IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/pal/ijodag/v19y2022i1d10.1057_s41310-021-00126-0.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Corporate social responsibility and unverifiable net assets ratio

Author

Listed:
  • Svetlana Orlova

    (Collins College of Business, The University of Tulsa)

  • Li Sun

    (Collins College of Business, The University of Tulsa)

Abstract

The move of the Financial Accounting Standards Board to expand the use of fair value instruments results in an increase in unverifiable assets and liabilities, which do not have actively traded market prices. Prior research suggests that managers may use discretion in estimating fair values of such assets and liabilities for their self-serving interests, leading to more agency conflicts. We examine the association between a firm’s corporate social responsibility (CSR) performance and the unverifiable net assets ratio, used to capture the level of unverifiable assets and liabilities. We find a significant negative relation between CSR and the unverifiable net assets ratio, suggesting that socially responsible firms use a low level of unverifiable assets and liabilities.

Suggested Citation

  • Svetlana Orlova & Li Sun, 2022. "Corporate social responsibility and unverifiable net assets ratio," International Journal of Disclosure and Governance, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 19(1), pages 31-48, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:pal:ijodag:v:19:y:2022:i:1:d:10.1057_s41310-021-00126-0
    DOI: 10.1057/s41310-021-00126-0
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1057/s41310-021-00126-0
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1057/s41310-021-00126-0?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Hoje Jo & Maretno Harjoto, 2011. "Corporate Governance and Firm Value: The Impact of Corporate Social Responsibility," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 103(3), pages 351-383, October.
    2. Lois Mahoney & Linda Thorn, 2006. "An Examination of the Structure of Executive Compensation and Corporate Social Responsibility: A Canadian Investigation," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 69(2), pages 149-162, December.
    3. Ramanna, Karthik, 2008. "The implications of unverifiable fair-value accounting: Evidence from the political economy of goodwill accounting," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 45(2-3), pages 253-281, August.
    4. Dutordoir, Marie & Strong, Norman C. & Sun, Ping, 2018. "Corporate social responsibility and seasoned equity offerings," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 158-179.
    5. Shahbaz Sheikh, 2020. "CEO inside debt and corporate social responsibility," International Journal of Managerial Finance, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 16(4), pages 525-546, April.
    6. Richardson, Scott A. & Sloan, Richard G. & Soliman, Mark T. & Tuna, Irem, 2005. "Accrual reliability, earnings persistence and stock prices," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 39(3), pages 437-485, September.
    7. Mitchell A. Petersen, 2009. "Estimating Standard Errors in Finance Panel Data Sets: Comparing Approaches," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 22(1), pages 435-480, January.
    8. Cheung, Adrian (Wai Kong), 2016. "Corporate social responsibility and corporate cash holdings," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 37(C), pages 412-430.
    9. Edward Nelling & Elizabeth Webb, 2009. "Corporate social responsibility and financial performance: the “virtuous circle” revisited," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 32(2), pages 197-209, February.
    10. Deng, Xin & Kang, Jun-koo & Low, Buen Sin, 2013. "Corporate social responsibility and stakeholder value maximization: Evidence from mergers," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 110(1), pages 87-109.
    11. Pornsit Jiraporn & Napatsorn Jiraporn & Adisak Boeprasert & Kiyoung Chang, 2014. "Does Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Improve Credit Ratings? Evidence from Geographic Identification," Financial Management, Financial Management Association International, vol. 43(3), pages 505-531, September.
    12. Kangtao Ye & Ran Zhang, 2011. "Do Lenders Value Corporate Social Responsibility? Evidence from China," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 104(2), pages 197-206, December.
    13. Kothari, S.P. & Leone, Andrew J. & Wasley, Charles E., 2005. "Performance matched discretionary accrual measures," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 39(1), pages 163-197, February.
    14. Mohamed Arouri & Guillaume Pijourlet, 2017. "CSR Performance and the Value of Cash Holdings: International Evidence," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 140(2), pages 263-284, January.
    15. Bhandari, Avishek & Javakhadze, David, 2017. "Corporate social responsibility and capital allocation efficiency," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 354-377.
    16. Peter Demerjian & Baruch Lev & Sarah McVay, 2012. "Quantifying Managerial Ability: A New Measure and Validity Tests," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 58(7), pages 1229-1248, July.
    17. Lucian Bebchuk & Alma Cohen & Allen Ferrell, 2009. "What Matters in Corporate Governance?," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 22(2), pages 783-827, February.
    18. Kim, Yongtae & Li, Haidan & Li, Siqi, 2014. "Corporate social responsibility and stock price crash risk," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 1-13.
    19. Judith L. Walls & Pascual Berrone & Phillip H. Phan, 2012. "Corporate governance and environmental performance: is there really a link?," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(8), pages 885-913, August.
    20. Roman Lanis & Grant Richardson, 2015. "Is Corporate Social Responsibility Performance Associated with Tax Avoidance?," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 127(2), pages 439-457, March.
