Research Of Decision-making In Corporate Social Responsibility Report Assurance

The rapid development of CSR caused of growing concern to third-party CSR assurance. CSR assurance brings interesting topics, which can enrich audit research. CSR assurance has become a new hot spot for international research in field of auditing.In this study, we treat the companies’ voluntarily choose to CSR assurance decision-making process as the research object. At first, based on the descriptive analysis of CSR Assurance in China, and on the comparison with those during 2006-2009 and around the world, the descriptive analysis uncovers that: both the quantity and quality of CSR assurance in China are improved in recent years, the assurance standards are gradually converging with the international ones, but the overall percentage of assurance is still low, and the dominance of non-professional institutions lower the quality of the business. On the basis of above, based on institutional isomorphism theory of new institutionalism and the methodology of event history analysis, this study explores the institutional factors that influencing the decision-making in corporate social responsibility report assurance and its dynamic evolution. The empirical analysis of Chinese listed firms from 2003-2013 shows that: Industry associations’ tendentious attitude, mimicry of industry leaders, and auditor’s assurance capability influence the decision-making in corporate social responsibility report assurance significantly.This study provides a new theoretical perspective of institutional isomorphism, and a new research methodology of event history analysis, for understanding the behavior of corporate decision-making.