IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/pal/ijodag/v18y2021i2d10.1057_s41310-021-00104-6.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Does voluntary CSR disclosure and CSR performance influence earnings management? Empirical evidence from China

Author

Listed:
  • Zixin Zhang

    (King’s College London)

  • Teck Lee Yap

    (RMIT University Vietnam)

  • Jiyoung Park

    (Xiamen University Malaysia)

Abstract

We examine whether Chinese firms with better voluntary corporate social responsibility (CSR) disclosure and CSR performance engage in earnings management in their financial reporting. Our results show that Chinese firms with better voluntary CSR disclosure are more likely to engage in earnings management through discretionary accruals and less likely to engage in earnings management through real activities manipulation, while Chinese firms with better CSR performance are more likely to engage in earnings management through real activities manipulation and are less likely to engage in earnings management through discretionary accruals. Our evidence shows that consistent with opportunistic theory, the Chinese firms’ engagement in CSR practices is based on opportunistic incentives, and voluntary CSR disclosure and CSR performance are being used by these firms as window-dressing tools for earnings management that infringes on the benefits of firm stakeholders.

Suggested Citation

  • Zixin Zhang & Teck Lee Yap & Jiyoung Park, 2021. "Does voluntary CSR disclosure and CSR performance influence earnings management? Empirical evidence from China," International Journal of Disclosure and Governance, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 18(2), pages 161-178, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:pal:ijodag:v:18:y:2021:i:2:d:10.1057_s41310-021-00104-6
    DOI: 10.1057/s41310-021-00104-6
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1057/s41310-021-00104-6
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1057/s41310-021-00104-6?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. Blacconiere, Walter G. & Patten, Dennis M., 1994. "Environmental disclosures, regulatory costs, and changes in firm value," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 18(3), pages 357-377, November.
    2. Rob Gray & Mohammed Javad & David M. Power & C. Donald Sinclair, 2001. "Social and Environmental Disclosure and Corporate Characteristics: A Research Note and Extension," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(3‐4), pages 327-356, April.
    3. Peijun Duan & Robert G. Eccles, 2014. "The State of Sustainability in China," Journal of Applied Corporate Finance, Morgan Stanley, vol. 26(3), pages 76-84, September.
    4. Graham, John R. & Harvey, Campbell R. & Rajgopal, Shiva, 2005. "The economic implications of corporate financial reporting," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 40(1-3), pages 3-73, December.
    5. Jennifer Francis & Dhananjay Nanda & Per Olsson, 2008. "Voluntary Disclosure, Earnings Quality, and Cost of Capital," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 46(1), pages 53-99, March.
    6. Jennifer Martínez‐Ferrero & Isabel M. Garcia‐Sanchez & Beatriz Cuadrado‐Ballesteros, 2015. "Effect of Financial Reporting Quality on Sustainability Information Disclosure," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 22(1), pages 45-64, January.
    7. Jensen, Michael C. & Meckling, William H., 1976. "Theory of the firm: Managerial behavior, agency costs and ownership structure," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 3(4), pages 305-360, October.
    8. Bert Scholtens & Feng‐Ching Kang, 2013. "Corporate Social Responsibility and Earnings Management: Evidence from Asian Economies," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 20(2), pages 95-112, March.
