Purpose

Corporate investment efficiency ultimately influences economic development but is largely at the discretion of managers. Information asymmetries are problematic in emerging markets, but it is widely believed that corporate social responsibility (CSR) disclosures can reduce information asymmetries. This paper examines whether CSR disclosures influence corporate capital investment efficiency in emerging Asian markets.

Design/methodology/approach

Investment inefficiency is measured as the residuals from an investment model that is constructed by combining variables from prior studies to obtain a more detailed specification. A CSR disclosure index (CSRDI) is constructed from manually collected CSR disclosures for the largest corporations in each of the nine Asian emerging markets, as categorised by the MSCI Emerging Market Index, during 2015–2017. Underinvestments and overinvestments are regressed against the CSRDI, using a two-stage model to address the potential self-selection of CSR report issuers.

Findings

The results indicate that CSR disclosures reduce underinvestment for large firms but do not constrain overinvestment. These results are consistent with the propositions that, by increasing transparency or reducing information asymmetry, CSR disclosures can improve firm access to external finance needed to invest in profitable projects but cannot constrain entrenched managers who are not reliant on external finance.

Originality/value

This study extends the literature by analysing the impact of CSR disclosures on both underinvestments and overinvestments and by examining the CSR-investment efficiency across the nine emerging Asian markets. This enhances generalisability compared to single market studies. More generally, this study enhances the understanding of the role of non-financial disclosures in the Asian emerging markets, where corporate investment efficiency is important for economic development but where severe information asymmetry and agency conflicts between insiders and external investors are prevalent. Both the investment community and policymakers should benefit from enhanced understanding of factors that influence investment efficiency in those markets.

中文翻译：

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企业社会责任披露会影响亚洲新兴市场的投资效率吗？

目的

企业投资效率最终会影响经济发展，但很大程度上取决于管理者的判断。信息不对称在新兴市场存在问题，但人们普遍认为，企业社会责任 (CSR) 披露可以减少信息不对称。本文研究了企业社会责任披露是否会影响亚洲新兴市场的企业资本投资效率。

设计/方法/方法

投资低效率被衡量为投资模型的残差，该模型是通过组合先前研究中的变量以获得更详细的规范而构建的。CSR 披露指数 (CSRDI) 是根据 MSCI 新兴市场指数 (MSCI Emerging Market Index) 在 2015 年至 2017 年期间手动收集的九个亚洲新兴市场中每个最大公司的 CSR 披露构建而成的。投资不足和过度投资根据 CSRDI 进行回归，使用两阶段模型来解决 CSR 报告发布者的潜在自我选择问题。

发现

结果表明，企业社会责任披露减少了大公司的投资不足，但不限制过度投资。这些结果与以下命题一致，即通过提高透明度或减少信息不对称，企业社会责任披露可以改善公司获得投资于盈利项目所需的外部资金的渠道，但不能限制不依赖外部资金的根深蒂固的管理者。

原创性/价值

本研究通过分析企业社会责任披露对投资不足和过度投资的影响，并通过检验九个新兴亚洲市场的企业社会责任投资效率来扩展文献。与单一市场研究相比，这增强了普遍性。更一般地说，本研究加深了对非财务披露在亚洲新兴市场中的作用的理解，在这些市场中，企业投资效率对经济发展很重要，但严重的信息不对称和内部人和外部投资者之间的代理冲突普遍存在。投资界和政策制定者都应该受益于对影响这些市场投资效率的因素的深入了解。