The effect of Managers' Optimistic Tone on Corporate Social Responsibility Disclosure with emphasis on Information Asymmetry

With global warming and environmental pollution, today's societies are trying to reduce pollution and require companies to be socially responsible. One of the factors that can affect accountability is the optimistic tone of managers. In the current research, it examines the effect of managers' optimistic tone on corporate social responsibility disclosure, emphasizing information asymmetry.

This research is practical from the point of view of purpose, and from the point of view of correlation methodology, it is causal type (post-event). The statistical population of the research is the companies admitted to the Tehran Stock Exchange, and using the systematic elimination method, 138 companies were selected as the research sample in the 6-year period between 2017and 2022. Stata software was used to test research hypotheses.

The results of the research show that the optimistic tone of the managers has a direct effect on the disclosure of the social responsibility of the company. But information asymmetry has the opposite effect on the disclosure of corporate social responsibility. Also, information asymmetry has an inverse effect on the relationship between managers' optimistic tone and corporate social responsibility disclosure.

Although the optimistic tone of managers increases the disclosure of corporate social responsibility, information asymmetry causes it to decrease. Therefore, it can be concluded that information symmetry is effective in social responsibility.

Contribution:

 In recent years, shareholders and investors and governments have paid special attention to social responsibility. Therefore, this research can provide a new study platform in the sense that the social responsibility of companies with regard to environmental pollution is relevant, in order to explain the necessary solutions and increase the pressure on companies. Especially, attention has been paid to the tone of managers and its compliance with the financial and non-financial performance of companies.