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Against the background of actively promoting the reform of mixed ownership in China, this study regards government ownership in private sector enterprises (PSEs) as an important political connection mechanism and examines private holding listed companies in high-polluting industries that sold China A-shares from 2012 to 2019.

Using regression models such as Tobit and negative binomial estimation, the research empirically examines the impact of government ownership in PSEs on the corporate fulfillment of their environmental responsibilities.

Government ownership can effectively promote PSEs to fulfill their environmental responsibilities. Government ownership, as a corporate-level political connection mechanism, enables the government to provide firms with more environmental protection subsidies and environmental tax incentives, encouraging firms to fulfill their environmental responsibilities. When considering the policy risks faced by PSEs, government ownership effectively reduces the impact of policy uncertainty on firms’ fulfillment of environmental responsibilities. Additionally, verifying the economic development level of the city in which the firm is located makes the positive impact of government ownership on fulfillment of environmental responsibilities of PSEs in regions with lower economic development levels more significant.

Unlike existing studies that generally use the personal political identity of entrepreneurs to measure the political connections of PSEs, this study regards government ownership in PSEs as an important political connection mechanism. It provides a useful reference for China to formulate environmental protection policies for PSEs.

Considering the ongoing debate regarding the roles of business in society, this paper aims to examine the managerial understanding of corporate social responsibility (CSR) in Nepal.

This study uses explanatory sequential design under mixed methods of research. First, the questionnaire survey method was used to collect data from 168 managers of listed companies in Nepal. Second, semistructured interviews were conducted with 20 senior-level managers of listed companies to verify the results obtained from the survey and to gain a deeper understanding of the phenomena.

The survey results show that managerial understanding of CSR is mainly guided by the notions of corporate philanthropy, stakeholder approach and political CSR, respectively. However, the managerial understanding vis-à-vis political CSR and corporate philanthropy were found to be remarkably positively influenced by the firm’s size, whereas the stakeholder perspective was widely held by the managers regardless of their firm’s size. The interview results largely substantiated questionnaire survey findings and further revealed vivid dimensions within the philanthropic approach, stakeholder approach and political CSR.

Given the recent legal provisions vis-à-vis mandatory CSR spending in Nepal, the policymakers may devise and update common core and firm-size-specific informational, fiscal-economic, legal and partnering instruments based on the findings of this study. Besides, companies may go for appropriate institutional arrangements for CSR as needed.

The reaffirmation of conventionally accepted roles and the approval of relatively nascent political roles of business in a distinct socio–political–legal–economic context of Nepal can be an important contribution to the literature.

This study aims to investigate whether socially responsible businesses with corporate social expenditure are less prone to engaging in tax avoidance. The study also examines whether political connections moderate the association between corporate social responsibility (CSR) and tax avoidance.

The study uses ordinary least squares to analyse the panel data of all 30 listed banks on the Dhaka Stock Exchange covering 2012 to 2020. The study uses a set of alternative variables to check the robustness of the findings.

Confirming the corporate culture theory, the study findings indicate that the higher the firms’ CSR expenditure, the lower the tax avoidance. Contrarily, the moderating effect of political connection weakens the role of CSR in tax avoidance, implying that political relation makes the firms socially irresponsible. Besides, the findings document that firms with strong political connections are more likely to be tax aggressive by weakening the role of CSR. The findings imply that firms with weaker political connections are more socially responsible than firms with strong political ties.

The study provides the bank management and regulatory bodies valuable insights to take necessary actions so that they can easily monitor whether the banks follow their instructions regarding CSR and tax payments. As the politicians make the firm socially irresponsible, the regulatory bodies and bank management should not keep them or their relatives on the board.

The study contributes to the CSR and tax avoidance literature considering the moderating role of political connections in Bangladesh banking sector.

Political Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), based on ideas about deliberative democracy, have been criticised for increasing corporate power and democratic deficits. Yet, deliberative ideals are flourishing in the corporate world in the form of dialogues with a broad set of stakeholders and engagement in wider societal issues. Extractive industry areas, with extensive corporate interventions in weak regulatory environments, are particularly vulnerable to asymmetrical power relations when businesses engage with society. This paper aims to illustrate in what way deliberative CSR practices in such contexts risk enhancing corporate power at the expense of community interests.

This paper is based on a retrospective qualitative study of a Canadian oil company, operating in an Albanian oilfield between 2009 and 2016. Through a study of three different deliberative CSR practices – market-based land acquisition, a grievance redress mechanism and dialogue groups – it highlights how these practices in various ways enforced corporate interests and prevented further community mobilisation.

