本文以我国2008~2013年沪深两市非金融类上市公司作为研究样本,实证研究了上市公司的企业社会责任报告(CSR报告)是否会降低其诉讼风险。研究结果发现:较之未发布CSR报告的上市公司,发布了CSR报告的上市公司的诉讼风险显著降低;将CSR报告有无第三方鉴证纳入考虑,发现有第三方鉴证的CSR报告比无第三方鉴证的CSR报告更能降低企业的诉讼风险;对公司所在地的法律环境进行区分:较之法治水平低的地区,法治水平高地区的企业CSR报告对其诉讼风险的降低作用更为显著。本研究为探析上市公司的CSR报告和法律环境对企业诉讼风险的影响及其经济后果提供了初步的实证证据和启示。
Based on the Chinese listed companies during 2008 -2013, this paper examines the impact of the listed companies' disclosure of corporate social responsibility(CSR) on their litigation risk. The findings of our study are as follows. First, firms which disclose social responsibility reports enjoy a reduction in the risk of litigation. Second, compared with the corporate social responsibility reports without assurance, corporate social responsibility reports with assurance from independent third parties can reduce the risk of litigation more significantly. Third, the lowering effect of companies' CSR reports on their pending litigation is more pronounced in the regions where the environment of law is more developed. From this research,we find that disclosing of social responsibility reports is a good signal and corporates have some inherent power to disclosure the social responsibility information.