Date：June 12th, Wednesday, 2019

Start Time: 14:30

Venue: Room B 1003, Business School Building

Speaker: Heli wang

Abstract：

Building upon literatures on behavioral theory of the firm and the strategic usage of language, we examine how discrepancies between social performances and their aspiration levels affect the language use, in terms of visual expressions, in firms’ CSR reports. Specifically, we propose that positive discrepancy in social performance is associated with less usage of visual expressions in CSR reports. On the contrary, negative discrepancy in social performance is associated with greater usage of visual expression in CSR reports. In addition, these effects are moderated by the firm ownership type and foreign exposure. Using a sample of Chinese firms that issued CSR reports from 2009 to 2017, we found empirical results that provide supports for the arguments.