Corporate social responsibility and financial analysts: a review of the literature

2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 183-207 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anne-Kathrin Hinze ◽  
Franziska Sump

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to systematise the current state of research on the association between companies’ corporate social responsibility (CSR) engagement and financial analysts’ company assessment. Additionally, it aims to identify fruitful directions for future research that contribute to a further exploration of the link between CSR and financial analysts.Design/methodology/approachThis study reviews and synthesises existing research on CSR and financial analysts. Based on the research question, “What is the relationship between CSR engagement and financial analysts’ metrics?,” the authors conduct a systematic literature review. The authors search three major databases and use an extensive search term to ensure exhaustive coverage of the field. The paper then systemises the current state of research and identifies knowledge gaps and potential directions for future research.FindingsThe review of existing research shows that several studies confirm a positive link between CSR performance and analyst coverage, suggesting that external monitoring through analysts incentivises companies to enhance their CSR engagement. Further, results indicate that a company’s involvement in “sin” industries is linked to lower analyst coverage. Besides, a higher level of CSR disclosure is positively associated with analyst forecast accuracy, thus indicating that the provision of CSR-related information is linked to an enhanced information environment. High levels of CSR performance are associated with more positive recommendations from analysts. However, recent surveys and interview studies on analysts’ perceptions of CSR fail to uniformly support an increasing interest in CSR.Research limitations/implicationsFor a better understanding of the link between CSR engagement and financial analysts, two fruitful directions for future research are observed. First, future research designs should clearly differentiate between CSR disclosure and CSR performance and take account of interdependencies between them. Second, studies should address behavioural insights into how analysts process information and the influence of individual analyst characteristics on the link between CSR engagement and an analyst’s assessment of a company.Originality/valueThis study is the first to review the literature on the relationship between CSR and financial analysts. The association between CSR and financial analysts is particularly interesting given the pivotal role financial analysts play as information intermediaries in financial markets. This study delivers an in-depth understanding of existing studies and their theoretical underpinnings. Based on the existing literature, this paper develops innovative directions for future research.

2019 ◽  
Vol 15 (5) ◽  
pp. 671-688
Author(s):  
Juniati Gunawan ◽  
SeTin SeTin

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to analyze accounting research developments in the area of corporate social responsibility (CSR) in Indonesia for the period 2012-2016. The focus of CSR literature review is on disclosures and not to examine CSR activities or programs. Design/methodology/approach This study applied a descriptive approach to provide evidence on the major variables that have been examined in CSR research and what is the measurement used to measure CSR disclosures. The CSR research development was traced through mapping articles published in the international journal with the subject of category accounting (Schimago Journal rank quartile Q3 and Q4), and national journal (national accredited accounting journals, as well as the proceedings of National Symposium on Accounting [NSA]). A total of 5,971 articles were reviewed and resulted in 31 Indonesian CSR articles in accounting which are dominated by quantitative methods (93.5 per cent), and as many as 28 articles were analyzed. Findings The analyses result showed that (1) 75 per cent of CSR research were in the areas of financial accounting and capital markets, followed by tax accounting and corporate governance; (2) The most widely used variable associated with CSR was financial performance; which (3) More than 80 per cent of the CSR research used annual reports as the source of data with only 19.23 per cent using sustainability reports; (4) 65.38 per cent of the CSR disclosure measurement referred to used other CSR disclosure lists, other than the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI). Research limitations/implications The study results are important as a basis for future studies to provide a platform for the analysis to cover the gap between CSR studies in the academic and business areas for not only Indonesia but also other countries. Comparative studies between countries will be essential for future research to provide empirical evidence on the development of CSR research in accounting fields. Practical implications The study provides comprehensive pictures in how CSR disclosures have been analyzed in academic area so that practitioners in business field are able to understand the results on which variables are associated with CSR. Further, the practitioners could enhance their CSR implementations and reports to gain the utmost benefits for their business. Originality/value This study is considered as the first CSR literature review analyzed in accounting research publications. As CSR topics have been emerging developed in many field of studies, reviewing this topic in the accounting area resulted interesting findings. These findings are useful for not only Indonesia but also other countries. Further, this study provides platform to fill many gaps for future research in the topic of CSR in accounting field.


