Corporate Social Responsibility and Growth Opportunity: The Case of Real Estate Investment Trusts

Kevin C. H. Chiang (), Gregory J. Wachtel and Xiyu Zhou
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Kevin C. H. Chiang: University of Vermont
Gregory J. Wachtel: University of Vermont
Xiyu Zhou: University of Alaska Fairbanks

Journal of Business Ethics, 2019, vol. 155, issue 2, No 9, 463-478

Abstract: Abstract Corporate social responsibility (CSR) involvement and disclosure has been becoming increasingly popular among US public firms, including those that qualify as real estate investment trusts (REITs). This paper aims to discover the relationship between CSR involvement and potential determinants such as growth opportunities, profitability, visibility, and agency costs. Types of CSR involvement are assessed in terms of environmental, community, and governance disclosures and are quantified using word count from the company’s voluntary disclosure. Our results support the hypothesis that CSR has a strategic element and that REITs have greater CSR involvement when they have greater growth and investment opportunities. When the type of disclosure is broken into subcategories, the results show that not all dimensions of CSR are alike: environmental, community, and governance CSR disclosures appear to be motivated by different sets of incentives and reasons.

Keywords: Corporate social responsibility; Growth opportunity; Environment; Community; Governance; Disclosure; Real estate investment trust (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

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DOI: 10.1007/s10551-017-3535-1

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