Shareholder Values and a Story of Corporate Social and Environmental Negative Events

Abstract

This dissertation considers the entire process originated by corporate events that impact the environment and the society (ES events). Using a rich hand-collected dataset with 1139 chronological incidents originating from negative corporate social responsibility (CSR)-related events, it explores stock market reactions to each stage within a chain of successive events triggered by negative ES events, including the recurrent, follow-up (either favorable or unfavorable), as well as companies’ response events. We find that the investors respond strongly negatively to negative events (origin, negative subsequent, and negative responses) and strongly positively to positive events (positive subsequent and positive responses). We also find that investors react more negatively to the negative subsequent and recurrent events, as well as company negative responses when they occur sooner after the origin events, whereas promptness of positive subsequent events and positive responses heighten the favorable market reaction. The study also reveals the presence of expectancy violation as investors of high-CSR firm react more negatively to the negative events. In addition, it provides observations suggesting that: (1) investors do not regard positive responses as agency-motivated events, instead they are more concerned about the availability of financial resources when a firm makes remedial responses to a negative ES event; and (2) the market cares about CSR events not solely due to their financial implications, but also because it considers socially responsible operations as a value-enhancing corporate duty.