How and When Does Mandatory CSR Disclosure Affects Firms’ CSR Disclosure Strategy?

Abstract

ABSTRACT Research on corporate social responsibility (CSR) disclosure recognizes the importance of the government and examines how firms respond to government CSR regulations. However, little attention is given to how government regulations affect firms’ disclosure strategy in multiple fields of CSR. Based on institutional theory, this study proposes that mandatory CSR disclosure increases the legitimacy management cost for firms, and thus firms disclose more CSR scope to gain legitimacy and less CSR emphasis to reduce costs. Using data from Chinese A-share listed firms in 2008–2018, this study finds that mandatory CSR disclosure is positively related to CSR scope but negatively related to CSR emphasis. In addition, firm visibility strengthens the aforementioned positive and negative relations, whereas market competition weakens the relation between mandatory CSR disclosure and CSR emphasis. This study contributes to the literature on CSR disclosure and studies on organizational responses to the government mandate. 虽然关于企业社会责任信息披露的研究认识到政府的重要性，并考察了企业如何响应政府的社会责任规定，但是，鲜有研究考察政府的规定如何影响企业在多个社会责任领域的披露策略。本文作者基于制度理论，提出强制性企业社会责任披露增加了企业的合法性管理成本，因而企业会披露较多的社会责任范围来获得合法性，而披露较少的企业社会责任的着重点以降低成本。本研究利用2008-2018年中国A股上市公司的数据进行分析，发现强制性企业社会责任披露确实与企业社会责任披露的范围呈正相关，而与企业社会责任披露的着重点呈负相关。此外，企业知名度加强了上述的正、负关系；而市场竞争削弱了强制性企业社会责任披露与企业社会责任披露着重点之间的负关系。本研究对企业社会责任披露文献和组织响应政府规定的文献做出了贡献。