2018 ◽  
Vol 25 (9) ◽  
pp. 4125-4138 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sami R.M. Musallam

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate the direct and indirect effect of the existence of risk management on the relationship between audit committee and corporate social responsibility (CSR) disclosure in Palestine.Design/methodology/approachThe study utilizes a panel data of 31 Palestinian listed companies from 2010 to 2016. It also utilizes structural equation modeling (SEM) model.FindingsThe results of SEM model find a significant positive relationship of the existence of risk management, audit committee meeting and audit committee size with CSR disclosure. However, audit committee financial expertise has a significant negative relationship with CSR disclosure. The results also find a significant relationship of audit committee meeting and audit committee financial expertise with CSR disclosure through the existence of risk management.Practical implicationsThis study is important to policymakers, accounting professionals and shareholders on the extent to which audit committee related to such committee efficiency in monitoring CSR disclosure.Social implicationsThis study adds to the existing literature by investigating the direct and indirect effect of the existence of risk management on the relationship between audit committee and CSR disclosure in Palestine as one of the youngest market in region that assists to test the validity of agency theory in a young and small emerging market context.Originality/valueIt is the first study to investigate the direct and indirect effect of the existence of risk management on the relationship between audit committee and CSR disclosure in Palestine.


2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (5) ◽  
pp. 529-546
Author(s):  
Christofer Laurell ◽  
Sten Soderman

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to provide a systematic review of articles on sport published in leading business studies journals within marketing, organisational studies and strategy.Design/methodology/approachBased on a review of 38 identified articles within the subfields of marketing, strategy and organisation studies published between 2000 and 2015, the articles’ topical, theoretical and methodological orientation within the studied subfields were analysed followed by a cross-subfield analysis.FindingsThe authors identify considerable differences in topical, theoretical and methodological orientation among the studied subfields’ associated articles. Overall, the authors also find that articles across all subfields tend to be focussed on contributing to mature theory, even though the subfield of marketing in particular exhibits contributions to nascent theory in contrast to organisation studies and strategy.Originality/valueThis paper contributes by illustrating the current state of research that is devoted or related to the phenomenon of sport within three subfields in business studies. Furthermore, the authors discuss the role played by leading business studies journalsvis-à-vissport sector-specific journals and offer avenues for future research.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Haruna Babatunde Jaiyeoba ◽  
Shahoriyer Hossain ◽  
Hamzah Mohd Salleh ◽  
Amal A.M. Elgharbawy

Purpose This paper aims to intend to ascertain whether corporate social responsibility (CSR) can serve as an effective promotional tool for the Malaysian halal certified companies in the era of Covid-19 pandemic. Starting from being nice to do, the emergence of the Covid-19 pandemic has brought CSR to the forefront of businesses, forcing them to rapidly shift from profit maximisation to business preservation. Thus, it is practically crucial to ascertain whether CSR could be effectively used to promote halal brands in this era. Design/methodology/approach To achieve the stated aim, a survey questionnaire was developed and used to collect data from 295 participants who are familiar with the concepts of CSR and halal in Malaysia. The data collected were analysed using both descriptive and inferential statistics. Findings The findings reveal that the commitment to halal best practices, zakat and charitable donations, environmental responsibility, employee welfare and responsible dealings with clients are the most important CSR activities that can promote halal certified companies in the era of Covid-19. Whilst there is a positive relationship between halal economic responsibility and CSR as a promotional tool, such relationship is not significant. Nevertheless, the relationship between legal responsibility and CSR as a promotional tool is negative and insignificant. Research limitations/implications Limitations are inevitable in any study where a convenient sampling technique is used. Respondents from Klang Valley in Malaysia make up a large proportion of the study’s sample. This may consequently limit the generalisability of the findings of this study. Hence, future research should adequately collect data from other cities in Malaysia. Moreover, this paper does not differentiate between perceptions of Muslims and non-Muslims or between male and female; this might have an effect, as Muslims are likely to favour most of the items in the questionnaire used to collect data for this study. Thus, future research may collect sufficient data to shed more light on this issue. Originality/value The researchers have revealed that CSR is an effective promotional tool for the Malaysian halal certified companies in the era of Covid-19 pandemic. Study of this nature is rare in academic literature.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Amal Hamrouni ◽  
Mondher Bouattour ◽  
Nadia Ben Farhat Toumi ◽  
Rim Boussaada