By applying Laclau and Mouffe’s theory of hegemony, the analysis highlights how deliberative CSR activities isolated and silenced community demands, moved some community members into the corporate alliance and prevented alternative visions of the area to be articulated. In particular, the close connection between deliberative practices and monetary compensation flows is underlined in this dynamic.

The paper contributes to critical scholarship on political CSR by highlighting in what way deliberative practices, linked to monetary compensation schemes, enforce corporate hegemony by moving community members over to the corporate alliance.

This study aims to examine the role of different forms of corporate social advocacy (CSA) in shaping individuals’ attitudinal and behavioral intentions towards companies taking their public stand on controversial socio-political issues. With an online experiment as the research method, this study tests whether depicting nonpolitical or political behaviors in CSA messages increases individuals’ positive behavioral intentions.

This study uses a single factor between subject online experiment. A total of 135 US young adults were recruited through a Qualtrics online panel. Three social media mockups were created to manipulate three levels of actions in CSA messages (no action, nonpolitical action and political action). Participants viewed one of those social media posts depicting presented actions to counter anti-LGBTQ + legislation in the USA and answered questions about values-driven motives behind CSA, brand preference and positive word-of-mouth (WOM) intention.

Participants displayed higher levels of brand preference when they viewed CSA messages depicting the company’s political action intended to repel anti-LGBTQ + legislation. Participants showed more positive WOM intentions towards the company when they perceived its political actions as more values-driven.

The findings of this study offer practical insights to companies when designing CSA messages and strategies. The results of this study indicate that the presence of political actions in CSA communication increases individuals’ positive behaviors towards companies. The results also suggest that depicting altruistic motives behind CSA leads individuals to talk about companies more in positive ways.

This study is one of the early studies investigating the impact of various forms of CSA on individuals’ attitudinal and behavioral intentions to companies practicing CSA. This study provides practical implications on how to effectively appeal individuals’ favorable attitudes and behaviors towards CSA. In particular, this research presents the importance of action aspects in individuals’ attitudes toward corporations’ CSA messages.

This study aims to investigate the determinants of the extent and quality of corporate social responsibility disclosure (CSRD) in Jordan. The study examines a number of factors that influence the extent and quality of CSR disclosure, such as corporate characteristics, corporate governance and ownership structure.

A quantitative approach and a content analysis technique is used to measure the extent and quality of CSRD from annual reports. The sample is drawn from the annual reports of 118 Jordanian companies between 2010 and 2015. A CSRD index is constructed, which includes the disclosures of the following categories: environmental, human resources, product and consumers, and community involvement. This is the first study that presents a new measurement for CSR disclosure quality by using images and charts in a seven-point scale measurement.

The result reveals that the extent of CSRD is higher than quality in Jordan. Regarding the determinants of CSR disclosures, the following factors were found to have a significant relationship with both the extent and quality of CSRD: board size, non-executive directors, age of firm, foreign members on the board, number of boards meetings, the presence of audit committees, big 4, government ownership, size of firm and industry type. Non-executive directors was found to have a significant correlation with the extent of CSRD.

The current study has some limitations; first, the study findings are limited to the Jordanian environment. Second, the study adopted a purely quantitative method, and future research could include interviews and questionnaires to gather data from financial managers and chief executive officers (CEOs). Third, the potential influences on the level and quality of CSR are not limited to the variables tested in this study. Future research can be done on new determinants, such as CEO interlocking and profitability. Finally, the sample included companies from two main sectors – the services and industrial sectors; thus, this limited the results to these two main sectors.

Practitioners, as firms, should develop new strategies and ensure that CSR is included in their reports. Thus, companies can achieve legitimacy for their products and activities. Policymakers must consider introducing new laws that mandate CSRDs since it has many advantages for companies and society. In addition, this research suggests amending the law to require companies to have 33% of their directors be non-executives since this will remove the negative effect on CSR disclosure. Investors must pay attention to the social activities of the companies they invest in, as CSR could have a positive effect on their market value.

The study has indicated that Jordanian companies became increasingly more involved in CSR activities, as this growth in CSRD is linked with global increases in CSR. Moreover, the study has revealed that the highest category of CSR disclosures is related to products or services and employee information. On the other hand, the lowest category of CSR disclosures is related to community and other disclosures (extent) and environmental disclosures (quality). Furthermore, the results show that the services sector was found to have more disclosures regarding employees and community, whereas the industrial sector was more concerned about environmental and product information.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study that presents a new measurement for CSR disclosure quality by using images and charts in a seven-point scale measurement. This new seven-point scale will be adopted to distinguish between poor and excellent disclosures. In addition, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study in Jordan which examines the determinants of the extent and the quality of CSR for three categories, namely, corporate characteristics, corporate governance and ownership structure.

