|
|
|
| Corporate Social Responsibility, Financing Constraints, and the Financialization of Enterprises |
| GU Leilei, GUO Jianluan, WANG Hongyu
|
| School of Business, Central University of Finance and Economics |
|
|
|
Abstract Since 2009, the Securities Regulatory Commission has required more than 260 listed companies in the three categories of the Shanghai Stock Exchange to disclose their social responsibility reports together with their annual reports. However, corporate hypocrisy, political rent-seeking, and misuses of corporate social responsibility frequently occur, and corporate social responsibility has become a tool for managers' self-interest. This paper focuses on the role of corporate social responsibility in resource exchange. Corporate social responsibility can help enterprises strategically obtain key resources, such as funds, and reduce capital constraints. In the context of increasingly fierce financialization, this paper argues that profit-seeking will drive enterprises to allocate more funds to financial assets through corporate social responsibility. This will diversify the resources for the development of the main business, squeeze and compress the funds invested by entities, damage the value of enterprises, and cause harm to China's economy. This paper confirms this hypothesis through empirical research and proves that CSR has the adverse consequence of increasing the degree of enterprise financialization by alleviating the financial constraints on enterprises. This conclusion supplements studies of the adverse economic consequences of corporate social responsibility from the perspective of shareholder value doctrine and provides empirical evidence for countries in transition.
Based on panel data of A-share non-financial listed companies on the Shanghai and Shenzhen Stock Exchanges from 2010 to 2017, this paper empirically tests the relationship between corporate social responsibility and corporate financialization through a mixed OLS model and PSM-DID model. The main conclusions are as follows. (1) Corporate social responsibility provides a source of funds for financial investment by easing the financial constraints of enterprises, leading to greater enterprise financialization. (2) The effect of corporate social responsibility on financialization only exists in non-state-owned enterprises with weak external supervision and enterprises with low levels of internal governance and equity concentration. Administrative external supervision and the internal supervision of large shareholders can play a governance role in restraining managerial speculation. (3) The financialization of China's enterprises is mainly motivated by the “investment substitution” of profit maximization, rather than the “reservoir”. The main policy recommendations from this paper are as follows. (1) Policymakers should encourage listed companies to improve their corporate social responsibility disclosure. In addition to disclosing relevant non-financial information, they should also disclose important financial information, such as investment decisions, to provide a reference for investors to identify the real motivation of corporate social responsibility. (2) Governments should formulate appropriate policies to prevent enterprises from over-financialization. They should strengthen the supervision of enterprises' investments in financial assets and financial institutions, and should standardize the investment direction of enterprises. In addition, it is important to reduce the operating costs of enterprises and improve operating profit margins by cutting taxes and fees. Governments should also strengthen the flow of capital to industry by revitalizing the high-quality assets of enterprises.
The main contributions of this paper are as follows. (1) There are two opposite hypotheses about the impact of corporate social responsibility on corporate value: the shareholder value doctrine and management self-interest doctrine. From the perspective of the shareholder value doctrine, CSR can help enterprises obtain key resources and improve their value. From the perspective of the managerial self-interest doctrine, CSR can easily lead to adverse economic consequences. However, the literature based on shareholder value has largely ignored the potential negative impact of corporate social responsibility. The conclusion of this paper reconciles the two opposing views and provides a new path for explaining the impact of corporate social responsibility on corporate value. (2) Most studies explore the motivation of enterprise financialization under the economic or financial framework without considering the impact of non-financial factors on the allocation of financial assets. This paper avoids these limitations and identifies the motivation of corporate financialization from the unique perspective of corporate social responsibility.
