Jianing & Huang, Siqi, 2025. "ESG rating adjustment and capital market pricing efficiency: Evidence from China," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 98(C).
    19. Ajithakumari Vijayappan Nair Biju & Snehith Jacob Kodiyatt & P. P. Nithi Krishna & Geetha Sreelekshmi, 2023. "ESG sentiments and divergent ESG scores: suggesting a framework for ESG rating," SN Business & Economics, Springer, vol. 3(12), pages 1-21, December.
    20. Yu, Wei & Yan, Yueyun & Zhu, Keying & Zhang, Peijue, 2024. "Can value-added tax refund policy inhibit corporate financial fraud? Evidence from China," Emerging Markets Review, Elsevier, vol. 63(C).

    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:jbrese:v:189:y:2025:i:c:s0148296324005964. 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.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with 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: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/jbusres .

    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.