    9. Zabihollah Rezaee & Ling Tuo, 2019. "Are the Quantity and Quality of Sustainability Disclosures Associated with the Innate and Discretionary Earnings Quality?," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 155(3), pages 763-786, March.
    10. Wen Qu & Philomena Leung & Barry Cooper, 2013. "A study of voluntary disclosure of listed Chinese firms – a stakeholder perspective," Managerial Auditing Journal, Emerald Group Publishing, vol. 28(3), pages 261-294, March.
    11. Lei Wang & Heikki Juslin, 2009. "The Impact of Chinese Culture on Corporate Social Responsibility: The Harmony Approach," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 88(3), pages 433-451, October.
    12. Jingjing Yang & Jing Chi & Martin Young, 2012. "A review of earnings management in China and its implications," Asian-Pacific Economic Literature, The Crawford School, The Australian National University, vol. 26(1), pages 84-92, May.
    13. Carey, Peter & Liu, Li & Qu, Wen, 2017. "Voluntary corporate social responsibility reporting and financial statement auditing in China," Journal of Contemporary Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 13(3), pages 244-262.
    14. Robert M. Bushman & Abbie Smith, 2003. "Transparency, financial accounting information, and corporate governance," Economic Policy Review, Federal Reserve Bank of New York, vol. 9(Apr), pages 65-87.
    15. Tae Choi & Jinhan Pae, 2011. "Business Ethics and Financial Reporting Quality: Evidence from Korea," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 103(3), pages 403-427, October.
    16. David Owen & Tracey Swift & Christopher Humphrey & Mary Bowerman, 2000. "The new social audits: accountability, managerial capture or the agenda of social champions?," European Accounting Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 9(1), pages 81-98.
    17. Thomas P. Lyon & John W. Maxwell, 2011. "Greenwash: Corporate Environmental Disclosure under Threat of Audit," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 20(1), pages 3-41, March.
    18. Donald S. Siegel & Donald F. Vitaliano, 2007. "An Empirical Analysis of the Strategic Use of Corporate Social Responsibility," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 16(3), pages 773-792, September.
    19. Hsiang-Lin Chih & Chung-Hua Shen & Feng-Ching Kang, 2008. "Corporate Social Responsibility, Investor Protection, and Earnings Management: Some International Evidence," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 79(1), pages 179-198, April.
    20. Cohen, Daniel A. & Zarowin, Paul, 2010. "Accrual-based and real earnings management activities around seasoned equity offerings," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 50(1), pages 2-19, May.
    21. Frank Sampong & Na Song & Kingsley Osei Boahene & Kwame Ansong Wadie, 2018. "Disclosure of CSR Performance and Firm Value: New Evidence from South Africa on the Basis of the GRI Guidelines for Sustainability Disclosure," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(12), pages 1-28, November.
    22. Abagail McWilliams & Donald S. Siegel & Patrick M. Wright, 2006. "Corporate Social Responsibility: Strategic Implications," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 43(1), pages 1-18, January.
    23. Jaja Suteja & Ardi Gunardi & Annisa Mirawati, 2016. "Moderating Effect of Earnings Management on the Relationship Between Corporate Social Responsibility Disclosure and Profitability of Banks in Indonesia," International Journal of Economics and Financial Issues, Econjournals, vol. 6(4), pages 1360-1365.
