股权激励对企业社会责任报告披露的影响研究

Research on the impact of equity incentives on the corporate social responsibility report disclosure

尽管许多企业已开始实施股权激励计划,但作为一种经济手段,股权激励是否有助于企业实现社会性目标仍未达到充分研究。本文基于合法性和效率的双重视角,探究股权激励对企业社会责任(CSR)报告披露的影响及其边界条件,旨在辨明股权激励这一经济手段如何影响企业追求CSR目标。选取2009-2019年披露CSR报告的沪深上市公司作为研究样本,研究发现股权激励有助于企业积极披露CSR报告,但股权激励对CSR报告披露质量存在倒U型影响,即适当比例的高管持股对CSR报告披露质量产生较强的促进作用,过高或过低的持股比例都不能有效提高CSR报告的披露质量,因而股权激励并不总是企业披露CSR报告的“助推剂”。进一步研究发现,股权集中度增强了股权激励与CSR报告披露速度之间的正向关系,但削弱了股权激励与CSR报告披露质量之间的倒U型关系。本研究在理论层面上整合了合法性视角和效率视角,为审视CSR报告披露速度缓慢及象征性披露等典型现象提供了新的理论阐释,同时还在实践层面为企业科学设计股权激励计划带来积极启发。

Although many firms have begun to implement equity incentive plans,as an economic tool,can equity incentives help firms achieve social goals? Based on the dual perspectives of legitimacy and efficiency,this paper explored the differential impact of equity incentives on corporate social responsibility(CSR) report disclosure and its boundary conditions,aiming to identify how equity incentives as an economic instrument affect firms′ pursuit of CSR goals,thus helping firms achieve both economic and social goals.Taking the Shanghai and Shenzhen listed companies that disclosed CSR reports from 2009 to 2019 as the research sample,it was found in the research that equity incentives can help firms actively disclose CSR reports,but equity incentives have an inverted U-shaped impact on the quality of CSR report disclosure,that is,the appropriate proportion of senior executives′ shareholding has a strong promoting effect on the quality of CSR report disclosure,and too high or too low shareholding ratio cannot effectively improve the disclosure quality of CSR reports,so equity incentives are not always the "booster" for firms to disclose CSR reports.Further research found that equity concentration enhances the positive relationship between equity incentives and CSR report disclosure speed,but weakens the inverted U-shaped relationship between equity incentives and CSR report disclosure quality.This paper has also made some contributions as follows.First,this paper integrated the dual perspectives of legitimacy and efficiency,deeply explained the contradiction between shareholders and executives in pursuing corporate social goals and economic goals,clarified the different influence mechanisms of equity incentives on CSR report disclosure strategy choices,enriched the research perspectives of equity incentives and CSR report disclosure,and provided new ideas for solving corporate governance problems.Second,as most previous studies have followed the research paradigm of economic means to achieve economic goals,they have not reached consistent research conclusions.This paper proposed a different research paradigm by exploring how equity incentives affect executives′ pursuit of social goals,revealing that equity incentives do not always promote efficient corporate governance.Finally,as most previous studies have focused on the impact of a single factor on executives′ strategic decisions,this paper,based on the firm′s internal incentive mechanism and equity structure,studied the interaction between equity incentives and equity concentration,clarified the effect of executives′ equity incentives on CSR report disclosure strategy under different equity concentration,and pointed out the boundary conditions for equity incentives to affect CSR report disclosure strategy.Therefore,this paper will provide new insights for the research on the influencing factors of CSR report disclosure,and further enrich the role of ownership structure in CSR report disclosure.At the same time,the study of equity concentration also showed that equity concentration is a double-edged sword.Therefore,this paper will also further expand the relevant research on corporate governance.With China′s vigorous implementation of green development and the requirement for firms to pursue high-quality development,CSR report disclosure has become an important target for stakeholders to investigate firms.This has prompted us to re-evaluate the speed and quality of CSR report disclosure and explore the key factors that may influence and drive CSR report disclosure.Second,as CSR report disclosure plays an important role in the sustainable development of firms,appropriate equity incentives for executives are conducive to decision-making based on the long-term interests of the firms.Third,the conclusions of this paper will have significant reference for the formulation of corporate equity incentive plans and the promotion of CSR report disclosure.Finally,this paper will inspire firms to comprehensively consider the impact of equity incentive and equity concentration on corporate governance,and formulate reasonable and effective corporate governance decisions to help firms achieve better development.