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The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of earnings management on financial performance. In addition, the authors investigate whether corporate social responsibility has a moderating effect on the impact of earnings management on financial performance.

The empirical study is based on a sample of French companies listed on the CAC-All-Tradable index over the period 2008–2018. Feasible generalized least square regression method is used to estimate the econometric models.

Based on panel data of 3,003 French firm-year observations, the authors demonstrate that earnings management has a negative and significant impact on financial performance. Indeed, corporate social responsibility moderates positively the negative impact of earnings management on financial performance in the French context.

The findings have several implications for regulatory, investors and academic researchers. For regulators, it is appropriate to promote more several standards related to corporate social responsibility and earnings management. For investors, considering societal issues is very important in making decisions. For academic researchers, the results show that it is important to discover how corporate social responsibility can influence the relation between earnings management and financial performance.

The existing literature has generally focused on the impact of earnings management on financial performance and the empirical tests did not yield similar results. The study shows that corporate social responsibility has a moderating role in determining the impact of earnings management on financial performance.

Is it in corporations' long‐term interests to exceed their social and environmental obligations and deliver a superior ethical performance? This is one of the key questions raised in the debate launched by the European Commission's green paper last year regarding the concept of corporate social responsibility (CSR). It is clear that the commercial world must rise to the challenge of building the confidence and trust demanded by stakeholders worldwide. There is a broad consensus on the need for businesses to take the social, economic, and environmental impact of their actions — the ‘triple bottom line’ — into account. Businesses are an integral part of the society (local and international) and they have to consider the impact their behaviour has on it. Many businesses highlight the links between CSR and their wider sustainable development agenda. Corporate reputation or image depends on how the company conducts or is perceived as conducting its business. Today the ability to build a sustainable corporate reputation is more important than ever before as stakeholders are more educated, more knowledgeable, and more demanding. The Cyprus Popular Bank, the second largest banking organisation in Cyprus, has developed and launched ‘Radiomarathon’ in support of children with special needs, which has won a place in the Guinness World of Records as the most successful charitable event in the world on the basis of per capita contribution, and was chosen among the top five charity events worldwide by the Chartered Institute of Bankers for 2003. Radiomarathon has been used in order to build a strong corporate identity and corporate reputation: “With the Radiomarathon we have hit a vein of gold…our corporate reputation is stronger than ever before! In such a turbulent climate, a positive corporate reputation can play a vital role in ensuring that the organisation is on a solid footing. ” (Yiannos Pissourios, Cyprus Popular Bank). The bank realised the importance and need for corporate social responsibility in their efforts to build a good corporate reputation and achieve competitive differentiation.

Furnishes a narrative reflecting an in‐depth examination of managerial conceptions of corporate social responsibility (CSR) in the Irish context. The narrative locates itself within the debate surrounding the extent to which corporate management may capture social accountants’ efforts to promote a broad society‐centred conception of CSR. Three key findings emerge from the narrative. First, there is evidence of a tendency for managers to interpret CSR in a constricted fashion consistent with corporate goals of shareholder wealth maximisation. Second, pockets of robust resistance to and defences of this narrow conception do, however, also emerge in the narrative. Third, the complexity of conceiving of a clear meaning for CSR, particularly for those exposed to the structural pressures encountered by these managers, is apparent. This is evident in the initial, somewhat contradictory, nature of many of the conceptions analysed. Reflects on these findings and considers their broad implications for social accountants’ attempts to promote greater society centred corporate accountability in Ireland.

Corporate social responsibility is one of the earliest and key conceptions in the academic study of business and society relations. This article examines the future of corporate social responsibility. Bowen's (1953) key question concerned whether the interests of business and society merge in the long ran. That question is assessed in the present and future contexts. There seem to be distinctly anti‐responsibility trends in recent academic literature and managerial views concerning best practices. These trends raise significant doubts about the future status of corporate social responsibility theory and practice. The vital change is that a leitmotif of wealth creation progressively dominates the managerial conception of responsibility. The article provides a developmental history of the corporate social responsibility notion from the Progressive Era forward to the corporate social performance framework and Carroll's pyramid of corporate social responsibilities. There are three emerging alternatives or competitors to responsibility: (1) an economic conception of responsibility; (2) global corporate citizenship; and (3) stakeholder management practices. The article examines and assesses each alternative. The article then assesses the prospects for business responsibility in a global context. Two fundamentals of social responsibility remain: (1) the prevailing psychology of the manager; and (2) the normative framework for addressing how that psychology should be shaped. Implications for practice and scholarship are considered.

