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Connecting earnings management and corporate social responsibility: A renewed perspective
Author(s) -
Maglio Roberto,
Rey Andrea,
Agliata Francesco,
Lombardi Rosa
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
corporate social responsibility and environmental management
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.519
H-Index - 73
eISSN - 1535-3966
pISSN - 1535-3958
DOI - 10.1002/csr.1868
Subject(s) - corporate social responsibility , accounting , proxy (statistics) , business , earnings management , accrual , context (archaeology) , perspective (graphical) , sample (material) , diversity (politics) , gender diversity , relevance (law) , social responsibility , earnings , public relations , marketing , corporate governance , political science , finance , paleontology , chemistry , chromatography , machine learning , artificial intelligence , computer science , law , biology
This paper aims at discovering the association between earnings management (EM) and gender diversity in boards of directors as a predictor of the corporate social performance (CSP) of non‐smallmedium‐sized enterprises in the context of corporate social responsibility (CSR). The existence of a broad literature on the topic allows us to assess EM and its relations with CSR. We used an OLS regression analysis and the accrual quality measure as an EM proxy to investigate our sample of 697 Italian non‐small and medium‐sized enterprises. Our main results reveal that the presence of women on boards of directors results in the adoption of fewer EM practices. Therefore, our empirical findings support the notion that boardroom gender diversity as an instrument of CSP reduces the use of EM practices. The results of this paper are of most relevance to policymakers and academic communities focused on promoting CSP and CSR.