Συντηρητικότητα στη λογιστική απεικόνιση και Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) απόδοση των εταιριών
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Keywords
Λογιστική συντηρητικότητα ; ESG απόδοσηAbstract
The present project examine the effect of accounting conservatism in the ESG performance of the companies of the Eurozone during 2004-2019. The reason this relationship is studied, has to do with the influence of the two variables in a future performance of a company. As accounting conservatism, is defined the asymmetric timeliness of recognition of economic gains and losses, while ESG performance has to do with the overall behavior of a company related with the Environment, the Society and the corporate Governance. The results of this research provide us evidence, that have to do with a strong negative correlation between the two examined variables. As it seems, this negative correlation is reduced to some point, when the ESG performance is calculated through variables tangent to the legal framework of the companies. We also provide evidence that have to do with, how this relationship is shaped, according on the macroeconomic conditions of a country and its culture. Countries that didn’t encounter too many difficulties in the economic crisis of 2009 show less negative correlation in comparison to these, that were affected more. These countries as well, show lower levels of conservatism and this means, that macroeconomic difficulties can push a country to become more conservative in its accounting statements. Furthermore, our project examine the importance of the fact of the culture, in this relationship. The data show that countries with long-term orientation provide higher levels of conservatism compared to countries characterized by short-term orientation. Nonetheless the bigger conservatism does not lead these countries to an even lower ESG performance, as it seems that the culture is a very important fact which shapes the intensity of the negative relations between the two examined variables. To sum up, this project provides evidence that have to do with a significant negative relationship between conservatism and the ESG performance that is intensified in countries with macroeconomic difficulties and seems to be affected by the long or short-term orientation that characterize them.