企業社會責任對現金持有及現金價值之影響

Abstract

本研究以台灣2011年至2015年排除金融業的上市櫃公司為樣本，分析社會責任對企業現金管理的影響，並進一步分析投資人對於現金的評價是否因企業從事社會責任與否而不同。實證結果發現，企業社會責任的績效與現金持有具有正向關係，顯示關注社會責任的公司，可能較在乎利害關係人的權益，因此選擇較穩健的經營模式，而持有較多現金。另外，投資人對於現金的評價與企業社會責任的績效則具有負向關係，因為當關注企業社會責任而保留現金時，可能將企業有限的資源用於其他無益於股東的支出中，放棄股東價值最大化的理念，轉而尋求穩健經營，因此現金的邊際價值低於未投入社會責任之企業。 此外本研究亦額外進行穩健性分析，結果顯示當績效衡量較客觀、排除法規強制性影響及控制內生性干擾後，社會責任績效較佳的企業仍會持有較多的現金，而投資人對其評價亦較低，實證結果具有一致性。

Using the data of non-financial listed firms in Taiwan from 2011 to 2015, this thesis examines the impact of corporate social responsibility (CSR) on corporate cash holdings and the value of cash. The empirical results show that there is a positive relationship between CSR performance and corporate cash holdings, and that CSR performance is negatively related to the value of cash. A possible explanation for these results is that, compared to their peers, the firms engaging in CSR activities are more concerned about the negative effects of financial distress on stakeholders. Therefore, they hold more cash to stabilize operations for the purpose of reducing the default probability. Because they hold too much cash in terms of shareholder value maximization, their value of cash is lower. The thesis performs several robustness tests, including adopting an alternative definition of CSR performance, using two stage least squares estimation to handle endogeneity problems, and considering the effects of a related regulation change. The main findings of the thesis stand up to all these robustness checks.