مسئولیت اجتماعی شرکتی و هموارسازی درآمد
Abstract
1- Introduction
2- Literature review and hypotheses development
3- Research design
4- Empirical results
5- Conclusions
References
Abstract
This paper investigates how the supplier-buyer relationship affects the income-smoothing behavior of socially responsible companies. Prior research finds that companies tend to smooth earnings to maintain the supply chain relationship. This paper argues that the income-smoothing behavior of socially responsible companies is conditioned on how their supply chain partners treat corporate social responsibility (CSR). The findings show that companies engaging in higher levels of CSR performance who have greater dependence on the supplier-buyer relationship are associated with lower levels of income smoothness. In addition, this paper finds that the capital market perceives the smoothed earnings of firms with superior CSR performance to be less informative than the earnings of other firms, implying that faithful representation is consistent with the interests of both shareholders and stakeholders. Collectively, the findings suggest that the growing CSR demand in the supply chain is in line with the interests of shareholders and stakeholders.
Introduction
Corporate social responsibility (hereafter, CSR) is gaining in importance in the areas of supply chain management and managerial income smoothing behavior. Increasing numbers of companies are placing orders to suppliers who incorporate CSR into their products. For instance, Apple Inc., a big U.S. publicly held technology company, launched a new initiative in 2005 to drive its suppliers to become more energy efficient and to use clean energy for their manufacturing operations.1 This trend not only embraces firm efforts to keep a balance between profits and environmental sustainability, but it also somewhat signifies their demand-oriented CSR policy in contemporary society. Because expenditures on CSR eventually flow into product costs, firms may not increase investments in CSR projects unless their supply chain partners change their focus from cost-oriented products to green products. This phenomenon implies that the supply chain relationship is potentially a major determinant of a firm's CSR policy. Income smoothing is a managerial behavior where managers use their reporting discretion to dampen fluctuations in their firm's net income (Trueman & Titman, 1988). There are two alternative arguments regarding income smoothing behavior. On the one hand, income smoothing improves earnings informativeness if managers attempt to communicate their assessment of future earnings to the market (Tucker & Zarowin, 2006). On the other hand, income smoothing results in biased earnings if managers attempt to distort net income (Grant, Markarian, & Parbonetti, 2009; Kirschenheiter & Melumad, 2002; Lambert, 1984; Myers, Myers, & Swaminathan, 2007). This inconsistency remains even in current studies that focus on socially responsible firms (hereafter, CSR firms). Gao and Zhang (2015) find that U.S. income-smoothing firms placing more emphasis on CSR exhibit a higher contemporaneous earnings-return relationship. Based on international data, Chih, Shen, and Kang (2008) find that CSR firms exhibit higher levels of earnings aggressiveness but lower levels of income smoothness and earnings loss avoidance. Based on a sample of U.S.