|
|
Received: 16 February 2019
Published: 09 March 2020
|
|
|
|
|
| [1] |
高勇强、陈亚静和张云均,2012,《“红领巾”还是“绿领巾”:民营企业慈善捐赠动机研究》,《管理世界》第8期,第106～116页,第146页。
|
| [2] |
胡奕明、王雪婷和张瑾,2017,《金融资产配置动机:“蓄水池”或“替代”？——来自中国上市公司的证据》,《经济研究》第1期,第181～194页。
|
| [3] |
李姝和谢晓嫣,2014,《民营企业的社会责任、政治关联与债务融资——来自中国资本市场的经验证据》,《南开管理评论》第6期,第30～40页。
|
| [4] |
李文贵和余明桂,2012,《所有权性质、市场化进程与企业风险承担》,《中国工业经济》第12期,第115～127页。
|
| [5] |
刘贯春、张军和刘媛媛,2018,《金融资产配置、宏观经济环境与企业杠杆率》,《世界经济》第1期,第148～173页。
|
| [6] |
彭俞超、韩珣和李建军,2018a,《经济政策不确定性与企业金融化》,《中国工业经济》第1期,第137～155页。
|
| [7] |
彭俞超、倪骁然和沈吉,2018b,《企业“脱实向虚”与金融市场稳定——基于股价崩盘风险的视角》,《经济研究》第10期,第52～68页。
|
| [8] |
钱明、徐光华和沈弋,2016,《社会责任信息披露、会计稳健性与融资约束——基于产权异质性的视角》,《会计研究》第5期,第9～17页,第95页。
|
| [9] |
权小锋、吴世农和尹洪英,2015,《企业社会责任与股价崩盘风险:“价值利器”或“自利工具”？》,《经济研究》第11期,第49～64页。
|
| [10] |
冉戎、王丁和谢懿,2016,《非政府组织关联、责任战略延续性与融资约束》,《南开管理评论》第3期,第178～192页。
|
| [11] |
宋军和陆旸,2015,《非货币金融资产和经营收益率的U形关系——来自我国上市非金融公司的金融化证据》,《金融研究》第6期,第111～127页。
|
| [12] |
田利辉和王可第,2017,《社会责任信息披露的“掩饰效应”和上市公司崩盘风险——来自中国股票市场的DID-PSM分析》,《管理世界》第11期,第146～157页。
|
| [13] |
吴育辉和吴世农,2010,《企业高管自利行为及其影响因素研究:基于我国上市公司股权激励草案的证据》,《管理世界》第5期,第141～149页。
|
| [14] |
闫海洲和陈百助,2017,《气候变化、环境规制与公司碳排放信息披露的价值》,《金融研究》第6期,第146～162页。
|
| [15] |
余琰和李怡宗,2016,《高息委托贷款与企业创新》,《金融研究》第4期,第99～114页。
|
| [16] |
余明桂和潘红波,2008,《政治关系、制度环境与民营企业银行贷款》,《管理世界》第8期,第9～21页。
|
| [17] |
Almeida, H., M. Campello, and M. S. Weisbach. 2004. “The Cash Flow Sensitivity of Cash” Journal of Finance, 59(4):1777～1804.
|
| [18] |
Cheng, B., I. Ioannou, and G. Serafeim. 2014. “Corporate Social Responsibility and Access to Finance” Strategic Management Journal, 35(1):1～23.
|
| [19] |
Ghoul, S. E., O. Guedhami, and C. C. Y. Kwok et al.. 2011. “Does Corporate Social Responsibility Affect the Cost of Capital？” Journal of Banking and Finance, 35(9):2388～2406.
|
| [20] |
Goss, A. and G. S. Roberts. 2011. “The Impact of Corporate Social Responsibility on the Cost of Bank Loans” Journal of Banking and Finance, 35(7):1794～1810.
|
| [21] |
McWilliams, A. and D. Siegel. 2001. “Corporate Social Responsibility: A Theory of the Firm Perspective” Academy of Management Review, 26(1):117～127.
|
| [22] |
Rubin, B. A.. 2010. “Corporate Social Responsibility as a Conflict Between Shareholders” Journal of Business Ethics, 97(1):71～86.
|
| No related articles found! |
|
|
|
|
