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‘Doing-good’ and ‘doing-well’ in Chinese publicly listed firms

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  • Cheung, Yan-Leung
  • Jiang, Kun
  • Tan, Weiqiang

Abstract

Recently, the presumed benefits of corporate social responsibility have become an important issue, especially for China where institutional settings are quite different from other parts of the world. Using an internationally accepted benchmark (OECD's Principles of Corporate Governance, OECD, 2004), this study constructs a corporate social responsibility (CSR) index to measure the quality of the corporate social responsibility practices of the 100 major Chinese listed firms during 2004–2007. This enables us to evaluate the progress of the corporate social responsibility practices of Chinese firms. The results show that Chinese companies have been making progress in their corporate social responsibility practices. The findings also show that market rewards Chinese firms for improving their corporate governance practices which implies ‘doing-good’ leads to ‘doing-well’ in the equity market in China. We also find that overseas-listed and more profitable Chinese firms have better improvement in CSR practice. This study has policy implications in pushing for further CSR initiatives in other emerging markets.

Suggested Citation

  • Cheung, Yan-Leung & Jiang, Kun & Tan, Weiqiang, 2012. "‘Doing-good’ and ‘doing-well’ in Chinese publicly listed firms," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 23(4), pages 776-785.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:chieco:v:23:y:2012:i:4:p:776-785
    DOI: 10.1016/j.chieco.2012.03.013
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    Cited by:

    1. Farag, Hisham & Meng, Qingwei & Mallin, Chris, 2015. "The social, environmental and ethical performance of Chinese companies: Evidence from the Shanghai Stock Exchange," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 53-63.
    2. Li, Zhe & Ling, Zixi & Xu, Si, 2023. "When firms talk, do they act? The impact of environmental strategies and actions on executive promotion in China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 82(C).
    3. Shuangqi Wu & Simon Appleton & Lina Song & Jinmin Wang, 2017. "The Determinants of Virtue: Modelling Changes in the CSR Ratings of Chinese Firms," Working Papers id:12253, eSocialSciences.
    4. Gong, Rong & Marsden, Alastair, 2014. "The impact of the 2007 reforms on the level of information disclosure by the Chinese A-share market," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 30(C), pages 221-234.
    5. Shan Xu & Duchi Liu, 2018. "Do Financial Markets Care about Corporate Social Responsibility Disclosure? Further Evidence from China," Australian Accounting Review, CPA Australia, vol. 28(1), pages 79-103, March.
    6. Weichieh Su & Mike W. Peng & Weiqiang Tan & Yan-Leung Cheung, 2016. "The Signaling Effect of Corporate Social Responsibility in Emerging Economies," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 134(3), pages 479-491, March.
    7. Camelia-Daniela Hategan & Nicoleta Sirghi & Ruxandra-Ioana Curea-Pitorac & Vasile-Petru Hategan, 2018. "Doing Well or Doing Good: The Relationship between Corporate Social Responsibility and Profit in Romanian Companies," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(4), pages 1-23, April.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Corporate social responsibility; Firm valuation; China; Overseas listing;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • M14 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Business Administration - - - Corporate Culture; Diversity; Social Responsibility
    • A13 - General Economics and Teaching - - General Economics - - - Relation of Economics to Social Values

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