Indifferent to CSR performance? Market liberalization brings about changes

The relationship between stock market performance and corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities indicates the extent of acceptance by investors of such activities. Based on a sample of Chinese-listed companies and a quasi-natural experiment, we explore the impact of an important form of market liberalization—the Shanghai-Hong Kong and Shenzhen-Hong Kong Stock Connect—on the extent of investors' acceptance of CSR using a difference-in-differences approach. The results show that Stock Connect reinforces the favorable correlation between CSR performance and the market response to CSR reports, as well as the positive association between CSR performance and Tobin's Q. This effect is particularly pronounced for nonstate-owned enterprises,firms with lower agency costs, and firms with a lower possibility of using CSR reports for impression management. Thus, market liberalization results in the improved short- and long-term stock market performance of companies with strong CSR records. Further research shows that the benefits of the program are more prominent for companies without Qualified Foreign Institutional Investors (QFII) shareholdings, and the impact of significant foreign ownership through the Stock Connect program on the stock market performance related to CSR engagement is incremental over QFII ownership. The findings support the continuous liberalization of China's capital market.