Environmental Dimension of Corporate Social Responsibility and Earnings Persistence: An Exploration of the Moderator Roles of Operating Efficiency and Financing Cost

Abstract

Society has gradually realized that companies’ actions have consequences. Companies can fulfill their accountability to society by disclosing information beyond their financial data, providing better decision making for stakeholders. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the impact of corporate social responsibility (CSR) on earnings persistence (EP) for the moderator roles of operational efficiency and financing cost for the companies listed on the Tehran Stock Exchange. For this purpose, the statistical population consists of 714 firm-year observations from 2014 to 2020 (7 years). A multivariate regression method was used based on the panel data analysis method to test the research hypotheses. The results indicate that corporate social responsibility for earnings persistence has a positive and significant relationship with the moderator role of operational efficiency, but is unrelated to the moderator role of financing cost. The majority of the prior research in this field has focused on developing countries. An international perspective is critical, and this study helps draw a more contextualized picture of sustainability than before.