Corporate Social Responsibility as a Strategic Shield Against Costs of Earnings Management Practices

We highlight how Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) can be strategically used against the negative perception from earnings management (EM). Using international data, we analyse the effect of CSR and EM on the cost of capital and corporate reputation. Results confirm that CSR strategy is positive...

Full description

Saved in:  
Bibliographic Details
Authors: Martínez-Ferrero, Jennifer (Author) ; Banerjee, Shantanu (Author) ; García-Sánchez, Isabel María (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
Check availability: HBZ Gateway
Journals Online & Print:
Drawer...
Fernleihe:Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste
Published: Springer Science + Business Media B. V 2016
In: Journal of business ethics
Year: 2016, Volume: 133, Issue: 2, Pages: 305-324
Further subjects:B cost of capital
B Earnings management (EM)
B Managerial Discretion
B Corporate Reputation
B Corporate social responsibility (CSR)
Online Access: Presumably Free Access
Volltext (JSTOR)
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig)
Description
Summary:We highlight how Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) can be strategically used against the negative perception from earnings management (EM). Using international data, we analyse the effect of CSR and EM on the cost of capital and corporate reputation. Results confirm that CSR strategy is positively valued by investors and other stakeholders. Contrary to EM, CSR has a positive effect on corporate reputation and lowers the cost of capital. In addition, we also find that the favourable effect of CSR on cost of capital is consistently more intense in firms that show signs of EM indicating that the market does not identify when CSR practices are used as a strategy to mask EM. We also demonstrate how institutional factors influence the above relationship.
ISSN:1573-0697
Contains:Enthalten in: Journal of business ethics
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1007/s10551-014-2399-x