Legitimacy Pressure,Corporate Governance And Central Enterprises Social Responsibility Report Assurance

With the convening of the 18th and 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China,corporate social responsibility(CSR)has been promoted to the national strategic level.In China,the number of enterprises disclosing social responsibility information in the form of social responsibility reports is increasing rapidly,however,there are widespread problems such as the selective information disclosure,which seriously affect the credibility and reliability of CSR reports.CSR report assurance,an important measure to improve the reliability and validity of CSR report,has been widely concerned and studied.At present,the domestic social responsibility report is still in the stage of voluntary disclosure,the study on its influencing factors has become a hot issue in promoting the disclosure of CSR report assurance,while the research on its influencing factors by domestic scholars is seriously insufficient compared with its importance.Under such circumstance,with the hope to provide empirical evidence and decision-making reference for improving the quality of social responsibility reporting and promoting the development of assurance business,this article will use empirical analysis to test the impact of legitimacy pressure and corporate governance on CSR report assurance.And the research samples are the CSR reports from 2011 through 2017 issued by A-share listed companies in Shanghai Stock Exchanges and Shenzhen Stock Exchanges.The results of the research suggest:(1)The overall level of legitimacy pressure is positively correlated with CSR report assurance.From the perspective of public opinion supervision,there is a significant positive correlation between media attention and CSR report assurance.From the perspective of industry pressure,there is a significant positive correlation between heavy polluting industries and CSR report assurance.From the perspective of institutional pressure,the encouraging guideline of industry associations is significantly positively correlated with CSR report assurance,while the encouraging notice of Shenzhen Stock Exchange has no significant impact on CSR report assurance.(2)The comprehensive level of corporate governance is positively correlated with CSR report assurance.In the ownership structure,the alliance of minority shareholders is significantly positively correlated with CSR report assurance,but the shareholding ratio of the largest shareholder fails the significance test.In the governance of the board of directors,there is a significant positive correlation between the size of the board of directors and CSR report assurance,while neither the number of board meetings nor the size of independent directors has passed the significance test.In the governance of the board of supervisors,the scale of the board of supervisors has a significant positive correlation with CSR report assurance,but the relationship between the number of meetings of the board of supervisors and CSR report assurance is not significant.In committee governance,both audit committee and CSR management mechanism can influence CSR report assurance significantly and positively.(3)The legitimacy pressure and corporate governance have complementary effects on CSR report assurance.Finally,based on the theoretical analysis and empirical test results,the following suggestions are put forward to promote the development of social responsibility report assurance business:(1)encourage the central enterprises to do their parts and set good examples on the disclosure of social responsibility report assurance for the listed companies;(2)formulate relevant laws on CSR report assurance and improve relevant guidelines on the disclosure of CSR report assurance;(3)ensure the impartiality of media supervision and create a healthy information disclosure environment for listed companies;(4)improve corporate governance and develop the social responsibility management system.