企业社会责任报告特质信息含量的信号效应研究——基于自然语言处理技术的分析  

Research on the Signaling Effect of the Idiosyncratic Information Content of CSR Reports——An Analysis Based on NLP Technology

作　　者：李四海 李震 LI Si-hai;LI Zhen(School of Accounting,Zhongnan University of Economics and Law;School of Management,West Yunnan University of Applied Sciences)

机构地区：[1]中南财经政法大学会计学院 [2]滇西应用技术大学管理学院

出　　处：《中国工业经济》2023年第1期114-131,共18页China Industrial Economics

基　　金：国家自然科学基金面上项目“高管职场晋升经历与企业决策行为:基于行为经济学跨期选择理论研究”(批准号72072183);教育部人文社会科学研究青年项目“CEO职场晋升经历与跨期财务决策——基于行为经济学跨期选择理论研究”(批准号20YJC630063);中央高校基本科研业务费跨学科交叉融通创新研究项目“碳排放交易对我国乡村振兴的影响机理、效应及对策研究”(批准号2722023AK003)。

摘　　要：社会责任报告是企业宣示自身社会价值的主要渠道,但其决策价值尚未受到投资者的足够重视。本文结合自然语言处理技术,从中提取出衡量企业社会责任关注和行动情况的客观指标——特质信息含量,特质信息含量越高的社会责任报告意味着披露主体更积极关注社会责任并付诸具体行动。在自愿性选择情境下,当前对社会责任非生产经营性活动的关注可能反映出企业内部对生产性活动具有的乐观预期。研究发现,社会责任报告特质信息含量越高的企业未来经营业绩越好,验证了社会责任报告特质信息含量具有的信号效应。基于以上结论,以社会责任报告特质信息含量构建的若干对冲组合均获得了显著的超额回报。进一步研究发现,定性特质信息与定量特质信息的比例适当匹配时,特质信息含量对未来业绩有更强的信号效应。同时,本文针对社会责任报告“报喜不报忧”这一鲜明特征进行分析,发现积极的语调没有传递出未来积极的业绩信号;相反,语调可能成为管理层廉价的操纵工具。本文从信号效应视角丰富了社会责任报告信息含量的研究,提供了新的投资策略,拓展了社会责任报告决策有用性研究,有助于提升资本市场的资源配置效率,对当前社会责任信息披露制度建设具有启示意义。After decades of practical development,corporate social responsibility(CSR)reports disclosed by Chinese firms have taken shape.As typical non-financial information,CSR reports can convey multi-dimensional information about firms,such as corporate governance,employee rights,product quality,environmental protection,and community contribution,and serve to complement and cross-validate with financial information.In this setting,the value of research on the information content of CSR reports has become increasingly prominent.Given the descriptive nature of CSR reports,this paper applies natural language processing(NLP)technology to the analysis of CSR texts and constructs several textual feature metrics to explore the potential decision-supporting value of CSR reports.Our empirical sample consists of A-share main board listed firms that disclosed CSR reports between 2007 and 2019.By virtue of the named entity recognition(NER)model,this paper constructs an objective measure(Specificity)to quantify the idiosyncratic information content for each CSR report,including the dates,places,participating organizations,and quantitative indicators related to firmstakeholder interactions.A CSR report with higher Specificity implies that the discloser pays more attention to social responsibility issues and has more passion to put them into practice.In a voluntary and discretionary nature,firms’current interests and practical support for CSR-like non-profit activities may reflect that the management has optimistic expectations of future productive activities.Empirical tests find that firms that disclose CSR reports with higher Specificity have better future performance,thus conforming to the signaling effect of the idiosyncratic information content of CSR reports on future performance.We compare the signaling effect of the idiosyncratic information content of CSR reports,cash dividends,and management forecasts on future performance and find that all three have significant explanatory power on future performance.The above findings i

关 键 词：企业社会责任报告 信号效应 特质信息 陈词滥调 

分 类 号：F270[经济管理—企业管理]