    24. Diego Prior & Jordi Surroca & Josep A. Tribó, 2008. "Are Socially Responsible Managers Really Ethical? Exploring the Relationship Between Earnings Management and Corporate Social Responsibility," Corporate Governance: An International Review, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 16(3), pages 160-177, May.
    25. Roychowdhury, Sugata, 2006. "Earnings management through real activities manipulation," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 42(3), pages 335-370, December.
    26. Patrick Erwin, 2011. "Corporate Codes of Conduct: The Effects of Code Content and Quality on Ethical Performance," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 99(4), pages 535-548, April.
    27. Huang, Xuerong (Sharon) & Sun, Li, 2017. "Managerial ability and real earnings management," Advances in accounting, Elsevier, vol. 39(C), pages 91-104.
    28. Patten, Dennis M. & Trompeter, Greg, 2003. "Corporate responses to political costs: an examination of the relation between environmental disclosure and earnings management," Journal of Accounting and Public Policy, Elsevier, vol. 22(1), pages 83-94.
    29. Phillips, Robert & Freeman, R. Edward & Wicks, Andrew C., 2003. "What Stakeholder Theory is Not," Business Ethics Quarterly, Cambridge University Press, vol. 13(4), pages 479-502, October.
    30. Rob Gray & Mohammed Javad & David M. Power & C. Donald Sinclair, 2001. "Social and Environmental Disclosure and Corporate Characteristics: A Research Note and Extension," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(3-4), pages 327-356.
    31. Xiao Huafang & Yuan Jianguo, 2007. "Ownership structure, board composition and corporate voluntary disclosure: Evidence from listed companies in China," Managerial Auditing Journal, Emerald Group Publishing, vol. 22(6), pages 604-619, July.
    32. Gao, Jie & Gao, Baichao & Wang, Xiao, 2017. "Trade-off between real activities earnings management and accrual-based manipulation-evidence from China," Journal of International Accounting, Auditing and Taxation, Elsevier, vol. 29(C), pages 66-80.
    33. Christopher Marquis & Cuili Qian, 2014. "Corporate Social Responsibility Reporting in China: Symbol or Substance?," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 25(1), pages 127-148, February.
    34. Shan Xu & Duchi Liu, 2018. "Do Financial Markets Care about Corporate Social Responsibility Disclosure? Further Evidence from China," Australian Accounting Review, CPA Australia, vol. 28(1), pages 79-103, March.
    35. Yongtao Hong & Margaret Andersen, 2011. "The Relationship Between Corporate Social Responsibility and Earnings Management: An Exploratory Study," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 104(4), pages 461-471, December.
    36. Xiao, Jason Zezhong & Yang, He & Chow, Chee W., 2004. "The determinants and characteristics of voluntary Internet-based disclosures by listed Chinese companies," Journal of Accounting and Public Policy, Elsevier, vol. 23(3), pages 191-225.
    37. Firth, Michael & Fung, Peter M.Y. & Rui, Oliver M., 2007. "Ownership, two-tier board structure, and the informativeness of earnings - Evidence from China," Journal of Accounting and Public Policy, Elsevier, vol. 26(4), pages 463-496.
    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. Ahmad Yuosef Alodat & Hamzeh Al Amosh & Osamah Alorayni & Saleh F. A. Khatib, 2024. "Does corporate sustainability disclosure mitigate earnings management: empirical evidence from Jordan," International Journal of Disclosure and Governance, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 21(1), pages 165-174, March.
    2. Wadhaah Ibrahim Almubarak & Kaouther Chebbi & Mohammed Abdullah Ammer, 2023. "Unveiling the Connection among ESG, Earnings Management, and Financial Distress: Insights from an Emerging Market," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(16), pages 1-23, August.

