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This study aims to investigate the relationship between corporate social responsibility (CSR) and financial distress and the moderating effect of firm characteristics, auditor characteristics and the Coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) in China.

The research question is empirically examined on the basis of a data set of 1,257 Chinese-listed firms from 2011 to 2021. The dependent variable is financial distress risk, which is measured mainly by Z-score. CSR score is used as a proxy for CSR. Propensity score matching, two-stage least square and generalized method of moments are adopted to mitigate the potential endogeneity issue.

This study reveals that CSR can reduce financial distress. Specifically, results show an inverse relationship between CSR and financial distress, more significantly in non-state-owned enterprises, firms with non-BigN auditor and during Covid-19. The results are consistent and robust to endogeneity tests and sensitivity analyses.

This study enriches the literature on CSR and financial distress, resulting in a more attractive corporate environment, improved financial stability and more crisis-resistant economies in China.

This paper aims to study the default risk of small and medium-sized enterprises in the construction sector.

An unbalanced sample of 2,754 Portuguese companies from the construction sector, from 2008 to 2020, is analysed. Companies are classified in default or compliant following an ex-ante criterion. Then, using the stepwise analysis, the most relevant variables are selected, which are later used in the logit model. To verify the robustness of the results, a sample of legally insolvent companies is added (mixed criterion) and the initial sample is split into two subperiods.

Financial variables are the most relevant to predict the pattern for this sample. The main conclusions show that smaller and older companies, more indebted, with more liquidity and with higher EBIT have a higher probability of default. These conclusions are confirmed using a mixed criterion to classify companies as default or compliant and including a macroeconomic dummy.

This work not only contributes to enlarging the literature review but also makes relevant contributions to practice. Companies from the construction sector can understand which indicators must control to avoid financial problems. The government also has relevant information that can help in adapting or creating regulations for recovering or revitalizing companies.

This study proposed an ex-ante criterion that can be used for all types of companies. Most works use a legal or a mixed criterion that does not allow for detecting signs of financial problems in advance. Moreover, the sample used is almost unexplored – SMEs from a sector with great mortality rate.

This study aims to explore how earnings management techniques are affected by corporate financial debt risk (FDR), internal control (IC) effectiveness and CEO education.

The study uses a sample from listed firms in China from 2010 to 2017, comprising different industries, including agriculture, forestry, livestock farming and fishing; mining; manufacturing; electric power, gas and water production and supply; construction; transport and storage; information technology; the real estate industry; social services; and communication and cultural. The regression analysis is used to test the hypotheses. The two-stage least squares technique is used to check for endogeneity issues.

The study finds that firms are less likely to manage real earnings when they have more robust IC and FDR. Likewise, companies with weak ICs are more likely to manipulate real earnings. Besides, the study finds an influence of CEO education on the relationship between IC, FDR and real earnings management (REM). These results can be applied to the sectors in the sample covered by the research, and the authors do not overlook the energy industry sector for the importance of its role in the economy.

There are some limitations for the researcher when performing any research, and this study is no exception. Researchers are urged to take these circumstances into consideration when generalizing or comparing the results because the methods used to calculate the measurement variables in each study may differ somewhat from those used in other research. In addition, expanding the current research design to incorporate additional nations may be an area of interest for future research and could aid in evaluating the effects of nation-specific elements (such as inflation, culture, legal systems and political considerations) on the usefulness of IC and decreasing FDR. Second, the current study focuses on the impact of IC and FDR on REM; this paper does not dissect the “black box” of IC and consider how each element affects earnings management. Future research may need to focus specifically on how effective IC would affect earnings management and precisely what IC mechanisms would discourage the management of earnings.

Helping companies listed in China to make decisions and improve investors’ vision of the results of real companies’ businesses, as well as helping management to avoid falling into debt risk and the consequent effects and manipulation of earnings.

By highlighting the significance of IC and debt risk in enhancing information quality in China, the results contribute to the body of work examining the relationship between IC, FDR and REM. In addition, this study uses a CEO’s education to moderate this link.

To determine the effect that covenants have on the credit ratings assigned by the two major agencies.

The authors examine 1,822 bond issues from 1991 to 2018, with a two-stage methodology to account for the endogeneity of the firms' choices and the ordinal nature of the ratings. The authors use Hendry's model selection method to find the best-fitting models from 37 control variables; the final models feature 20–24 orthogonalized variables, all significant at 5% and most at 1%.

The study’s results suggest that restrictive covenants positively affect ratings, particularly for bonds on the border of junk and investment grade. However, this effect appears to be decreasing with time, suggesting the financial crisis of 2008 has impacted ratings. Additionally, divergent covenant treatment leads to split ratings where the two agencies assign different levels of ratings on the same bonds. The study’s findings provide key insights into the factors that differentiate ratings given by each agency.

Managers must balance the perceived benefits of covenants against the costs, included lower credit ratings.

No other study has examined this issue controlling for both the ordinal nature of the ratings and the endogeneity in the decision to include specific covenants.

Environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues have become the cornerstone of investment decisions in firms today. With that, publicly traded ESG indices (like the BSE ESG 100 index in India) have come into existence. The existing literature signifies that ESG generates financial implications and induces stability. The current study aims to test whether the firms listed on the ESG index (ESG-sensitive firms) face less financial distress than those not listed on such an index.

The study applies panel data difference-in-differences (DID) regression by considering ESG as an unstaggered treatment to 74 non-financial firms listed on India's Bombay Stock Exchanges (BSE) 100 index. In total, 42 firms are ESG treated as they got listed on the BSE ESG 100 index, formed in 2017. The remaining 32 firms form the control group. The confidence intervals and standard errors are estimated using clustered robust errors and the Donald and Lang method.

Listing on the ESG index matters for financial stability; differences in financial distress are significant on financial distress. ESG-sensitive firms face less financial distress than non-ESG firms (or firms not perceived as ESG-sensitive). The results are consistent across two financial distress measures, Altman z-scores for emerged and emerging markets. Thus, the DID in distress status between ESG-sensitive and non-ESG firms matter.

The study creates vibrant implications for practitioners using ESG to reduce financial distress.

The study is one of its kind to test the treatment effects of ESG on firm value and quantify treatment effects on financial distress.