Quantity, quality, and performance of corporate social responsibility information disclosure by listed enterprises in China: A regional perspective

The purpose of this article is to promote an increase in the number of enterprises that will disclose corporate social responsibility (CSR) information, and to improve on their quality of CSR information disclosure. Using the theory of organizational ecology, we propose that the density of companies that disclose CSR information in a region has an impact on both the quality and the performance of CSR disclosures. The study results suggest that an increase in the density of CSR information disclosing enterprises in a region will increase the number of enterprises with disclosure intentions. A density increase has a nonlinear influence on the quality of CSR information disclosure and on corporate performance, where the influence of disclosing enterprises’ density on corporate performance is partly mediated by the quality of CSR information disclosure. Our research also shows that the impact of density change of disclosing enterprises on the quality of CSR information disclosure is mediated by corporate capital structure.