Corporate social responsibility (CSR) has received increasing attention from the general public, policy makers, and academic researchers in recent decades, and the discussion on why firms engage in socially responsible activities is ongoing. Some researchers argue that CSR engagement represents a sincere managerial commitment to ethical behaviors. Subsequently, socially responsible firms are less likely to manipulate earnings (Kim et al. 2012). However, Li et al. (2021) argue that fraudulent firms strategically adjust their CSR performance to cover up their fraudulent financial activities.
Required: Critically discuss why firms especially those firms committed corporate scandals engage in CSR practices? You should at least make reference to Li et al. (2021) paper.
