企業社會責任與實質活動盈餘管理：中國之實證

Corporate Social Responsibility and Real Activities Earnings Management: Evidence from China

本文旨在檢視以政令推動企業履行社會責任的情況下，中國上市企業非自發性的投入社會責任活動，是否會影響其實質盈餘管理行為。實證結果發現，即使企業社會責任政策係屬強制遵循，整體而言，仍有助於中國上市企業的道德意識，提供與利害關係人維持良好關係之誘因，進而減少其實質盈餘管理的行為。然而，上述結論在國有企業中是相對弱化的，顯示國有企業對於企業社會責任活動的管理裁量權較低，經理人基於政治正當性而履行企業社會責任，並藉由社會責任活動來掩飾其自利及盈餘管理行為。最後，在控制企業社會責任的內生性下，本研究發現仍維持穩健。

This paper investigates whether corporate social responsibility (CSR) can constrain real activities earnings management (REM), focusing on the legitimacy pressures of CSR compliance in the Chinese context. The distinctive setting of the role of government in CSR allow us to draw new inference. We find that contrary to the criticism that mandated CSR policies is simply window dressing, strong CSR performers are more ethical in their reporting behaviors because they have incentives to maintain good relationship with stakeholders. However, the relationship is weaker for state-owned enterprises (SOEs), which suggests that SOEs tend to engage CSR to shape perceptions of their political legitimacy. Due to their lower level of managerial discretion over CSR activities, managers of SOEs tend to use CSR as their entrenchment strategy. Our results are also robust when controlling for the endogeneity of CSR.