Title: Exploring the relationship between corporate social responsibility in China, auditor reputation and debt financing costs based on unbalanced data

Authors: Hao-Ran Lan; Jiawei Zhu; Zhen Tang

Addresses: Business School, Guilin University of Electronic Technology, No. 1 Jinji Road, Qixing District, Guilin City, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, China ' Business School, Guilin University of Electronic Technology, No. 1 Jinji Road, Qixing District, Guilin City, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, China ' Business School, Guilin University of Electronic Technology, No. 1 Jinji Road, Qixing District, Guilin City, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, China

Abstract: As the second largest economy in the world, promoting corporate social responsibility in China has become an important issue, while debt financing is still the main means of external financing for most Chinese private enterprises; at the same time, the relevant accounting policy indicates the need to actively promote the firm's reputation mechanism. Therefore, this paper will select A-share listed companies in China from 2015 to 2020 as the research sample to explore the relationship between corporate social responsibility in China, auditor reputation and the cost of debt financing, and use empirical methods to verify the moderating effect of auditor reputation on the relationship between corporate social responsibility and the cost of debt financing. This empirical study not only broadens expert and individual research on auditor reputation at the professional level, but also provides new ideas for reducing the cost of debt financing through auditor reputation.

Keywords: corporate social responsibility in China; cost of debt financing; auditor reputation; reputation mechanism; China.

DOI: 10.1504/IJIMS.2022.128646

International Journal of Internet Manufacturing and Services, 2022 Vol.8 No.4, pp.400 - 412

Received: 29 Nov 2021
Accepted: 18 Apr 2022
Published online: 31 Jan 2023 *

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