IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v12y2020i11p4404-d363909.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Corporate Behavior: An Exploratory Study of the Brazilian Tax Management from a Corporate Social Responsibility Perspective

Author

Listed:
  • Eurídice Mamede de Andrade

    (Department of Accounting. School of Business and Accounting, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 22290-240 Rio de Janeiro/RJ, Brazil)

  • Lúcia Lima Rodrigues

    (NIPE, Department of Management. School of Economics and Management of University of Minho, 4710-057 Braga, Portugal)

  • José Paulo Cosenza

    (Department of Accounting. School of Business and Accounting, Fluminense Federal University, 24020-140 Niterói/RJ, Brazil)

Abstract

A look into the literature on corporate social responsibility (CSR) reveals few studies focusing on the relationship between ethical concerns and corporate behavior of companies that perform tax evasion management. This study links tax management with ethics and CSR reporting. The purpose of this article is to analyze financial and social responsibility information disclosed by the five main Brazilian construction companies that are being investigated in Brazil’s Operation Car Wash (Operação Lava-Jato—in Portuguese) because of inappropriate behavior. Based on the theoretical concepts of organizational façades and organized hypocrisy, we used content-analysis methodology and lexical search approach to analyze the consistency between the practices of tax management and CSR reporting. The results reveal evidence of aggressive tax management. To meet its tax management objectives, a company usually manages and plans taxes accordingly, delaying the payment of tax debt and not reporting all tax risks, thus being fined for violations of the law. We found evidence of organized hypocrisy and organizational façades, since there are contradictions between the tax behavior of the investigated companies and their CSR and ethical discourse.

