Corporate Social Responsibility, Analyst Focus and Firm Performance
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.54097/0g4hd292Keywords:
corporate social responsibility, analyst attention, firm performance, information asymmetry.Abstract
Corporate social responsibility can enhance corporate reputation, help companies obtain key resources and attract investors' attention. However, due to the information asymmetry and self-interested behaviour of management existing in the capital market, investors cannot effectively identify enterprises with sufficient competitiveness. In the critical period of transformation and upgrading of China's capital market and in the context of high-quality economic development, this paper focuses on the impact of CSR on corporate performance and its mechanism of action using data from China's A-share listed companies from 2010-2021. The results of the study show that (1) corporate social responsibility has a promotional effect on firm performance; (2) good corporate social responsibility performance attracts analysts' attention; (3) analysts' attention has a partially mediating role in the impact of CSR on firm performance, and CSR enhances firm performance through the supervisory effect and the alleviation of information asymmetry; (4) the CSR's enhancement effect is more significant in non-state-owned enterprises with weaker external regulation and high equity concentration enterprises with stronger internal governance, and the disclosure of non-financial information and internal monitoring by major shareholders in private enterprises can alleviate information asymmetry and play a governance role on management self-interested behaviour. The above findings have implications for deepening corporate social responsibility awareness and promoting corporate value creation.
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