    21. Najah Attig & Sadok El Ghoul & Omrane Guedhami & Jungwon Suh, 2013. "Corporate Social Responsibility and Credit Ratings," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 117(4), pages 679-694, November.
    22. Gao, Feng & Lisic, Ling Lei & Zhang, Ivy Xiying, 2014. "Commitment to social good and insider trading," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 57(2), pages 149-175.
    23. Mahfuja Malik, 2015. "Value-Enhancing Capabilities of CSR: A Brief Review of Contemporary Literature," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 127(2), pages 419-438, March.
    24. 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.
    25. Paul C. Godfrey & Craig B. Merrill & Jared M. Hansen, 2009. "The relationship between corporate social responsibility and shareholder value: an empirical test of the risk management hypothesis," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(4), pages 425-445, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Akhilesh Bajaj & Lori N. K. Leonard & Li Sun & Zhenze Xing, 2023. "Corporate social responsibility and annual report reading difficulty," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 60(4), pages 1393-1428, May.
    2. Sun, Li & Walkup, Brian & Wu, Kean, 2019. "Sales order backlog and corporate social responsibility," Advances in accounting, Elsevier, vol. 47(C).
    3. Zhang, Zhuang & Chizema, Amon & Kuo, Jing-Ming & Zhang, Qingjing, 2022. "Managerial risk-reducing incentives and social and exchange capital," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 54(6).
    4. Buchanan, Bonnie G. & Cao, Cathy Xuying & Wang, Shuhui, 2021. "Corporate social responsibility and inside debt: The long game," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    5. Dunbar, Craig & Li, Zhichuan (Frank) & Shi, Yaqi, 2020. "CEO risk-taking incentives and corporate social responsibility," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    6. Boubaker, Sabri & Cellier, Alexis & Manita, Riadh & Saeed, Asif, 2020. "Does corporate social responsibility reduce financial distress risk?," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 91(C), pages 835-851.
    7. Hossain, Ashrafee Tanvir & Kryzanowski, Lawrence, 2021. "Political corruption and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance, Elsevier, vol. 31(C).
    8. Ashrafee Hossain & Samir Saadi & Abu S. Amin, 2023. "Does CEO Risk-Aversion Affect Carbon Emission?," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 182(4), pages 1171-1198, February.
    9. Hassan, M. Kabir & Chiaramonte, Laura & Dreassi, Alberto & Paltrinieri, Andrea & Piserà, Stefano, 2023. "Equity costs and risks in emerging markets: Are ESG and Sharia principles complementary?," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 77(C).
    10. Dutordoir, Marie & Strong, Norman C. & Sun, Ping, 2018. "Corporate social responsibility and seasoned equity offerings," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 158-179.
    11. Kabir Hassan, M. & Chiaramonte, Laura & Dreassi, Alberto & Paltrinieri, Andrea & Piserà, Stefano, 2021. "The crossroads of ESG and religious screening on firm risk," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 58(C).
    12. Hyung Il Oh & Hyunpyo Kim & Jeong‐Bon Kim & Yong Gyu Lee, 2021. "Corporate social responsibility and operating cash flows management: An examination of credit market incentives," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 48(7-8), pages 1494-1522, July.
    13. Bui, Dien Giau & Chen, Yan-Shing & Hasan, Iftekhar & Lin, Chih-Yung, 2018. "Can lenders discern managerial ability from luck? Evidence from bank loan contracts," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 87(C), pages 187-201.
    14. Zhang, Yanlei & García Lara, Juan Manuel & Tribó, Josep A., 2020. "Unpacking the black box of trade credit to socially responsible customers," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 119(C).
    15. Atreya Chakraborty & Lucia S. Gao & Prianka Musa, 2023. "Corporate social responsibility and litigation risk: Evidence from securities class action lawsuits," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 63(2), pages 1785-1819, June.
    16. Malik, Ihtisham A. & Chowdhury, Hasibul & Alam, Md Samsul, 2023. "Equity market response to natural disasters: Does firm's corporate social responsibility make difference?," Global Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 55(C).
    17. D'Mello, Ranjan & Kwon, Sungjoung & Toscano, Francesca, 2024. "Corporate social responsibility and the executive-employee pay disparity," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 162(C).
    18. Chiang, Wen-Chyuan & Shang, Jennifer & Sun, Li, 2017. "Broad bond rating change and irresponsible corporate social responsibility activities," Advances in accounting, Elsevier, vol. 39(C), pages 32-46.
    19. Farah, Tazrina & Li, Jialong & Li, Zhicheng & Shamsuddin, Abul, 2021. "The non-linear effect of CSR on firms’ systematic risk: International evidence," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 71(C).
    20. Yuan Yuan & Gaoliang Tian & Louise Yi Lu & Yangxin Yu, 2019. "CEO Ability and Corporate Social Responsibility," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 157(2), pages 391-411, June.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Corporate social responsibility; Fair value accounting; Unverifiable assets; Unverifiable liabilities;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G30 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - General
    • M41 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Accounting - - - Accounting
    • M49 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Accounting - - - Other

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:pal:ijodag:v:19:y:2022:i:1:d:10.1057_s41310-021-00126-0. 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: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.palgrave.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.