The purpose of this paper is to describe the strategic role of corporate social responsibility (CSR) in global fast fashion companies.

Drawing on the management literature on CSR, corporate social performance and the benefits of a socially responsible behaviour, a conceptual framework of corporate responsibility management is presented. The Gap Inc. case is analyzed to prove how CSR commitment creates stakeholder partnerships and improves corporate brand image.

The main output of corporate responsibility management is solid stakeholder relationships resulting in: employee attraction and motivation, powerful brand, enhanced consumer perceptions, profitability. Through the corporate responsibility management process, fast fashion companies can obtain a sustainable development.

Existing CSR research is primarily focused on a specific level of analysis. Instead the corporate responsibility management framework aims to contribute to a comprehensive analysis of CSR. Moreover it addresses the role of CSR practices in the fast fashion sector which has been rarely investigated to date.

This study sets out to investigate the perception of different users of corporate information about the notion of the accountability process and the possibility of widening the scope of the current corporate annual report in Qatar to include social responsibility information. To achieve this objective, four user groups were invited to take part in the study. The outcome of the analysis revealed that most of those who took part in the study would like to see corporate social responsibility information disclosed, either in a separate section, or as part of the board of directors’ statement within the annual report. To achieve accountability, the respondents believe that a law that encourages the disclosure of corporate social responsibility information should be introduced, and different parties within the society should have the right to such information.

The purpose of this paper is to apply a third-person effects theory to the study of corporate social responsibility communications. Previous studies have asked what importance investors assign to the socially responsible activities of corporations. However, in the context of publicly-traded companies, it becomes important not only to calculate the effects of available information on an individual investor, but also to estimate the effects of every piece of information on the investor’s perception of the investment community at large.

The study uses a survey methodology in order to evaluate what value respondents assign to socially responsible behaviors as well as to identify a presence of third-person effects in the corporate social responsibility evaluations. Using an online survey, the respondents were asked to read a modified news article and the respond to a series of questions. In total, 96 completed surveys were collected and analyzed.

The research finds the presence of third-person effects incorporate socially responsibility message processing. The results of the study show that, while individually people are supportive of the socially responsible behaviors of corporations, they perceive others to be less supportive of such behaviors; they also see others as less likely to encourage such behaviors through action. As a result, people are less likely to act on their own views of corporate socially responsibility as they perceive themselves to be outliers. These findings lead to important consequences for investor communications, which are discussed in light of the efficient market hypothesis.

From an academic standpoint, the study proposed that in investor and financial communication, third-person effects could play a significant role. Yet, third-person effects research in investor relations literature simply does not exists. Thus, the study’s main contribution is expanding third-person effects theory into the field of the investor relations research.

From practical standpoint, expectations and perception of corporate social responsibility have a significant effect on corporate reputation and, thus, communication about corporate social responsibility become important as they shape these perceptions and expectations. Yet, such corporate social responsibility issues may include a variety of matters, such as governance, responsibility, and the quality of social and economic choices, sometimes even contradictory to each other. It becomes a job of investor relations managers to study, analyze, and respond to these competing demands.

From societal standpoint, the study advances the debate on the role of corporations in the society. With such concepts as social license to operate and creating shared value, and the growing expectations about corporate behavior, understanding the stakeholders perceptions of socially responsible behavior of corporations as a function of their perceptions of other stakeholders’ viewpoints, creates a better understanding of the complexities involved in the issue of corporate social responsibility reporting.

