تاثیر شرایط یارانه های کشور چین بر افشاگری داوطلبانه مسئولیت اجتماعی
Abstract
1- Introduction
2- Literature review
3- Institutional background
4- Hypotheses development
5- Research design
6- Empirical findings
7- Conclusion
References
Abstract
This paper examines whether state subsidy is a determinant of the voluntary corporate social responsibility (CSR) disclosures of Chinese listed firms. Using archival data from a sample of manufacturing firms listed on the Shanghai and Shenzhen Stock Exchanges from 2008 to 2012, we find that state subsidies have a material influence on CSR disclosure choice beyond the variables that commonly figure in Western models. This effect is concentrated among the non-state-owned enterprises (NSOEs) rather than the state-owned enterprises (SOEs), and especially when subsidies are granted through non-tax based rather than tax-based channels. Further analysis also suggests that these findings are more pronounced among firms domiciled in regions with a higher level of corruption. Our findings shed light on how political cost considerations influence firms’ decisions to disclose CSR information in China where government intervention in the economic and business environment is pervasive.
Introduction
This study examines if state subsidies influence the voluntary corporate social responsibility (CSR) disclosures of Chinese listed firms. The determinants of CSR disclosure have been regularly discussed in the Western literature. However, there are relatively few papers that address this issue by focusing on institutional factors specific to transitional economies such as China, which is evolving from a centrally planned to a market oriented system. We believe that China is especially interesting to study with regard to CSR disclosures for two reasons. First, although China is now the manufacturing center of the world it is also facing significant environmental and social issues. Second, the political economy of China is materially different from the traditional Western economies for which most of the existing research on CSR has been carried out. Unlike existing studies, we pay special attention to the role of subsidies granted by the government, and we highlight the differential impact of subsidies offered through tax and non-tax channels, which are interesting features of the Chinese state capitalism that distinguishes firms in China from their Western peers. State subsidies are pervasive among Chinese listed firms (e.g., Allen et al., 2005; Lee et al., 2014). For example, a report by the government official Xinhua news agency reveals that up to 88% of Chinese listed firms were granted state subsidies in 2014, with a total amount of nearly 32.26 billion yuan (over 5 billion US dollars).1 Existing studies provided evidence that state subsidies generate a material impact on the market value (e.g., Chen and Wang, 2004; Lee et al., 2014) and the financial reporting (Chen et al., 2008; He, 2016) of Chinese firms. Despite of this, the issue of state subsidies has not been examined by prior studies as a determinant of CSR disclosures in China (Li and Zhang, 2010; Marquis and Qian, 2013). Thus, our study fills this research gap and investigates whether Chinese state subsidies influence CSR disclosures, after controlling for the other determinants that have been identified by existing literature. In particular, we investigate if the influence of state subsidies on CSR disclosures in China varies across state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and non-state-owned enterprises (NSOEs).