Akademik Məlumat İdarəetmə Sistemi
International Journal of Finance and Economics, 2026 (SSCI, Scopus)
Using a sample of Chinese firms from 2010 to 2021, we examine whether corporate social responsibility (CSR) influences firms' propensity to engage in related-party transactions (RPTs)—an intriguing yet underexplored relationship. We find robust evidence that CSR-oriented firms are less likely to permit RPTs. Our results further indicate that RPTs conducted by more CSR-oriented firms are viewed favourably by the market and are associated with higher subsequent market value. In contrast, RPTs among other firms correlate with reduced market value, suggesting that CSR-oriented firms only allow efficient RPTs to meet legitimate needs and align with strategic value-maximisation objectives. Additional analysis reveals that ownership structure and firm-level governance quality moderate the CSR-RPTs relationship. These findings remain robust to alternative RPT measures and are not driven by endogeneity concerns.