Since investors and other financial publics are not homogenous and may have different perspectives, opinions, values, etc., they may react to the same information differently. Furthermore, they may expect others to behave differently and such perceptions, whether accurate or not, may, in fact, influence their own behavior, as third-person effects theory would suggest. Investor relations, then, becomes a function of managing these expectations. The presence of the third-person effects in investor communications can have a strong effect on market behavior and, thus, must become an important part of the investor relations professionals’ job – how the messages are crafted, communications, and measured. Yet, third-person effects is non-existent in the investor relations literature. Thus, the study provides an original contribution by applying a third-person effects theory in the investor relations research.

Corporate responsibility perceptions from stakeholders are becoming more difficult to manage. This is in part because of large amount of social media being projected to stakeholders on a daily basis. In light of this, the purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between corporate responsibility framing from the social media perspective firm’s performance as defined by abnormal-return (defined as the difference between a single stock or portfolios return and the expected return) and idiosyncratic-risk (defined as the risk of a particular investment because of firm-specific characteristics).

Hypotheses are developed through agenda-setting theory and stakeholder and shareholder viewpoints. The research model is tested using sentiment analysis from a collection of social media from several industries.

The results provide support that three corporate responsibility social media categories (economic, social and environmental-framing) will have different impacts (delayed, immediate) on abnormal-return and idiosyncratic-risk. This study finds differences between immediate (one-day lag) and delayed (three-day lag) associations on abnormal-return and idiosyncratic-risk.

This study also suggests differences between the amount and sentiment of corporate responsibility social media framing on abnormal-return and idiosyncratic-risk. Finally, results identify interaction effects between different corporate responsibility social media categories.

In recent years the concept of corporate social responsibility has gained prominence among academics from a wide range of disciplines. According to the Green Paper issued by the Commission of the European Communities in July 2001, corporate social responsibility is defined as a concept whereby companies integrate social and environmental concerns in their business operations and in their interaction with their stakeholders on a voluntary basis. The problem is how firms have made known the information on corporate social responsibility. With this in mind, in the present work we were prompted to analyse the relevance of corporate social responsibility in Spanish firms. To perform this study we examined some Spanish firms that present information about corporate social responsibility according to the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) framework. Certain relevant conclusions about corporate social responsibility indicate that the disclosure of information about corporate social responsibility and the elaboration of the Sustainability Report in Spanish firms has been increasing and improving in recent years, that some of the most relevant information is economic, social and environmental, the environmental aspect being the most outstanding, and that of the firms analysed, Inditex (manufacturing industries) and Telefonica (communications) are the ones reporting the best information.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the content of for‐profit organizations' Facebook pages and how the communication strategy employed impacts stakeholders' perceptions of the organization‐public relationship, corporate social responsibility, attitudes, and purchase intent.

For Study 1, a content analysis examined the types of information on for‐profit organizations' Facebook pages. Facebook pages were coded for organizational disclosure and information dissemination, corporate social responsibility information, and interactivity. Pages were also coded for using a corporate ability, corporate social responsibility, or hybrid communication strategy. Three organizations were then selected based on the content analysis results to serve as exemplars in the two‐phase experiment. Participants filled out measures of initial attitudes, perceptions of the organization‐public relationship, corporate social responsibility, and purchase intent. A week later, participants interacted with the organizations' Facebook pages and then answered additional scale measures.

Study 1 found for‐profit organizations discuss program/services, achievements, and awards on their Facebook pages. The main communication strategy employed on Facebook is corporate ability. Study 2 results indicate interacting with Facebook pages bolsters stakeholders' perceptions of the organization‐public relationship, corporate social responsibility, and purchase intent. The organization employing a corporate social responsibility communication strategy had the most success bolstering these variables.

Several of the organizations did not have Facebook pages to code for the content analysis. Some organizations' pages were not coded because the page was just starting and there was no information available. The content analysis included a small sample size (n=114) which impacted the experiment. It limited the number of organizations that could be employed in the experimental conditions.

When posting information on Facebook, organizations should employ the corporate social responsibility communication strategy. However, regardless of the strategy employed, interacting with Facebook information can bolster stakeholders' perceptions of organizational‐public relationships, corporate social responsibility, attitudes, and purchase intent.

The paper adds to the experimental literature. There is very limited experimental research examining the impact of Facebook on stakeholders. It provides practitioners with some guidance on the types of communication strategy they should employ when posting on Facebook.