IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wly/corsem/v30y2023i5p2574-2589.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Impact of executive pay gap on environmental, social, and governance disclosure in China: Is there a strategic choice?

Author

Listed:
  • Dingzu Zhang
  • Lijuan Pan
  • Luqi Liu
  • Huixiang Zeng

Abstract

This study investigates the mechanisms through which the executive pay gap affects the disclosure of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) information. Utilizing panel data from China's A‐share listed firms between 2012 and 2020, our findings reveal a significant positive correlation between the executive pay gap and ESG disclosure, with real earnings management playing a partial mediating role. Notably, the impact of the executive pay gap on ESG disclosure is more pronounced in voluntary disclosure firms and those with low internal control levels, as compared to mandatory disclosure firms and those with high internal control levels. This study provides international evidence for the strategic disclosure behavior of ESG information and the necessity of ESG disclosure regulation.

Suggested Citation

  • Dingzu Zhang & Lijuan Pan & Luqi Liu & Huixiang Zeng, 2023. "Impact of executive pay gap on environmental, social, and governance disclosure in China: Is there a strategic choice?," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 30(5), pages 2574-2589, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:corsem:v:30:y:2023:i:5:p:2574-2589
    DOI: 10.1002/csr.2503
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1002/csr.2503
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1002/csr.2503?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
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Christopher A. MCNALLY, 2013. "Refurbishing State Capitalism: A Policy Analysis of Efforts to Rebalance China’s Political Economy," Journal of Current Chinese Affairs - China aktuell, Institute of Asian Studies, GIGA German Institute of Global and Area Studies, Hamburg, vol. 42(4), pages 45-71.
    2. Li Li Eng & Mahelet Fikru & Thanyaluk Vichitsarawong, 2021. "Comparing the informativeness of sustainability disclosures versus ESG disclosure ratings," Sustainability Accounting, Management and Policy Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 13(2), pages 494-518, December.
    3. Clarkson, Peter M. & Li, Yue & Richardson, Gordon D. & Vasvari, Florin P., 2011. "Does it really pay to be green? Determinants and consequences of proactive environmental strategies," Journal of Accounting and Public Policy, Elsevier, vol. 30(2), pages 122-144, March.
    4. Hee-Kyung Koh & Regina Burnasheva & Yong Gu Suh, 2022. "Perceived ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) and Consumers’ Responses: The Mediating Role of Brand Credibility, Brand Image, and Perceived Quality," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(8), pages 1-15, April.
    5. Jacopo Bizzotto & Adrien Vigier, 2021. "Fees, Reputation, and Information Production in the Credit Rating Industry," American Economic Journal: Microeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 13(2), pages 1-34, May.
    6. Mercedes Alda, 2019. "Corporate sustainability and institutional shareholders: The pressure of social responsible pension funds on environmental firm practices," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(6), pages 1060-1071, September.
    7. Pasi Heikkurinen & Tarja Ketola, 2012. "Corporate Responsibility and Identity: from a Stakeholder to an Awareness Approach," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 21(5), pages 326-337, July.
    8. Li Li Eng & Mahelet Fikru & Thanyaluk Vichitsarawong, 2021. "Comparing the informativeness of sustainability disclosures versus ESG disclosure ratings," Sustainability Accounting, Management and Policy Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 13(2), pages 494-518, December.
    9. Roger C. Y. Chen & Chen-Hsun Lee, 2017. "The influence of CSR on firm value: an application of panel smooth transition regression on Taiwan," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 49(34), pages 3422-3434, July.
    10. Johnstone, Nick & Labonne, Julien, 2009. "Why do manufacturing facilities introduce environmental management systems? Improving and/or signaling performance," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(3), pages 719-730, January.
    11. Won‐Moo Hur & Hanna Kim & Hyun Kyung Kim, 2018. "Does customer engagement in corporate social responsibility initiatives lead to customer citizenship behaviour? The mediating roles of customer‐company identification and affective commitment," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 25(6), pages 1258-1269, November.
