Corporate Social Responsibility,Credit Rating And Debt Financing Cost

How to solve the difficulty of financing and the high cost of financing has become one of the important topics of the Central Economic Work Conference in recent years.Reducing the cost of debt financing is a breakthrough to solve the difficulties of the real economy enterprises and promote the structural reform of the supply side.As the micro-main body of supply-side structural reform,enterprises shoulder the dual mission of economic responsibility and social responsibility.Can an enterprise actively practice social responsibility to reduce the cost of debt financing? How does credit rating play a role in the process of corporate social responsibility affecting debt financing costs?Providing reliable empirical evidence for these problems will help encourage enterprises to actively implement social responsibilities,ease the current situation of financing difficulties and financing,effectively stimulate the vitality of enterprises,and promote the quality of economic development.Therefore,this paper takes Shanghai and Shenzhen A-share listed companies as samples,constructs a structural equation model,and uses authoritative data such as corporate social responsibility capability maturity index issued by corporate social responsibility Center of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences to characterize the main variables.The intermediary relationship between corporate social responsibility,credit rating and debt financing cost is theoretically analyzed and empirically tested.This paper focuses on the following four aspects: Firstly,this paper reviews the domestic and international corporate social responsibility,credit rating and debt financing cost theory and the relationship between the three,and combines the realistic background of financing difficulties and financing in China and the urgent mission of listed companies to fulfill their social responsibility and economic performance,and determined the research theme of this paper.Secondly,this paper conducted a systematic and empirical study.In the empirical analysis,this paper draws on thecorporate social responsibility maturity index issued by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences,and uses the index to measure corporate social responsibility.This paper combines the structural equation model to examine the mediating mechanism of“corporate social responsibility – credit rating – debt financing cost”and conduct a robustness test;again,through empirical analysis,the paper concludes that corporate social responsibility and debt financing cost are significantly negatively correlated,but it has a significant positive impact on credit rating;credit rating has a significant negative impact on the cost of debt financing,and it has a partial intermediary role in the relationship between corporate social responsibility and debt financing costs.Finally,this paper puts forward countermeasures and suggestions based on the empirical results:the enterprise improves the social responsibility system construction,gives full play to the intermediary role of credit rating in the impact of corporate social responsibility on debt financing costs,and improves the construction of credit rating system.The innovations and shortcomings of this paper are respectively reflected in the article: from the mediating effect of credit rating,the paper studies the mechanism of the relationship between corporate social responsibility and debt financing cost,and opens up new perspectives for the relationship between the two,and explores a new path to alleviate the difficulties of financing and financing in China.Due to the authoritative consideration of corporate social responsibility data,this paper only selects the sample size of three years according to the Corporate Social Responsibility Maturity Report published by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences,and measures the credit rating by the valuation method.It is subjective;at the same time,due to the consideration of space and workload,this paper only analyzes the structural equation model from the two aspects of property rights and firm size,which is not comprehensive enough.