Board attributes, ownership structure, and corporate social responsibility: evidence from A-share listed technological companies in China
ISSN: 1746-5680
Article publication date: 19 May 2023
Issue publication date: 12 April 2024
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is threefold. The first is to conduct a comprehensive examination of the various board attributes to corporate social responsibility (CSR) reporting in the Chinese technology industry. The second is to investigate the impact of ownership and board attributes on CSR. The third is to examine the moderating effect of media reporting on the relationship between CSR and company financial performance.
Design/methodology/approach
All A-share listed Chinese companies during the years 2011–2019 with 1,573 firm-year observations have been investigated for this study. The data are analysed by CSR metrics in the form of environmental, social and governance (ESG) scores using an ordinary least squares regression analysis and fixed effect regression models.
Findings
The results of this longitudinal study reveal that; no matter whether the companies are state-own or non-state-own, there is a significant positive effect of board independence, monetary incentives, director’s age and board size on the CSR disclosure of the Chinese technology industry. Also, the results support the importance of CSR performance in promoting the corporate financial performance (CFP) of the technology sector. Specifically, media reporting has a positive impact on the CSR reporting of both state-own and non-state-own technological companies in China.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study based on the ESG metrics for analysing the CSR and firm performance relationship conducted in the unique setting of the state-own and non-state-own technological companies in China. The study is an attempt to fill the gap in the extant literature, which has a scarce number of studies focused on the influence of media reporting on the relationship between CSR performance and CFP. This paper not only updates the existing understanding of CSR performance by board attributes and company ownership but also explains the significance of media reporting in enhancing the CSR performance of the Chinese technology industry.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
This project was partially supported by research grants from the Beijing Normal University-Hong Kong Baptist University United International College (Grant No. UICR0400006-21). The authors are thankful for the helpful comments and suggestions received from Dr. John Katsos (Editor-in-Chief), and Professor Debbie Haski-Leventhal, as well as two anonymous reviewers for their constructive feedback and suggestions which helped us in the improvement of this research article.
Citation
Ma, A.K.F. and Chen, Y. (2024), "Board attributes, ownership structure, and corporate social responsibility: evidence from A-share listed technological companies in China", Society and Business Review, Vol. 19 No. 2, pp. 181-206. https://doi.org/10.1108/SBR-08-2022-0225
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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