School of Economics and Management, China University of Mining and Technology, Xuzhou, China.
Xuzhou Vocational Technology Academy of Finance and Economics, Xuzhou, China.
PLoS One. 2024 Apr 3;19(4):e0301187. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0301187. eCollection 2024.
The literature has confirmed that when managers increase profits through earnings management, the readability of annual reports may be reduced Lo (2017), Ye (2018). Whether this conclusion is suitable for Chinese corporate social responsibility (CSR) reports, however, is still unclear. Based on the panel data of 5083 Chinese non-financial listed companies from 2010 to 2019, this paper adopts multiple linear regression to investigate the impact of earnings management on the readability of Chinese CSR reports. The results show that: (1) There is a significant negative correlation between earnings management and the readability of Chinese CSR reports, with the readability of Chinese annual reports as a mediating variable. (2) The negative effect is more significant when companies are not punished for violations, when the internal control index is low, when companies lack ISO14001 certification and when companies do not have independent third-party authentication for Chinese CSR reports. (3) When earnings management just exceeds zero, the readability of Chinese CSR reports decreases. (4) The economic consequences of reducing the readability of Chinese CSR reports are that financing costs are increased and environmental performance is decreased. To improve the quality of information disclosure of listed companies, the recommendations are as follows: First, the government should issue CSR reporting standards to reduce the manipulation of Chinese CSR reports. Second, Chinese CSR reports disclosed by listed companies must be audited by independent third parties to enhance the credibility of the information. Third, the company needs to strengthen its external and internal supervision to reduce the manipulation space for the readability of Chinese CSR reports. This study extends the negative relationship between earnings management and the readability from annual reports to Chinese CSR reports. To prevent investors from detecting earnings management, the readability of Chinese CSR reports may be reduced. At the same time, the study has definitely added value to the existing literature in the domain of CSR.
文献已经证实，当管理者通过盈余管理来提高利润时，年度报告的可读性可能会降低（Lo，2017；Ye，2018）。然而，这一结论是否适用于中国企业的社会责任（CSR）报告尚不清楚。本文基于 2010 年至 2019 年中国 5083 家非金融上市公司的面板数据，采用多元线性回归方法，考察了盈余管理对中国 CSR 报告可读性的影响。结果表明：（1）盈余管理与中国 CSR 报告的可读性呈显著负相关，且以中国年度报告的可读性为中介变量。（2）当公司违规不受处罚、内部控制指数较低、缺乏 ISO14001 认证以及中国 CSR 报告没有独立的第三方认证时，这种负效应更为显著。（3）当盈余管理刚刚超过零时，中国 CSR 报告的可读性会降低。（4）降低中国 CSR 报告可读性的经济后果是增加融资成本和降低环境绩效。为了提高上市公司信息披露质量，建议如下：第一，政府应出台 CSR 报告准则，减少对中国 CSR 报告的操纵。第二，上市公司披露的中国 CSR 报告必须由独立的第三方进行审计，以增强信息的可信度。第三，公司需要加强外部和内部监督，减少中国 CSR 报告可读性的操纵空间。本研究将盈余管理与年度报告的可读性之间的负相关关系扩展到了中国 CSR 报告。为了防止投资者发现盈余管理，中国 CSR 报告的可读性可能会降低。同时，本研究在 CSR 领域的现有文献中肯定增加了一定的价值。
