Information interactions on social media platforms and the quality of corporate social responsibility disclosure: Evidence from Chinese listed firms

Abstract

The public pay special attention on the disclosure of corporate social responsibility (CSR) nowadays, and how to improve the quality of corporate social responsibility information disclosure and analyze its influencing factors has been the focus of theoretical and practical circles. This study aims to analyze how the information interactions on social media platform affect CSR disclosure quality by using the data of East Money Guba Stock Forum from 2010 to 2021 in China. This paper shows that the information interactions from investors on social media platform can significantly improve the CSR disclosure quality. The result is more pronounced when the online information topics were related with CSR and contained negative sentiment. In addition, we found that the positive relationship between information interactions and CSR disclosure quality is positively moderated by market competition and managerial shareholder, however, the positive relationship is weakened in state‐owned enterprises (SOEs). These findings are robust to using alternative tests. Finally, our analysis confirms that social media information interactions affect CSR disclosure quality by improving information disclosure and corporate governance quality. This study enriches the relevant literature on the economic consequences of social media in emerging markets and provides relevant implications to better drive the CSR disclosure of enterprises. These findings have important implications for policymakers.