Suggested Citation

  • Eurídice Mamede de Andrade & Lúcia Lima Rodrigues & José Paulo Cosenza, 2020. "Corporate Behavior: An Exploratory Study of the Brazilian Tax Management from a Corporate Social Responsibility Perspective," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(11), pages 1-21, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:12:y:2020:i:11:p:4404-:d:363909
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/11/4404/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/11/4404/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Michelle Rodrigue & Michel Magnan & Charles Cho, 2013. "Is Environmental Governance Substantive or Symbolic? An Empirical Investigation," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 114(1), pages 107-129, April.
    2. Brunsson, Nils, 1990. "Deciding for responsibility and legitimation: Alternative interpretations of organizational decision-making," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 15(1-2), pages 47-59.
    3. Roman Lanis & Grant Richardson, 2012. "Corporate social responsibility and tax aggressiveness: a test of legitimacy theory," Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Emerald Group Publishing, vol. 26(1), pages 75-100, December.
    4. Prem Sikka, 2010. "Smoke and mirrors: Corporate social responsibility and tax avoidance," Accounting Forum, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 34(3-4), pages 153-168, September.
    5. Brunsson, Nils, 1993. "Ideas and actions: Justification and hypocrisy as alternatives to control," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 18(6), pages 489-506, August.
    6. Chansog (Francis) Kim & Liandong Zhang, 2016. "Corporate Political Connections and Tax Aggressiveness," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 33(1), pages 78-114, March.
    7. Bertrand Venard, 2008. "Organizational isomorphism and corruption," Post-Print hal-00760557, HAL.
    8. Mushang Lee & Yu-Lan Huang, 2020. "Corporate Social Responsibility and Corporate Performance: A Hybrid Text Mining Algorithm," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(8), pages 1-19, April.
    9. Everett, Jeff & Tremblay, Marie-Soleil, 2014. "Ethics and internal audit: Moral will and moral skill in a heteronomous field," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 25(3), pages 181-196.
    10. Jaehun Joo & Mike Tae-In Eom & Matthew Minsuk Shin, 2017. "Finding the Missing Link between Corporate Social Responsibility and Firm Competitiveness through Social Capital: A Business Ecosystem Perspective," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(5), pages 1-22, April.
    11. Minnick, Kristina & Noga, Tracy, 2010. "Do corporate governance characteristics influence tax management?," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 16(5), pages 703-718, December.
    12. Bertrand Venard & Mohamed Hanafi, 2008. "Organizational Isomorphism and Corruption in Financial Institutions: Empirical Research in Emerging Countries," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 81(2), pages 481-498, August.
    13. Cho, Charles H. & Laine, Matias & Roberts, Robin W. & Rodrigue, Michelle, 2015. "Organized hypocrisy, organizational façades, and sustainability reporting," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 40(C), pages 78-94.
    14. Bertrand Venard & Mohamed Hanafi, 2008. "Organizational isomorphism and corruption in financial institutions. An empirical research in emerging countries," Post-Print hal-00765483, HAL.
    15. Manuel Castelo Branco, 2014. "Comportamento fiscal e responsabilidade social das empresas," OBEGEF Working Papers 031, OBEGEF - Observatório de Economia e Gestão de Fraude;OBEGEF Working Papers on Fraud and Corruption.
    16. Nils Brunsson, 1982. "The Irrationality Of Action And Action Rationality: Decisions, Ideologies And Organizational Actions," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 19(1), pages 29-44, January.
    17. Helen Packer & Wilf Swartz & Yoshitaka Ota & Megan Bailey, 2019. "Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Practices of the Largest Seafood Suppliers in the Wild Capture Fisheries Sector: From Vision to Action," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(8), pages 1-24, April.
    18. John Christensen & Richard Murphy, 2004. "The Social Irresponsibility of Corporate Tax Avoidance: Taking CSR to the bottom line," Development, Palgrave Macmillan;Society for International Deveopment, vol. 47(3), pages 37-44, September.
    19. Jacob Cherian & Muhammad Umar & Phung Anh Thu & Thao Nguyen-Trang & Muhammad Safdar Sial & Nguyen Vinh Khuong, 2019. "Does Corporate Social Responsibility Affect the Financial Performance of the Manufacturing Sector? Evidence from an Emerging Economy," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(4), pages 1-14, February.
    20. Sikka, Prem, 2010. "Smoke and mirrors: Corporate social responsibility and tax avoidance," Accounting forum, Elsevier, vol. 34(3), pages 153-168.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Ján Dobroviè & Rastislav Rajnoha & Petr Šuleø, 2021. "Tax evasion in the EU countries following a predictive analysis and a forecast model for Slovakia," Oeconomia Copernicana, Institute of Economic Research, vol. 12(3), pages 701-728, September.
    2. Osman Issah & Lúcia Lima Rodrigues, 2021. "Corporate Social Responsibility and Corporate Tax Aggressiveness: A Scientometric Analysis of the Existing Literature to Map the Future," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(11), pages 1-23, June.
    3. Tânia Menezes Montenegro, 2021. "Tax Evasion, Corporate Social Responsibility and National Governance: A Country-Level Study," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(20), pages 1-19, October.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Gavious, Ilanit & Livne, Gilad & Chen, Ester, 2022. "Does tax avoidance increase or decrease when tax enforcement is stronger? Evidence using CSR heterogeneity perspective," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).
    2. Osman Issah & Lúcia Lima Rodrigues, 2021. "Corporate Social Responsibility and Corporate Tax Aggressiveness: A Scientometric Analysis of the Existing Literature to Map the Future," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(11), pages 1-23, June.
    3. Jiang, Wei & Zhang, Cheng & Si, Chengyu, 2022. "The real effect of mandatory CSR disclosure: Evidence of corporate tax avoidance," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 179(C).
    4. Fangjun Wang & Shuolei Xu & Junqin Sun & Charles P. Cullinan, 2020. "Corporate Tax Avoidance: A Literature Review And Research Agenda," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 34(4), pages 793-811, September.
    5. Andrea Vacca & Antonio Iazzi & Demetris Vrontis & Monica Fait, 2020. "The Role of Gender Diversity on Tax Aggressiveness and Corporate Social Responsibility: Evidence from Italian Listed Companies," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(5), pages 1-14, March.
    6. Burcin Col & Saurin Patel, 2019. "Going to Haven? Corporate Social Responsibility and Tax Avoidance," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 154(4), pages 1033-1050, February.
    7. Kovermann, Jost & Velte, Patrick, 2019. "The impact of corporate governance on corporate tax avoidance—A literature review," Journal of International Accounting, Auditing and Taxation, Elsevier, vol. 36(C), pages 1-1.
    8. Lucas Amaral Lauriano & Juliane Reinecke & Michael Etter, 2022. "When Aspirational Talk Backfires: The Role of Moral Judgements in Employees’ Hypocrisy Interpretation," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 181(4), pages 827-845, December.
    9. Christofer Adrian & Mukesh Garg & Anh Viet Pham & Soon-Yeow Phang & Cameron Truong, 2023. "Do Natural Disasters Affect Corporate Tax Avoidance? The Case of Drought," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 186(1), pages 105-135, August.
    10. Shuolei Xu & Fangjun Wang & Charles P. Cullinan & Nanyan Dong, 2022. "Corporate Tax Avoidance and Corporate Social Responsibility Disclosure Readability: Evidence from China," Australian Accounting Review, CPA Australia, vol. 32(2), pages 267-289, June.
    11. Ji-Hee Kim & Ji-Hwan Lee, 2021. "How CEO Political Connections Induce Corporate Social Irresponsibility: An Empirical Study of Tax Avoidance in South Korea," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(14), pages 1-13, July.
    12. Fallan, Even & Fallan, Lars, 2019. "Corporate tax behaviour and environmental disclosure: Strategic trade-offs across elements of CSR?," Scandinavian Journal of Management, Elsevier, vol. 35(3).
    13. Lisa Baudot & Joseph A. Johnson & Anna Roberts & Robin W. Roberts, 2020. "Is Corporate Tax Aggressiveness a Reputation Threat? Corporate Accountability, Corporate Social Responsibility, and Corporate Tax Behavior," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 163(2), pages 197-215, May.
    14. Wei Li & Yuan Lu & Weining Li, 2019. "Does CSR Action Provide Insurance-Like Protection to Tax-Avoiding Firms? Evidence from China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(19), pages 1-19, September.
    15. Jane Andrew & Max Baker, 2020. "Corporate Social Responsibility Reporting: The Last 40 Years and a Path to Sharing Future Insights," Abacus, Accounting Foundation, University of Sydney, vol. 56(1), pages 35-65, March.
    16. Mohammed Benlemlih & Jamil Jaballah & Sholom Schochet & Jonathan Peillex, 2023. "Corporate social responsibility and corporate tax avoidance: The channel effect of consumer awareness," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 50(1-2), pages 31-60, January.
    17. Chuanlu Ge & Yuhan Bi & Jia Xu, 2024. "Local donation culture and corporate tax avoidance: Evidence from China," Economics and Politics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 36(2), pages 734-763, July.
    18. AnnMarie Bennett & Breda Murphy, 2017. "The Tax Profession: Tax Avoidance and the Public Interest," Economics Department Working Paper Series n286-17.pdf, Department of Economics, National University of Ireland - Maynooth.
    19. Müller, Raphael & Spengel, Christoph & Vay, Heiko, 2020. "On the determinants and effects of corporate tax transparency: Review of an emerging literature," ZEW Discussion Papers 20-063, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    20. Jeremiah, Rupin, 2017. "DECISION EVALUATION OF INNOVATION OFFSHORING: Swedish R&D in India," SSE Working Paper Series in Business Administration 2017:3, Stockholm School of Economics, revised 07 Dec 2017.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:12:y:2020:i:11:p:4404-:d:363909. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.