We examine the association between accounting conservatism, expressed in the form of asymmetric timeliness of recognition of economic gains and losses, and corporate social responsibility (CSR). We provide evidence that, under unfavorable macroeconomic conditions and financial constraints, as well as increased levels of outside pressure from debtholders and equity holders, catering for capital providers through conservative reporting becomes a managerial priority over engagement in CSR. Our results overall indicate that, for our whole sample period (starting in the early 2000s), higher levels of conservatism are negatively associated with a CSR orientation shown by firms; however, our analysis also indicates a significant reversing trend regarding the effect of conservatism on CSR, coinciding with the post-financial-crisis period. The findings are robust to a number of specifications and tests, including the use of an instrumental variable approach explicitly addressing endogeneity biases related to reverse causality concerns. Our study suggests that, under monitoring pressure from financial stakeholders, firms prioritize commitment to accounting conservatism over the needs of non-financial stakeholders and other interest groups.

我们研究了会计稳健性（以确认经济损益的不对称及时性的形式）与企业社会责任 (CSR) 之间的关联。我们提供的证据表明，在不利的宏观经济条件和金融约束以及来自债务人和股权持有人的外部压力不断增加的情况下，通过保守的报告迎合资本提供者成为管理优先事项，而不是参与企业社会责任。我们的结果总体表明，在我们的整个样本期间（从 2000 年代初开始），较高水平的保守主义与公司表现出的 CSR 导向负相关；然而，我们的分析也表明保守主义对企业社会责任的影响出现了显着的逆转趋势，恰逢后金融危机时期。这些发现对许多规范和测试都是稳健的，包括使用工具变量方法明确解决与反向因果关系相关的内生性偏差。我们的研究表明，在来自金融利益相关者的监控压力下，公司将会计保守主义的承诺置于非金融利益相关者和其他利益群体的需求之上。