The relationship between CSR decoupling and unethical financial reporting behaviour
| dc.contributor.advisor | Braam, G.J.M. | |
| dc.contributor.author | Kruis, Jort | |
| dc.date.issued | 2020-07-10 | |
| dc.description.abstract | Pressures from corporate environmentalism and the need for more accountability for the consequences of the decisions of companies has grown over the past years. Companies increasingly report about their corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices. The CSR reports can be used to inform stakeholders, but can also be misused and become part of unethical reporting behaviour. This study investigated the relationship between CSR decoupling and unethical financial reporting behaviour. The study posits that CSR decoupling with more internal CSR actions than external CSR actions or more external CSR actions than internal CSR actions is related with the use of unethical financial reporting behaviour. Specifically, companies with more internal CSR actions than external CSR actions are classified as ‘ethical’ and will make less use of unethical financial reporting behaviour. Companies with more external CSR actions than internal CSR actions e.g. ‘greenwashing’ companies will more likely make use of unethical financial reporting. Using a panel data sample of 6482 listed companies from the period 2002-2016, the results show no relationship between the decoupling of the internal and external CSR actions and unethical financial reporting behaviour in the forms of earnings management and tax avoidance. This research also distinguishes between more stakeholder - and shareholder oriented countries in trying to explore the relationship between CSR decoupling and unethical financial reporting behaviour. The results indicate less use of earnings management for ‘greenwashing’ companies in environmental sensitive industries in stakeholder-oriented countries. Furthermore, there is no difference between the contexts in which the companies find themselves in explaining the relationship between CSR decoupling and unethical financial reporting behaviour. Keywords: CSR, decoupling, unethical financial reporting behaviour, earnings management and tax avoidance | en_US |
| dc.embargo.lift | 10000-01-01 | |
| dc.embargo.type | Permanent embargo | en_US |
| dc.identifier.uri | https://theses.ubn.ru.nl/handle/123456789/10419 | |
| dc.language.iso | en | en_US |
| dc.thesis.faculty | Faculteit der Managementwetenschappen | en_US |
| dc.thesis.specialisation | Accounting & Control | en_US |
| dc.thesis.studyprogramme | Master Economics | en_US |
| dc.thesis.type | Master | en_US |
| dc.title | The relationship between CSR decoupling and unethical financial reporting behaviour | en_US |