Earnings Pressure and Corporate Social Responsibility Impression Management

Chang Liu () and Xiaoping Zhao ()
Additional contact information
Chang Liu: School of Business, Jiangnan University, Wuxi 214122, China
Xiaoping Zhao: Research Institute of Economics and Management, Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, Chengdu 611130, China

Service Science, 2025, vol. 17, issue 1, 18-34

Abstract: Extensive research has investigated the buffering effect of corporate social responsibility (CSR) when firms have poor financial performance. However, few studies have examined the possible consequences of this effect. By analyzing data on listed firms in China from 2010 to 2018, this study investigates the buffering effect of CSR under conditions of earnings pressure, and then discusses its impact on CSR disclosure impression management behavior. The results show that CSR can buffer the negative impact of earnings pressure on stock prices, chief executive officer stability, and top management team stability. This buffering effect is mainly exerted by technical CSR. Moreover, earnings pressure leads to CSR disclosure impression management without resulting in improved CSR performance. These findings have implications for cultivating CSR buffering awareness among firms and managers. The results also have practical implications for future research on the antecedents and motivations of CSR disclosure impression management.

Keywords: earnings pressure; corporate social responsibility; buffering effect; impression management (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/serv.2023.0052 (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:inm:orserv:v:17:y:2025:i:1:p:18-34

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Service Science from INFORMS Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Asher ().