    12. Gregory S. Miller, 2006. "The Press as a Watchdog for Accounting Fraud," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 44(5), pages 1001-1033, December.
    13. S. Zeng & X. Xu & H. Yin & C. Tam, 2012. "Factors that Drive Chinese Listed Companies in Voluntary Disclosure of Environmental Information," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 109(3), pages 309-321, September.
    14. Roychowdhury, Sugata, 2006. "Earnings management through real activities manipulation," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 42(3), pages 335-370, December.
    15. Ge Wang & Huijin Zhang & Saixing Zeng & Xiaohua Meng & Han Lin, 2023. "Reporting on sustainable development: Configurational effects of top management team and corporate characteristics on environmental information disclosure," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 30(1), pages 28-52, January.
    16. Broadstock, David C. & Chan, Kalok & Cheng, Louis T.W. & Wang, Xiaowei, 2021. "The role of ESG performance during times of financial crisis: Evidence from COVID-19 in China," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 38(C).
    17. Patten, Dennis M. & Trompeter, Greg, 2003. "Corporate responses to political costs: an examination of the relation between environmental disclosure and earnings management," Journal of Accounting and Public Policy, Elsevier, vol. 22(1), pages 83-94.
    18. Wenxia Ge & Jeong‐Bon Kim, 2020. "How does the executive pay gap influence audit fees? The roles of R&D investment and institutional ownership," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 47(5-6), pages 677-707, May.
    19. Dyck, Alexander & Lins, Karl V. & Roth, Lukas & Wagner, Hannes F., 2019. "Do institutional investors drive corporate social responsibility? International evidence," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 131(3), pages 693-714.
    20. Brown, James R. & Martinsson, Gustav & Petersen, Bruce C., 2012. "Do financing constraints matter for R&D?," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 56(8), pages 1512-1529.
    21. Huang, Qiping & Li, Yongjia & Lin, Meimei & McBrayer, Garrett A., 2022. "Natural disasters, risk salience, and corporate ESG disclosure," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 72(C).
    22. Feng, Xiaoli & Li, Wenjing & Peng, Yuanhuai & Tan, Youchao, 2021. "International trade friction and the cost of debt: Evidence from China," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 67(C).
    23. Yamina Chouaibi & Matteo Rossi & Ghazi Zouari, 2021. "The Effect of Corporate Social Responsibility and the Executive Compensation on Implicit Cost of Equity: Evidence from French ESG Data," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(20), pages 1-17, October.
    24. Guangming Gong & Si Xu & Xun Gong, 2018. "On the Value of Corporate Social Responsibility Disclosure: An Empirical Investigation of Corporate Bond Issues in China," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 150(1), pages 227-258, June.
    25. Giovanni Zampone & Giuseppe Sannino & Isabel‐María García‐Sánchez, 2023. "Exploring the moderating effects of corporate social responsibility performance under mimetic pressures. An international analysis," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 30(1), pages 53-65, January.
    26. Li Cai & Jinhua Cui & Hoje Jo, 2016. "Corporate Environmental Responsibility and Firm Risk," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 139(3), pages 563-594, December.
    27. Cohen, Daniel A. & Zarowin, Paul, 2010. "Accrual-based and real earnings management activities around seasoned equity offerings," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 50(1), pages 2-19, May.
    28. Stephen Bear & Noushi Rahman & Corinne Post, 2010. "The Impact of Board Diversity and Gender Composition on Corporate Social Responsibility and Firm Reputation," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 97(2), pages 207-221, December.
    29. Bhattacharyya, Asit & Rahman, Md Lutfur, 2019. "Mandatory CSR expenditure and firm performance," Journal of Contemporary Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 15(3).
    30. Eliwa, Yasser & Aboud, Ahmed & Saleh, Ahmed, 2021. "ESG practices and the cost of debt: Evidence from EU countries," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    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. Khurram, Muhammad Usman & Chen, Lifeng & Abedin, Mohammad Zoynul & Adu, Douglas A. & Lucey, Brian, 2024. "ESG disclosure and internal pay gap: Empirical evidence from China," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 92(C), pages 228-244.