    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. Habiba Al‐Shaer, 2020. "Sustainability reporting quality and post‐audit financial reporting quality: Empirical evidence from the UK," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(6), pages 2355-2373, September.
    2. Ali Meftah Gerged & Khaldoon Albitar & Lara Al‐Haddad, 2023. "Corporate environmental disclosure and earnings management—The moderating role of corporate governance structures," International Journal of Finance & Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 28(3), pages 2789-2810, July.
    3. Liu, Chengyun & Su, Kun & Zhang, Miaomiao, 2021. "Water disclosure and financial reporting quality for social changes: Empirical evidence from China," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 166(C).
    4. Jennifer Martínez‐Ferrero & Isabel M. Garcia‐Sanchez & Beatriz Cuadrado‐Ballesteros, 2015. "Effect of Financial Reporting Quality on Sustainability Information Disclosure," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 22(1), pages 45-64, January.
    5. Tesfaye T. Lemma & Mehrzad Azmi Shabestari & Martin Freedman & Mthokozisi Mlilo, 2020. "Corporate carbon risk exposure, voluntary disclosure, and financial reporting quality," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(5), pages 2130-2143, July.
    6. Tiago Gonçalves & Cristina Gaio & André Ferro, 2021. "Corporate Social Responsibility and Earnings Management: Moderating Impact of Economic Cycles and Financial Performance," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(17), pages 1-14, September.
    7. Bozzolan, Saverio & Fabrizi, Michele & Mallin, Christine A. & Michelon, Giovanna, 2015. "Corporate Social Responsibility and Earnings Quality: International Evidence," The International Journal of Accounting, Elsevier, vol. 50(4), pages 361-396.
    8. Kuo, Ya-Fen & Lin, Yi-Mien & Chien, Hsiu-Fang, 2021. "Corporate social responsibility, enterprise risk management, and real earnings management: Evidence from managerial confidence," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 41(C).
    9. Eugene Burgos Mutuc & Jen-Sin Lee & Fu-Sheng Tsai, 2019. "Doing Good with Creative Accounting? Linking Corporate Social Responsibility to Earnings Management in Market Economy, Country and Business Sector Contexts," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(17), pages 1-20, August.
    10. Yamina Chouaibi & Ghazi Zouari, 2022. "The effect of corporate social responsibility practices on real earnings management: evidence from a European ESG data," International Journal of Disclosure and Governance, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 19(1), pages 11-30, March.
    11. Isabel‐Maria García‐Sánchez & Nazim Hussain & Sana Akbar Khan & Jennifer Martínez‐Ferrero, 2020. "Managerial entrenchment, corporate social responsibility, and earnings management," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 27(4), pages 1818-1833, July.
    12. Ho, Simon S.M. & Li, Annie Yuansha & Tam, Kinsun & Tong, Jamie Y., 2016. "Ethical image, corporate social responsibility, and R&D valuation," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 40(PB), pages 335-348.
    13. Garanina, Tatiana & Kim, Oksana, 2023. "The relationship between CSR disclosure and accounting conservatism: The role of state ownership," Journal of International Accounting, Auditing and Taxation, Elsevier, vol. 50(C).
    14. Isabel‐María García‐Sánchez & Emma García‐Meca, 2017. "CSR Engagement and Earnings Quality in Banks. The Moderating Role of Institutional Factors," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 24(2), pages 145-158, March.
    15. Xiangyu Chen & Muhammad Safdar Sial & Dang Khoa Tran & Waseem Alhaddad & Jinsoo Hwang & Phung Anh Thu, 2020. "Are Socially Responsible Companies Really Ethical? The Moderating Role of State-Owned Enterprises: Evidence from China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(7), pages 1-19, April.
    16. Carey, Peter & Liu, Li & Qu, Wen, 2017. "Voluntary corporate social responsibility reporting and financial statement auditing in China," Journal of Contemporary Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 13(3), pages 244-262.
    17. Giovanna Gavana & Pietro Gottardo & Anna Maria Moisello, 2022. "Related Party Transactions and Earnings Management: The Moderating Effect of ESG Performance," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(10), pages 1-21, May.
    18. Sudipta Bose & Chuan Yu, 2023. "Does Earnings Quality Influence Corporate Social Responsibility Performance? Empirical Evidence of the Causal Link," Abacus, Accounting Foundation, University of Sydney, vol. 59(2), pages 493-540, June.
    19. Jannik Gerwanski & Othar Kordsachia & Patrick Velte, 2019. "Determinants of materiality disclosure quality in integrated reporting: Empirical evidence from an international setting," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(5), pages 750-770, July.
    20. Asif Saeed & Ammar Ali Gull & Asad Ali Rind & Muhammad Shujaat Mubarik & Muhammad Shahbaz, 2022. "Do socially responsible firms demand high‐quality audits? An international evidence," International Journal of Finance & Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 27(2), pages 2235-2255, April.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Voluntary CSR disclosure; CSR performance; Earnings management; Discretionary accruals; Real activities manipulation; China;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G34 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Mergers; Acquisitions; Restructuring; Corporate Governance
    • M14 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Business Administration - - - Corporate Culture; Diversity; Social Responsibility
    • M41 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Accounting - - - Accounting
    • M48 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Accounting - - - Government Policy and Regulation

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:pal:ijodag:v:18:y:2021:i:2:d:10.1057_s41310-021-00104-6. 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: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.palgrave.com .

    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.