PurposeThe current study aims to investigate the relation between corporate social responsibility (CSR) and information asymmetry, as well as the moderating effect of board characteristics (gender diversity, size and independence) on this relationship.Design/methodology/approachThis paper uses a panel data regression analysis with the system generalized method of moments (SGMM) estimator of nonfinancial French firms included in the SBF 120 index. The environmental and social disclosure scores are collected from the Bloomberg database, while financial data are collected from the FactSet database.FindingsThe empirical results demonstrate that environmental disclosure has a positive impact on the level of information asymmetry, while social disclosure has no effect on the information environment. Gender diversity and board independence negatively impact the opacity index, while board size has a positive effect. The presence of women in board composition has a substitution effect on the relationship between environmental disclosure and information asymmetry. There is no moderating effect of board size on the association between CSR disclosure and information asymmetry. However, the proportion of independent female directors and board independence operates as substitutes to social disclosure on reducing information asymmetry.Research limitations/implicationsAlthough the models include the most common control variables used in the literature, they omit some variables. Second, the results should be interpreted with caution and should not be generalized to the entire stock market since the sample is based on large French companies.Practical implicationsThe results of this study may be of interest to managers, investors and French market authorities since France is characterized by highly developed laws and reforms in the area of CSR. In addition, the paper leads to a better understanding of how women on the board, in particular, independent female directors, affect the relationship between CSR disclosure and information asymmetry. This could be of interest to French authorities, which has encouraged the appointment of women through the adoption of the Copé–Zimmermann law.Originality/valueFirst, to the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first study to explore the moderating effect of board characteristics on the relationship between CSR and information asymmetry. Second, unlike previous studies using individual proxies to measure information asymmetry, the authors favor the opacity index of Anderson et al. (2009). They calculate this index by including a fifth individual measure, namely, share price volatility. The opacity index better describes the information environment of companies than individual measures since it reflects the perceptions of investors and analysts together.


2019 ◽  
Vol 37 (9-10) ◽  
pp. 745-763 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhijun Wang ◽  
Xiaojuan Wang ◽  
Weiqin Zuo ◽  
Xiaotong Ma ◽  
Ning Li

The capacity of coal to adsorb methane is greatly affected by temperature and, in recent years, temperature-dependent adsorption has been studied by many researchers. Even so, comprehensive conclusions have not been reached and conflicting experimental results are common. This paper reviews the current state of research regarding the temperature-dependent adsorption of methane in coal and catalogs the conclusions from experiments conducted on that subject by 28 researchers, as published between 1995 and 2017. Probability theory and statistics are used to show that the conclusion generally accepted by most researchers is that the amount of methane adsorbed by coal decreases with increasing temperature. It is highly likely that the Langmuir volume decreases as the temperature rises, and it is also probable that the Langmuir pressure increases at higher temperatures. Equations are presented that express the relationships between methane adsorption, Langmuir volume, Langmuir pressure, and temperature. Future research should be directed toward determining the relationship between Langmuir pressure and temperature. The results of the study presented herein provide a theoretical basis for predicting the gas content in coal seams and improving the efficiency of coalbed methane development.


2018 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 4-25 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bruno Michel Roman Pais Seles ◽  
Ana Beatriz Lopes de Sousa Jabbour ◽  
Charbel Jose Chiappetta Jabbour ◽  
Daniel Jugend

Purpose “Economic crises” and “corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives” are two issues that dominate the modern business agenda. Although related, these issues have been analysed separately, and so a significant gap is perpetuated between the two. What are the effects of economic crises on CSR initiatives? Can organisational social initiatives withstand economic crises? The purpose of this paper is to answer these questions. Design/methodology/approach An integrative literature review was conducted, considering: the economic and geographical context in which the research was conducted; the focus of each piece of research; the adopted research methods; organisational theories of analytical support; the sectors analysed; and the effects of economic crises on CSR initiatives and environmental management. Findings Some of the findings were as follows: most of the studies analysed reported that CSR helps companies to cope with economic crises by increasing the efficiency of investments and establishing better relations with stakeholders and markets; environmental practices are related to negative environmental performance in periods of economic crises; and CSR relates positively to financial performance in periods of economic crises. Originality/value This is one of the first integrative literature reviews to investigate what happens to the relationship between businesses and sustainable change management in periods of crises. This paper also offers a future research agenda for the issue, with 12 questions still unanswered by the latest research.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yucheng Zhang ◽  
Zhongwei Hou ◽  
Xingxing Zhou ◽  
Yumeng Yue ◽  
Siqi Liu ◽  
...  

