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Mandatory corporate social responsibility disclosure and firm innovation: Evidence from a quasi-natural experiment

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  • Zhang, Huilin

Abstract

In this paper, I focus on whether government regulations on CSR disclosure can encourage firms’ sustainable growth, innovation in particular. Employing the enactment of a regulation that mandates a subset of firms to disclose their corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities in China as a quasi-natural experiment, I find that mandatory CSR disclosure encourages firm innovation. This positive relation is more pronounced for firms that are ex-ante less transparent. My findings indicate that although social responsible oriented mandatory information disclosure may bring about short-term costs, it can be beneficial to firms’ long-term prospects thorough facilitating patenting activities.

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  • Zhang, Huilin, 2022. "Mandatory corporate social responsibility disclosure and firm innovation: Evidence from a quasi-natural experiment," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 47(PB).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:finlet:v:47:y:2022:i:pb:s1544612322001210
    DOI: 10.1016/j.frl.2022.102819
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    Cited by:

    1. Qi Ban & Huiting Zhu, 2023. "Quality of Mandatory Social Responsibility Disclosure and Total Factor Productivity of Enterprises: Evidence from Chinese Listed Companies," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(13), pages 1-22, June.
    2. Erli Dan & Jianfei Shen & Yiwei Guo, 2023. "Corporate Sustainable Growth, Carbon Performance, and Voluntary Carbon Information Disclosure: New Panel Data Evidence for Chinese Listed Companies," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(5), pages 1-27, March.
    3. Song, Yan & Xiu, Yifan & Zhao, Mengyang & Tian, Ye & Wang, Jingyuan, 2024. "Intellectual property protection and enterprise innovation: Evidence from China," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 62(PB).
    4. Qi Ban, 2022. "The Quality of Corporate Social Responsibility Information Disclosure and Enterprise Innovation: Evidence from Chinese Listed Companies," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(1), pages 1-22, December.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Stakeholder; Corporate social responsibility; Mandatory CSR disclosure; Firm Innovation; Quasi-natural Experiment;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G35 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Payout Policy
    • G38 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Government Policy and Regulation
    • G32 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Financing Policy; Financial Risk and Risk Management; Capital and Ownership Structure; Value of Firms; Goodwill

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