信用评级调整与企业战略选择——基于盈余管理与企业社会责任视角的分析

Credit Rating Adjustment and Enterprise Strategy Selection:Based on Earnings Management and Corporate Social Responsibility

信用评级机构作为市场中的信息中介在市场中起到了重要的作用,但是在中国债券市场中,对于信用评级的独立性与功能性的研究结论还存在一定的分歧。本文利用2009-2016年上市公司发债数据,研究企业信用评级调整对于盈余管理与企业社会责任的影响,进一步确定信用评级的作用。研究结果表明,当主体评级调低后,企业会进行较多的盈余管理与企业社会责任来提高企业未来的评级,而主体评级调高时,企业的社会责任会降低,但盈余管理水平并不受到显著影响。通过分析发现,在面对信用评级调整时,企业选择企业社会责任与盈余管理之间存在一定的替代关系。最后,企业通过增大盈余管理与企业社会责任的确能够降低信用评级未来下降的速度,这种管理层自利的行为并不能被评级机构所识别。建议监管部门应该加强对信用评级机构专业性建设,要求评级分析师在对企业进行评级时应该着重考虑财务报告的质量,从而提高评级的客观性。

The credit rating agencies of market information intermediary plays an important role in the market, but in the bond market of China, the independence and functional of the credit rating are debated. This paper uses the data of bond issuance of listed companies from 2009 to 2016 to study the impact of corporate credit rating adjustment on earnings management and corporate social responsibility. The results show that when the rating of the main body is lowered, enterprises will conduct more earnings management and corporate social responsibility to improve the future rating of the company; while the rating of the main body increases, corporate social responsibility will decrease, but the level of earnings management will not be significantly affected. After further analysis, we found that there is a certain substitution relationship between the choices of corporate social responsibility and earnings management in the face of credit rating adjustment. Finally, firms can indeed reduce the rate at which credit ratings will decline in the future by increasing earnings man- agement and corporate social responsibility. Such self-serving behavior of management can not be identified by rating agencies. The conclusion of this paper suggest that regulators should strengthen the construction of professional credit rating agencies. Ratings analysts are required to consider the quality of financial reporting when rating companies, thereby enhancing the objectivity of ratings.