Corporate social responsibility reporting, pyramidal structure and political interference: Evidence from China

This paper attempts to investigate the relation between pyramidal structure and corporate social responsibility (CSR) reporting quality and the effect of political interference on the relation. Based on 1388 Chinese A-share listed firms during 2010-2012, this paper demonstrates that the separation between control and ownership rights is significantly and positively related to the CSR reporting quality in the state-owned firms (SOFs), while negatively related to the CSR reporting quality in the non-state-owned firms (NSOFs). Results also indicate that the pyramidal layer between the bottom firms and their top ultimate owners is negatively related to CSR reporting quality, particularly significant for the NSOFs. Our research enriches the corporate governance literature by giving insights into the mechanism of pyramidal structure in corporate reporting, and extends the understanding of political interference in the CSR field. This study has public policy implications for China as well as a number of other countries in the Asia–Pacific region.