This paper investigates the influence of political connections on sustainability disclosure in the context of China's Regulation 18.

The study employs a quasi-experimental approach, utilizing difference-in-difference (DiD) analysis, dynamic DiD and propensity score matching to analyze the effects of politically connected independent directors on sustainability disclosure following the implementation of Regulation 18.

Companies with politically connected independent directors show an improvement in sustainability disclosures after Regulation 18. This effect is stronger for firms facing high political pressure or lacking alternative political power. Additionally, the increase in value from sustainability disclosures compensates for the loss of politically connected independent directors, indicating a positive value impact of sustainability disclosures.

This study provides novel insights into the corporate disclosure policy in China by investigating the impact of politically connected directors on sustainability disclosure. Additionally, it sheds light on the limitations of political power and its substitution effects within companies.

This study aims to investigate the influence of corporate social responsibility (CSR) on corporate sustainable performance (CSP) of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) by looking into the significance of mediating factors, namely, brand image (BI) and brand loyalty (BL), within the context of an emerging economy.

The authors conduct an extensive literature study on the subjects of CSR, BI and BL to assess their influence on the sustainable performance of SMEs in an emerging market. The study adopts a quantitative methodology. A total of 438 answers were obtained from a sample size of 513. The data of the SMEs in Vietnam was analyzed using the smart partial least squares structural equation modeling software, specifically version 3.3.2.

The results of the authors demonstrate notable and favorable correlations between CSR and CSP, CSR and BI and CSR and BL. Importantly, the findings contribute to existing knowledge by looking into the mediating influence of BI and BL in the relationship between CSR and CSP.

According to the authors’ understanding, a number of research have investigated the correlation between CSR and CSP within the realm of SMEs. Nevertheless, there is a scarcity of scholarly research examining the mediating function of BI and BL in this association. The study’s findings have important implications for entrepreneurs and senior management in effectively guiding their enterprises and improving their business strategies with an emphasis on sustainability in emerging markets. The outcome of this study has the potential to significantly contribute to SMEs in Vietnam as well as other emerging countries.

This study aims to investigate the impact of board skill diversity (BSD) on corporate environmental responsibility (CER). In addition, this study explores the moderating effects of formal regulatory pressure and informal media pressure.

This study uses Chinese high polluting companies as the sample and uses regression analysis. Robustness checks, including instrumental variable regression, Heckman two-stage model and propensity score matching method, are performed to test the robustness of the results.

The findings suggest that BSD significantly improves CER performance. Both formal regulatory pressure and informal media pressure strengthen the positive impact of BSD on CER. Further channel analyses reveal that BSD improves CER performance by promoting corporate proenvironmental behaviors rather than by restricting environmental violations; skill diversity of executive directors has a more significant effect on CER than that of independent directors. Finally, the moderating effect of regulatory pressure is only significant after the implementation of the Environmental Protection Law, and the moderating effect of media pressure mainly concentrates on negative media coverage.

The involvement of directors with more diverse skills is essential to improve corporate proenvironmental behaviors. Companies should select qualified directors with different skills to further improve their performance on environmental protection and sustainable development.

Regulators and standard-setters should develop efficient guidelines on corporate board governance to enhance the positive role of companies in environmental and sustainable development.

This study broadens the research on the determinants of CER by examining the influence of BSD on CER and the moderating roles of various stakeholder pressures, thereby providing a deeper understanding of corporate environmental performance and sustainable development.

Corporate corruption reporting (CCR) is an emerging issue of the corporation for measuring transparency, integrity and accountability to the stakeholders and society. The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of CCR and financial management responsibility regarding the issue of corruption control.

To explore the influences of corruption disclosure, this study considers the keywords-based content analysis of the listed financial firms of the Dhaka Stock Exchange in Bangladesh for 2012–2016. The research considers stakeholders and theoretical legitimacy lens for discussing corporate corruption disclosure. This study identified 143 self-driven keywords by classifying, analyzing and selecting the appropriate large set of keywords from the prior literature. This study examines 247 firm-year observations of all financial firms in Bangladesh using secondary data sources.

The results of the hierarchical regression analysis report that financial firms following Sharia principles have a negative and significant association with CCR, while Big4 has a positive and significant influence. Moreover, the interaction effect of Big4 on the relationship between Sharia principles and CCR is negative and insignificant. The findings reported that Islamic financial firms disclose less corruption information than conventional financial firms in Bangladesh.

This study findings are expected to significantly impact corporate management and policymakers of developing and highly corrupted economies to enhance corporate accountability, transparency and reputation. The regulatory body can consider the findings to promulgate anti-corruption reporting rules and regulations.

The authors believe the theoretical lens used to support the method and findings of this paper are unique and novel.