Do family firms engage in voluntary external assurance of corporate social responsibility reports?

Abstract

越來越多公司自願性聘請獨立第三方機構進行企業社會責任報告書確信，以提高企業社會責任報告書的可信度。在發展中的國家，家族企業型態在國家經濟與社會發展演進過程扮演重要的角色。本研究以2009至2016年台灣家族企業為研究對象，手工蒐集家族企業社會責任報告書確信資料，分析家族企業與自願性企業社會責任報告書確信關連性。實證結果指出，相較於非家族企業，家族企業較沒有動機從事自願性企業社會責任報告書確信，此結論與傳統社會政治學或經濟學理論的預期相反。此外，當家族企業控制權與現金流量權偏離程度越高時，這類型家族企業比較不會從事自願性企業社會責任報告書確信行為；相反地，當家族企業設有獨立非執行董事時，這類型家族企業較會從事自願性企業社會責任報告書確信行為。最後，本文將討論家族企業對於從事自願性企業社會責任報告書確信決策之管理與實務意涵。

Many companies have increasingly voluntarily adopted external corporate social responsibility (CSR) assurance services in order to enhance the credibility of their CSR reports. As family businesses play a crucial role in the socio-economic development of emerging economies, this study thus investigates the relationship between family-controlled firms and voluntarily adoption of external CSR assurance services, using a sample of Taiwanese-listed firms and manually collecting CSR reports spanning the period 2009-2016. Unlike the expectation of the traditional sociopolitical theory or economics theory, this study demonstrates that family-owned firms have less motivation to voluntarily provide assurance of CSR reports compared to non-family firms. Moreover, findings indicate that family firms with high control-cash flow divergence have less motivation to engage in voluntary CSR assurance. In contrast, family firms with independent non-executive board directors have greater motivation to engage in voluntary CSR assurance. Finally, I analyze and discuss the results of comparing the various levels of family firms and their assurance decisions.