ESG 정보가 공매도와 이익조정 행위에 미치는 영향 (The Effect of ESG Information on Short Selling and Earnings Management Behavior)

서지정보

· 발행기관 : 대한경영학회
· 수록지 정보 : 대한경영학회지 / 35권 / 3호 / 555 ~ 574페이지
· 저자명 : 최용호, 박승일, 최철환

초록

본 연구에서는 ESG 경영이 공매도자의 투자행태와 CEO의 재량행위에 어떠한 영향을 미치는 지 확인하고자분석을 실시하였다. 먼저 ESG 정보가 공매도자들의 투자의사결정 요인으로 반영된다면 기업은 ESG 경영활동을 통해 공매도에 따른 위험 발생 가능성을 약화시킬 수 있을 것이다. CEO의 재량적인 이익조정행위는 회계 이익의 발생 항목 중 경영자의 재량에 의존하는 부분이며, 재량적 발생액을 의미한다. ESG정보가이익조정 행위에 영향을 미치는 요인이 된다면 향후 대리인 문제를 줄이고 기업의 효율성을 제고시킬 수있는 한 방법이 될 것이다. 마지막으로는, ESG정보가 공매도와 이익조정 행위에 미치는 영향에 있어서 분석대상기업 전체 이외에도 기관투자자의 지분이 높은 기업에서 투자기관을 외국인, 국민연금, 국내 기관투자자지분 5% 이상의 기업으로 분류하고, ESG 정보의 영향이 어떻게 다르게 나타나는 지에 대한 가설의 채택여부를 검증하고자 했다.
연구결과, ESG정보는 공매도자들의 투자의사결정에 유의미하게 사용되고 있었다. 국내 기관투자자 지분5% 이상의 기업 표본에서는 투자자들이 공매도 거래에 ESG 정보를 활용하고 있었으나 외국인과 국민연금의비중이 높은 기업 표본에서는 ESG정보에도 불구하고 공매도 거래에 의미 있는 반응을 보이지는 않았다.
분석대상 전체기업에서 ESG정보가 공매도에 유의적인 음의 효과를 보였다는 점에서 공매도에 대한 부정적인인식이 강한 국내 투자 환경에 있어서 시사하는 바가 크다고 할 것이다. 경영자들의 이익조정 행위가 ESG 정보와 어떤 연계점이 있을지에 대한 연구에서는 경영자의 재량적 행위를 완화시키는 요인으로 작용하고있음을 확인하였다. 분석대상의 전체 기업에서는 ESG 정보가 경영자의 이익조정 행위를 완화시키는 것으로나타났으나 각각의 기관투자자에 있어서는 그 유의성을 발견할 수 없었다. 이것은 외부주주로서 기관투자자의경영자에 대한 감시효과가 이미 반영되고 있기 때문으로 풀이된다. 본 연구에서는 ESG 경영환경이 공매도유인을 감소시키고 경영자의 재량적 행위를 통제할 수 있음을 확인한 것에 그 공헌점을 들 수 있다. 이 결과는ESG 경영 구축이 자본시장의 정보비대칭을 완화시킬 수 있으며, 내부적으로는 경영자의 재량적 이익 조정을통한 사적이익 추구 행위를 완화시킬 수 있음을 시사한다.

영어초록

In recent years, the importance of ESG information, a non-financial indicator, is increasing, and companies’ introduction of ESG business environment is also rapidly spreading. Therefore, in this study, an analysis was conducted to confirm how the ESG business environment affects the investment in short selling by external investors and the discretionary behavior of internal management. As a result, it was found that ESG information reduces the incentive for short sellers to invest and alleviates the management’s discretionary profit adjustment behavior.
It was observed that short-selling investment strategies of short sellers are affected by ESG information in companies that adopt ESG business environment where non-financial business environment factors are emphasized. This is because significant negative effects appeared in all companies to be analyzed.
In detail, short sellers were using ESG information for short selling transactions for companies with high stakes in domestic institutional investors, but there was no meaningful response to short selling transactions despite ESG information for foreigners and companies with high stakes in the National Pension Service.
This means that short sellers have fewer incentives for short selling in companies that are building the ESG business environment. Given that ESG information showed a significant negative effect in all companies to be analyzed, it has great implications for the domestic investment environment with strong negative perception of short selling. In other words, it can be seen that negative perceptions of short selling can be improved by revitalizing the ESG business environment more than unreasonable methods such as regulating transactions for short selling. It is significant in that companies that adopt the ESG business environment’s social responsibility, active response to environmental improvement, and efforts to improve governance through transparent management can reduce short selling and meet the needs of stakeholders. In addition, it was confirmed that the research on how managers’ profit adjustment behavior will be linked to ESG information generally alleviates managers’ discretionary behavior. The act of adjusting profits, which appears as a discretionary act of the manager, is recognized as a form of agent problem.
It was found that the adoption of the ESG business environment by all companies to be analyzed alleviates discretionary profit adjustment behavior. In detail, ESG information was found to be not discriminatory in the decision-making of managers’ earnings adjustment behavior in the group of companies holding more than 5% of shares of foreigners, national pensioners, and domestic institutional investors. This is interpreted because the monitoring effect of institutional investors as external shareholders on managers is already reflected.
In this study, the contribution point is to the confirmation that the ESG business environment can reduce incentives for short selling and control managers’ discretionary behavior. This result suggests that ESG management construction can alleviate information asymmetry in the capital market and internally ease managers’ pursuit of private interests through discretionary profit adjustment. This means that ESG information plays both an efficient governance role and a role in increasing market efficiency.
Compared to previous studies, this study has several differentiations as follows. First, this study subdivided investors’ behavior on ESG information by subject. In addition to the total companies to be analyzed, the meaning was highlighted by dividing the stake of foreigners, national pensioners, and domestic institutional investors by more than 5%. Second, it analyzed how short selling transactions and profit adjustment activities that have been studied have affected investors under ESG information.
However, this study has the following limitations. First, further research is needed in that variables on how ESG information affects investors or management’s decision-making process were limited to short selling and discretionary behavior. Second, more detailed and discriminatory research on ESG information is needed. In this study, in that only integrated grades were used, research using environmental, social, and governance ratings is needed in the future.

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