Discipline of Accounting and Finance, Charles Darwin University, Darwin, Australia.
Discipline of Accounting, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, Australia.
PLoS One. 2021 May 28;16(5):e0250884. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0250884. eCollection 2021.
This paper empirically examines whether there is an association between financial reporting disclosure quality and sustainability disclosure quality of the top 100 socially reputed Chinese listed firms. The paper computed financial disclosure quality by empirically combining earning qualities of accrual, persistence, predictability, and smoothness. Using content analysis and survey questionnaire research methods, it calculated sustainability quality by combining disclosure quantity (through quantitative weightings), disclosure type (through qualitative weightings), and disclosure item importance (through qualitative weightings) of economic, social, and environmental disclosures made in annual and sustainability reports, ascertained using the Global Reporting Initiative sustainability framework. The study finds that sustainability disclosure in the current period is sufficiently associated with financial disclosure quality of the current period and future period. Consistent with stakeholder theory, firms with a social reputation are perceived as trustworthy by stakeholders and shareholders. The findings lead to a cultural stakeholder theory where underlying values of societal culture create a condition supporting mutual stakeholder relationships between firm and various stakeholders. Demonstrating trustworthiness through disclosures can help boost consumer confidence and foreign trade relations for Chinese firms. The Chinese government can design innovative schemes to reward and promote trustworthiness in firms, such as regulating base-point reductions in interest rates on borrowing or raising funds.
本文实证检验了中国前 100 大声誉良好的上市公司的财务报告披露质量与可持续发展报告披露质量之间是否存在关联。本文通过实证结合应计质量、持续性、可预测性和平滑性来计算财务披露质量。采用内容分析和问卷调查研究方法，结合年度和可持续发展报告中经济、社会和环境披露的披露数量（通过定量权重）、披露类型（通过定性权重）和披露项目重要性（通过定性权重），利用全球报告倡议可持续发展框架，计算可持续发展质量。研究发现，当期的可持续发展披露与当期和未来期间的财务披露质量密切相关。与利益相关者理论一致的是，具有社会声誉的公司被利益相关者和股东视为值得信赖的。研究结果导致了一种文化利益相关者理论，即社会文化的基本价值观创造了一种支持公司与各种利益相关者之间相互利益相关者关系的条件。通过披露来展示值得信赖可以帮助提升中国企业的消费者信心和外贸关系。中国政府可以设计创新方案，对企业的诚信进行奖励和推广，例如规定降低借款或筹集资金的利率基点。