Purpose Despite recent organizational behavior studies have witnessed considerable progress in abusive supervision research; some demerits for both theory and methodology still remain in the past years. To clarify the current state of knowledge in the field, this study aims to analyze the current state of theories and methods on abusive supervision and provides a detailed future research agenda. Design/methodology/approach This paper conducted a literature review for both theory and methodology of the abusive supervision research using a content analysis of 134 publications. Findings For the theory part, this paper summarized the theories that had been applied to explain the relationship between abusive supervision and its consequences as well as antecedents. For the methodology part, this paper outlined some critical issues regarding country of origin, research design, measurement, analysis strategy and also summarized with a discussion of the relationship between methodological issues and article impact. Finally, this paper concluded by presenting an agenda for future abusive supervision research regarding both theory and methodology. Originality/value First, this paper summarizes the main theories, antecedents and consequences often used in abusive supervision research to allow scholars to carry out theoretically driven research investigating abusive supervision in the future. Second, through a content analysis of the methods sections of abusive supervision research in the samples (i.e. country of origin, research design, measurement and analytical procedures), this paper identified the potential reasons underlying the inconsistency in the conclusions of abusive supervision research and provide some guidance for future empirical studies. Third, based on the qualitative review, this paper provides an agenda for future research investigating abusive supervision by developing a content-specific theoretical framework to benchmark abusive supervision research against other research related to leadership and offers an accurate response to scholars’ criticisms of abusive supervision research.


Kybernetes ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Juan Manuel Maqueira Marín ◽  
Diessica De Oliveira-Dias ◽  
Nima Jafari Navimipour ◽  
Bhaskar Gardas ◽  
Mehmet Unal

PurposeThis study aims to provide an overview of what characterizes the current state of research in the field of cloud computing use in human resource management (HRM) with the identification, analysis and classification of the existing literature and lines of research addressed and to provide guidance for future research.Design/methodology/approachThe systematic literature review (SLR) technique has been used to identify, select, analyze and evaluate the existing publications on cloud computing and HRM. A total of 35 papers published up to December 2020 have been obtained from the Web of Science (WoS) scientific database. The research design has allowed us to determine what characterizes the current state of research on the use of cloud computing in HRM and obtain a novel classification of the literature that identifies four lines of research and the contributions in each line and has allowed us to define the future research agenda.FindingsThe four groups into which the papers on the cloud computing-HRM relationship have been classified are: (1) studies focused on the development of cloud platforms for HRM that highlight technical aspects, (2) papers that focus on the concept of human resource elasticity, (3) papers on the adoption and/or implantation of cloud platforms for HRM and (4) studies that highlight the effects or implications of cloud platforms for HRM. This paper proposes some new opportunities for future research and presents some helpful implications from the theoretical and management perspectives.Research limitations/implicationsThis study uses only scientific articles in the WoS database with a Journal Citation Report (JCR) or SCImago Journal Rank (SJR) impact.Originality/valueThis paper provides an overview of the knowledge on cloud computing and HRM research and offers recommendations for future research.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Stacey Sharpe ◽  
Nicole Hanson

PurposeThis study examines the relationship between corporate social irresponsibility (CSI) and firm-level sales and estimates the potentially mitigating role of advertising.Design/methodology/approachTo test their hypotheses, the authors conduct an empirical investigation using a sample of 381 US firms engaging in socially irresponsible behavior.FindingsThe results of this investigation indicate that while sales are negatively impacted during the year of a CSI event, they generally recover in the year immediately following the event. In addition, advertising is shown to mitigate the negative impact of CSI on sales in both the event year and the year immediately following. The authors also consider whether differences exist between CSI firms with and without advertising. From this comparative analysis, it is observed that CSI firms which advertise tend to experience more severe declines in sales. Also, such firms tend to recover from the negative implications of CSI sooner.Originality/valueThis paper provides a novel and empirical approach to assessing the relationship between CSI events and firm-level sales while quantifying the mitigating effects of advertising. Furthermore, the unique contributions and practical findings of this research generate strong support for the significant role advertising can play in helping firms recover from CSI-based brand crisis events and help to establish a promising path for future research.


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