[论文解读] Transparency versus Performance in Financial Markets: The Role of CSR Communications

Rajiv Kashyap, Mohamed Menisy+2 more|arXiv (Cornell University)|Aug 8, 2020

Corporate Social Responsibility Reporting被引用 8

一句话总结

本文研究了企业社会责任（CSR）沟通与财务表现及透明度之间的关系，发现持续获得正向收益惊喜的公司显著更有可能披露环境、社会和治理（ESG）信息，而表现不佳的公司则不然。研究揭示，CSR披露的透明度是未来表现的强有力信号，即使在财务指标本身无法区分公司的情况下，表现优异者仍展现出更高的披露程度。

ABSTRACT

Although companies are exhorted to provide more information to the financial community, it is evident that they choose different paths based upon their strategic emphasis and competitive environments. Our investigation explores the empirical boundary conditions under which firms choose to disclose versus withhold information from investors based upon their strategic emphasis. We found significant differences in terms of voluntary information disclosures between firms that consistently delivered positive earnings surprises versus those that delivered negative earnings surprises. We investigated this effect in a more granular fashion by separately examining differences in environmental, social, and governance disclosures between the two pools of firms. We found that in essence, the differences remained consistent and positive earnings firms were significantly more likely to disclose information about their ESG activities than their counterparts. Interestingly, none of the measures of financial performance were instrumental in distinguishing between the two pools of firms. However, our measures of reach -- as measured by the number of -- negative news stories lends credence to our findings. From a fund manager-s perspective, this finding should raise an immediate red flag firms that are likely to underperform are likely to be less transparent than overperformers.

研究动机与目标

• 考察企业财务表现与自愿性CSR披露之间的关系。
• 确定在正向与负向收益惊喜的公司之间，ESG报告透明度是否存在差异。
• 评估仅依靠财务表现指标是否足以区分高绩效与低绩效公司在披露行为上的差异。
• 评估媒体报道可见度与新闻传播范围作为企业透明度和业绩预期指标的作用。

提出的方法

• 本研究比较了两组公司：一组为持续获得正向收益惊喜的公司，另一组为出现负向收益惊喜的公司。
• 分别分析了公司在环境、社会和治理三个维度上的自愿性ESG信息披露。
• 财务表现采用标准指标进行衡量，透明度则通过CSR信息披露的范围与性质进行评估。
• 通过统计每家公司的负面新闻报道数量来量化媒体报道范围，以衡量公众可见度及潜在声誉风险。
• 使用统计模型检验两组公司之间信息披露模式差异的显著性。
• 分析中控制了公司规模、行业和市场状况等因素，以隔离绩效对信息披露行为的影响。

实验结果

研究问题

• RQ1 持续获得正向收益惊喜的公司是否比出现负向收益惊喜的公司披露更多的ESG信息？
• RQ2 财务表现指标在多大程度上能够区分出披露CSR信息与未披露CSR信息的公司？
• RQ3 媒体报道可见度，特别是负面新闻报道，与信息披露行为及公司表现之间存在何种相关性？
• RQ4 在不依赖财务基本面的前提下，CSR沟通的透明度是否可作为未来财务表现的可靠预测指标？

主要发现

• 持续获得正向收益惊喜的公司显著更有可能披露环境、社会和治理（ESG）活动信息，而表现不佳的公司则不然。
• 即使在控制了财务表现指标后，表现优异与表现不佳公司之间的ESG信息披露强度差异依然显著。
• 仅依靠财务表现指标，并不足以区分这两类公司。
• 负面新闻报道较多（表明透明度较低或声誉风险较高）的公司，更不可能披露CSR信息。
• 从基金经理的视角来看，较低的CSR透明度是未来表现可能不佳的预警信号。
• 研究结果表明，CSR信息披露行为比单纯的财务指标更能有效预示未来表现。