    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. Sudipta Bose & Chuan Yu, 2023. "Does Earnings Quality Influence Corporate Social Responsibility Performance? Empirical Evidence of the Causal Link," Abacus, Accounting Foundation, University of Sydney, vol. 59(2), pages 493-540, June.
    2. Francesco Gangi & Antonio Meles & Eugenio D'Angelo & Lucia Michela Daniele, 2019. "Sustainable development and corporate governance in the financial system: Are environmentally friendly banks less risky?," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 26(3), pages 529-547, May.
    3. H. L. Zou & R. C. Zeng & S. X. Zeng & Jonathan J. Shi, 2015. "How Do Environmental Violation Events Harm Corporate Reputation?," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 24(8), pages 836-854, December.
    4. Ren, Xiaohang & Zeng, Gudian & Zhao, Yang, 2023. "Digital finance and corporate ESG performance: Empirical evidence from listed companies in China," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    5. Lars Moratis & Max van Egmond, 2018. "Concealing social responsibility? Investigating the relationship between CSR, earnings management and the effect of industry through quantitative analysis," International Journal of Corporate Social Responsibility, Springer, vol. 3(1), pages 1-13, December.
    6. Ding, Rong & Duan, Tinghua & Hou, Wenxuan & Liu, Xianda & Xu, Ziwei, 2022. "Do women drive corporate social responsibility? Evidence from gender diversity reforms around the world," International Review of Law and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 72(C).
    7. Giovanni Zampone & Giuseppe Sannino & Isabel‐María García‐Sánchez, 2023. "Exploring the moderating effects of corporate social responsibility performance under mimetic pressures. An international analysis," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 30(1), pages 53-65, January.
    8. Dingzu Zhang & Luqi Liu, 2022. "Does ESG Performance Enhance Financial Flexibility? Evidence from China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(18), pages 1-22, September.
    9. Wang, Zhen & Chu, Erming & Hao, Yukai, 2024. "Towards sustainable development: How does ESG performance promotes corporate green transformation," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 91(C).
    10. Yangyang Chen & C. S. Agnes Cheng & Shuo Li & Jingran Zhao, 2021. "The monitoring role of the media: Evidence from earnings management," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 48(3-4), pages 533-563, March.
    11. Zixin Zhang & Teck Lee Yap & Jiyoung Park, 2021. "Does voluntary CSR disclosure and CSR performance influence earnings management? Empirical evidence from China," International Journal of Disclosure and Governance, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 18(2), pages 161-178, June.
    12. Gen‐Fu Feng & Han Long & Hai‐Jie Wang & Chun‐Ping Chang, 2022. "Environmental, social and governance, corporate social responsibility, and stock returns: What are the short‐ and long‐Run relationships?," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 29(5), pages 1884-1895, September.
    13. Choi, Ahrum & Jia, Jingyi & Song, Byron Y. & Zhou, Gaoguang, 2024. "Cultural tightness and financial reporting behavior around the world," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 178(C).
    14. Boland, Matthew & Godsell, David, 2020. "Local soldier fatalities and war profiteers: New tests of the political cost hypothesis," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(1).
    15. Hickman, L. Emily & Iyer, Subramanian Rama & Jadiyappa, Nemiraja, 2021. "The effect of voluntary and mandatory corporate social responsibility on earnings management: Evidence from India and the 2% rule," Emerging Markets Review, Elsevier, vol. 46(C).
    16. Jannik Gerwanski & Othar Kordsachia & Patrick Velte, 2019. "Determinants of materiality disclosure quality in integrated reporting: Empirical evidence from an international setting," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(5), pages 750-770, July.
    17. Ali Meftah Gerged & Khaldoon Albitar & Lara Al‐Haddad, 2023. "Corporate environmental disclosure and earnings management—The moderating role of corporate governance structures," International Journal of Finance & Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 28(3), pages 2789-2810, July.
    18. Francesco Gangi & Lucia Michela Daniele & Nicola Varrone & Francesca Vicentini & Maria Coscia, 2021. "Equity mutual funds' interest in the environmental, social and governance policies of target firms: Does gender diversity in management teams matter?," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 28(3), pages 1018-1031, May.
    19. Xin Liu, 2020. "Impression management against early dismissal? CEO succession and corporate social responsibility," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 27(2), pages 999-1016, March.
    20. Liu, Duan & Wang, Lili & Yan, Jing & Wan, Hong, 2023. "R&D manipulation and SEO pricing in the Chinese capital market: The information effect of inefficient investment," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).

    More about this item

    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:wly:corsem:v:30:y:2023:i:5:p:2574-2589. 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: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://doi.org/10.1002/(ISSN)1535-3966 .

    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.