光华讲坛

主题：The Mix of Soft and Hard Information in Voluntary ESG Reports and Impression Management（企业自愿性环境、社会和治理报告中的软信息和硬信息组合以及印象管理)

主讲人：西南财经大学会计学院 赵珂意

主持人：西南财经大学会计学院 易阳

时间：2022年3月8日（周二）10:00—11:30

地点：通博楼D301

主办单位：会计学院 科研处

主讲人简介：赵珂意，西南财经大学会计学院讲师，主要研究兴趣为企业社会责任。其研究曾在美国会计年会，夏威夷会计研究会议，新丝路会计论坛等进行展示。

摘要：We use textual analysis to measure the mix of soft and hard information disclosures in voluntary Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) reports and extrapolate the impact of a proposed mandatory disclosure regime. We proxy for hard information with the use of quantitative or specific disclosures and soft information with the use of boilerplate and forward-looking language. We find that firms with poor ESG performance and other motivations for impression management disclose more soft information and less hard information. We also find soft information to be less predictive of future ESG performance than hard information. We find that firms are not successful at using soft information for impression management: soft information is not associated with enhanced stakeholder perception of ESG performance, while hard information is, as evidenced in reduced shareholder activism and increased third-party awards. Given disclosure mandates tend to constrain soft information and promote hard information, we expect a mandatory ESG disclosure regime to improve disclosure quality though have limited impact on sophisticated stakeholders.

我们使用文本分析来衡量企业自愿的环境、社会和治理报告中软信息和硬信息披露的组合，并讨论潜在的强制披露制度的影响。我们使用定量披露和特定披露衡量硬信息披露，同时使用模板语言和前瞻性语言来衡量软信息披露。我们发现企业社会责任绩效不佳和存在其他印象管理动机的公司披露更多的软信息和更少的硬信息。我们还发现，与硬信息相比，软信息对未来企业社会责任表现的预测能力较差。我们发现，公司在使用软信息进行印象管理方面并不成功：软信息与相关利益相关者对企业社会责任绩效的印象无关，而硬信息则减少股东积极性和提高第三方奖励。鉴于披露要求往往会限制软信息并促进硬信息，我们预计强制性企业社会责任信息披露制度将提高披露质量，但对成熟的利益相关者的影响有限。