摘要
基于声誉理论和代理理论,以2009—2022年我国A股上市公司为研究样本,探究企业ESG表现对会计信息透明度的影响。研究发现,企业ESG表现越好,会计信息透明度越高,表明企业履行对社会可持续发展的隐性承诺有助于会计信息契约的更好执行。机制检验发现,ESG影响会计信息透明度存在声誉效应和治理效应,提高企业声誉和降低代理成本是中介渠道。调节检验发现,当企业是国有企业、属于重污染行业、多元化经营程度较低、媒体压力较大、宏观经济政策不确定性较强时,企业ESG表现对会计信息透明度的正向影响被加强。
The environmental,social,and governance(ESG)concept aligns closely with China's new development philosophy,requiring firms to internalize environmental,social,and governance standards across all aspects of their operations.Within the ESG framework,firms are expected not only to pursue financial performance but also to fulfill environmental and social responsibilities,thereby achieving a unity of economic and social value.This value orientation imposes heightened demands on corporate information disclosure and requires a deep integration of financial fundamentals reflected in accounting information with non-financial information generated by ESG practices.The provision of transparent accounting information serves as a critical mechanism for managers to fulfill explicit contracts.However,whether the implicit commitment to sustainable development embodied in ESG performance can effectively translate into drivers for enhancing accounting information transparency and improved contractual efficiency remains an open empirical question.This paper investigates the impact of ESG performance on accounting information transparency of A-share listed companies in China from 2009 to 2022.The main empirical results demonstrate that ESG performance has a positive influence on accounting information transparency,indicating that fulfilling the implicit commitment to sustainable development facilitates the better execution of accounting information-related contracts.The mechanism tests confirm the presence of reputation and governance effects,revealing that ESG performance enhances transparency by bolstering corporate reputation and mitigating agency costs.Moderating analysis reveals that the positive impact of ESG performance on accounting information transparency is more pronounced when a firm is state-owned,operates in a heavily polluting industry,faces high media pressure,has a low level of operational diversification,or operates under conditions of high macroeconomic policy uncertainty.This paper makes several contributions.First,from dual perspectives of the reputation theory and agency theory,this paper demonstrates the positive impact of corporate ESG performance on accounting information transparency.It reveals that this influence is achieved by enhancing corporate reputation and reducing agency costs,thereby providing both theoretical explanations and empirical evidence for understanding the interaction mechanism between ESG non-financial performance and accounting information transparency.Second,this paper identifies the heterogeneous effects of ESG performance on accounting information transparency across five dimensions:ownership type,industry characteristics,internal pressures,external pressures,and the macroeconomic environment.This offers concrete guidance for developing category-specific policies that encourage firms to leverage ESG practices for greater accounting information transparency.Third,this paper introduces a methodological innovation by constructing a novel measure of accounting information transparency based on two dimensions:accounting information quality(content transparency)and market response to accounting information(disclosure transparency).This measurement better aligns with the conceptual definition of accounting information transparency in terms of both quality and disclosure,thereby enhancing the reliability of the findings.This paper enriches relevant research on how non-financial activities affect financial information,providing empirical evidence and policy implications for firms to actively engage in ESG activities and improve accounting information transparency.
作者
李清
刘程程
LI Qing;LIU Chengcheng
出处
《暨南学报(哲学社会科学版)》
北大核心
2025年第11期139-160,共22页
Jinan Journal(Philosophy and Social Sciences)
基金
国家社会科学基金项目“上市公司会计舞弊风险指数构建、预警及影响因素研究”(18BGL067)。
关键词
ESG
会计信息透明度
企业声誉
代理成本
ESG
accounting information transparency
corporate reputation
agency costs
