مدیریت سود و مسئولیت اجتماعی شرکت: شواهد بریتانیا Earnings management and corporate social responsibility: UK evidence

1. Introduction During the last few decades, the corporate world has been predisposed by the growing awareness on CSR and become more conscientious on how they generate and expend profits. Currently, firms are more concerned about their ethical and moral behaviour, and their relationship with relevant societal interest groups (Held 1970). It has been accepted that firms can gain multiple advantages through building a positive image among the stakeholders, and in establishing social bonds with employees and the local community, which generates reputational gains (Branco and Rodrigues 2006; Fombrun et al. 2000; Gray et al. 1988; Orlitzky et al. 2003). In practice, those companies who implement CSR activities are bound to provide transparent and reliable financial information (Kim et al. (2012) and demonstrate a commitment to ethical and accountable behaviour (Jones 1995). However, there is an argument that CSR can be used as an entrenchment mechanism to achieve managers’ self-interest objectives by distorting earnings information (Choi et al. 2013; McWilliams et al. 2006). Since earning management (EM) is perceived in the literature as an ethical issue, several studies have attempted to explore whether EM and CSR are related. However, several studies have found that EM and CRS are negatively related Alsaadi et al. (2017); Chih et al. (2008); Cho and Chun (2016); Choi et al. (2013); Christensen (2016); García-Sánchez and García-Meca (2017); Gras-Gil et al. (2016); Kim et al. (2012); and Martínez-Ferrero et al. (2016), broadly indicate that firms with strong commitment to CSR are less likely to engage in EM. On the other hand Gargouri et al. (2010); Jo Hoje and Harjoto (2011); Muttakin et al. (2015); Prior et al. (2008); and Scholtens and Kang (2013) found positive relationship between EM and CSR and suggest that firms with a higher level of EM resort to CSR activities to disguise managerial opportunistic behaviour. Given that the empirical findings remain inconclusive, more research is needed to understanding how CSR initiatives can impact corporate reporting quality by reducing EM practice (Chih et al. 2008; GrasGil et al. 2016; Grougiou et al. 2014). Accordingly, this study attempts to fill this gap by shedding more light on this issue. Moreover, prior research on this topic has primarily focused on the US (Sun et al. 2010), we believe that our study fills this gap of the existing literature by examining the effects of CSR activities on EM in the UK. Thus, the aim of this study is to explore the impact of CSR on EM using a sample of non-financial FTSE 350 UK companies during the period 2008 – 2010. Particularly, this study investigates whether the level of CSR affects the magnitude of discretionary accruals as proxy for EM. Unlike the previous studies, we use multiple measurements to capture the level of CSR: content analysis and disclosure index. We measure EM based on discretionary accruals using cross-sectional version of Kothari et al. (2005) model. Our results suggest that companies with a higher commitment to CSR activities are less likely to manage earnings through accruals. Besides, we found that firms with higher level of community (COM), employees (EMP), environment (ENV), and products (PRO) are less likely to engage in EM via accruals. However, there is no evidence has been detected on the levels of CUS and OTH and the EM.