社會信任感與企業社會責任

Abstract

本研究旨在探討企業投資企業社會責任(CSR)活動時，其背後原因是來自最大化股東價值，或者僅代表其出現了管理階層代理問題。若為前者，則國家的社會信任感程度較低時，企業為了累積社會資本，提高利害關係人配合度及股東福利，將提升推行CSR活動的意願；若為後者，則國家的社會信任感程度較高，將使企業濫用股東對其之信任以謀求私利與聲譽，提升推行CSR活動的意願。本文利用Datastream中的ASSET4 ESG資料庫與世界價值觀調查(World Values Survey)資料庫進行研究，主要迴歸結果顯示企業將以最大化股東價值為目標推行CSR，即國家的社會信任感與企業CSR活動呈負相關。此外，有一延伸之研究結果，我們發現在關係人交易揭露程度或公司財務報表透明程度較低的國家，其社會信任感與企業CSR活動呈正相關，代表管理階層將濫用股東之信任，僅求建立表面形象或圖謀私利，恣意推行CSR活動。

This paper mainly examines the relation between the level of trust in a country and firms’ performance of corporate social responsibility activities. The shareholder value maximization view predicts that firms located in countries with less trusting societies will engage in more CSR activities. The agency view predicts that managers of firms in countries with high levels of social trust will engage in more CSR activities at the expense of shareholders. Using data from the ASSET4 ESG database in Datastream and the World Values Survey database, we find evidence in favor of the shareholder value maximization explanation for the relation between trust and CSR. In addition, we find that in countries with low disclosure of related-party transactions or low corporate transparency, there exists a positive relation between trust and CSR. Overall, our results highlight the role played by informal institutions in shaping CSR.