IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/irvfin/v22y2022i2p325-334.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Does corporate social responsibility affect shareholder value? Evidence from the COVID‐19 crisis

Author

Listed:
  • Somya Arora
  • Jagan Kumar Sur
  • Yogesh Chauhan

Abstract

The COVID‐19 outbreak and the subsequent lockdown were an unanticipated shock to the global stock market. Managers also had minimal time to counterbalance its effect through corporate policies. Therefore, this health crisis offers a unique opportunity to examine the effect of corporate social responsibility (CSR) on shareholder value. We observe that firms engaged in more CSR activities outperform other firms. This suggests that CSR plays a positive role in determining shareholder value, particularly for an emerging market where minority shareholder rights are weak. Collaborating with our main finding, we further find that governance metrics play a significant role.

Suggested Citation

  • Somya Arora & Jagan Kumar Sur & Yogesh Chauhan, 2022. "Does corporate social responsibility affect shareholder value? Evidence from the COVID‐19 crisis," International Review of Finance, International Review of Finance Ltd., vol. 22(2), pages 325-334, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:irvfin:v:22:y:2022:i:2:p:325-334
    DOI: 10.1111/irfi.12353
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/irfi.12353
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/irfi.12353?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Hoje Jo & Maretno Harjoto, 2011. "Corporate Governance and Firm Value: The Impact of Corporate Social Responsibility," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 103(3), pages 351-383, October.
    2. Michael C. Jensen, 2010. "Value Maximization, Stakeholder Theory, and the Corporate Objective Function," Journal of Applied Corporate Finance, Morgan Stanley, vol. 22(1), pages 32-42, January.
    3. Milton Friedman, 1971. "A Theoretical Framework for Monetary Analysis," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number frie71-1, March.
    4. Ferrell, Allen & Liang, Hao & Renneboog, Luc, 2016. "Socially responsible firms," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 122(3), pages 585-606.
    5. Bernanke, Ben S. & Gertler, Mark & Gilchrist, Simon, 1999. "The financial accelerator in a quantitative business cycle framework," Handbook of Macroeconomics, in: J. B. Taylor & M. Woodford (ed.), Handbook of Macroeconomics, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 21, pages 1341-1393, Elsevier.
    6. Edward Nelling & Elizabeth Webb, 2009. "Corporate social responsibility and financial performance: the “virtuous circle” revisited," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 32(2), pages 197-209, February.
    7. Giovanni Cespa & Giacinta Cestone, 2007. "Corporate Social Responsibility and Managerial Entrenchment," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 16(3), pages 741-771, September.
    8. Caroline Flammer, 2015. "Does Corporate Social Responsibility Lead to Superior Financial Performance? A Regression Discontinuity Approach," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 61(11), pages 2549-2568, November.
    9. Ben-Nasr, Hamdi & Ghouma, Hatem, 2018. "Employee welfare and stock price crash risk," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 700-725.
    10. Johnson, Simon & Boone, Peter & Breach, Alasdair & Friedman, Eric, 2000. "Corporate governance in the Asian financial crisis," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 58(1-2), pages 141-186.
    11. Scherer, Andreas Georg & Palazzo, Guido & Baumann, Dorothée, 2006. "Global Rules and Private Actors: Toward a New Role of the Transnational Corporation in Global Governance," Business Ethics Quarterly, Cambridge University Press, vol. 16(4), pages 505-532, October.
    12. Shehzad, Khurram & Xiaoxing, Liu & Kazouz, Hayfa, 2020. "COVID-19’s disasters are perilous than Global Financial Crisis: A rumor or fact?," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 36(C).
    13. Renneboog, Luc & Ter Horst, Jenke & Zhang, Chendi, 2008. "Socially responsible investments: Institutional aspects, performance, and investor behavior," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 32(9), pages 1723-1742, September.
    14. Chauhan, Yogesh & Kumar, Surya B., 2018. "Do investors value the nonfinancial disclosure in emerging markets?," Emerging Markets Review, Elsevier, vol. 37(C), pages 32-46.
    15. Henri Servaes & Ane Tamayo, 2013. "The Impact of Corporate Social Responsibility on Firm Value: The Role of Customer Awareness," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 59(5), pages 1045-1061, May.
    16. Jiao, Yawen, 2010. "Stakeholder welfare and firm value," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 34(10), pages 2549-2561, October.
    17. Buchanan, Bonnie & Cao, Cathy Xuying & Chen, Chongyang, 2018. "Corporate social responsibility, firm value, and influential institutional ownership," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 73-95.
    18. Alchian, Armen A & Demsetz, Harold, 1972. "Production , Information Costs, and Economic Organization," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 62(5), pages 777-795, December.
    19. Charles W. L. Hill & Thomas M. Jones, 1992. "Stakeholder‐Agency Theory," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(2), pages 131-154, March.
    20. Karl V. Lins & Henri Servaes & Ane Tamayo, 2017. "Social Capital, Trust, and Firm Performance: The Value of Corporate Social Responsibility during the Financial Crisis," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 72(4), pages 1785-1824, August.
    21. Ferrell, A. & Liang, Hao & Renneboog, Luc, 2016. "Socially responsible firms," Other publications TiSEM 07e115ac-fdcb-4c4b-a0b8-a, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    22. Dyck, Alexander & Lins, Karl V. & Roth, Lukas & Wagner, Hannes F., 2019. "Do institutional investors drive corporate social responsibility? International evidence," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 131(3), pages 693-714.
    23. Amir Barnea & Amir Rubin, 2010. "Corporate Social Responsibility as a Conflict Between Shareholders," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 97(1), pages 71-86, November.
    24. Marianne Bertrand & Paras Mehta & Sendhil Mullainathan, 2002. "Ferreting out Tunneling: An Application to Indian Business Groups," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 117(1), pages 121-148.
    25. Gunnar Friede & Timo Busch & Alexander Bassen, 2015. "ESG and financial performance: aggregated evidence from more than 2000 empirical studies," Journal of Sustainable Finance & Investment, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 5(4), pages 210-233, October.
    26. Jensen, Michael C. & Meckling, William H., 1976. "Theory of the firm: Managerial behavior, agency costs and ownership structure," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 3(4), pages 305-360, October.
    27. Ing-Haw Cheng & Harrison Hong & Kelly Shue, 2013. "Do Managers Do Good with Other People's Money?," NBER Working Papers 19432, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    28. Hariom Manchiraju & Shivaram Rajgopal, 2017. "Does Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Create Shareholder Value? Evidence from the Indian Companies Act 2013," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 55(5), pages 1257-1300, December.
    29. Robert G. Eccles & George Serafeim & Michael P. Krzus, 2011. "Market Interest in Nonfinancial Information," Journal of Applied Corporate Finance, Morgan Stanley, vol. 23(4), pages 113-127, December.
    30. Robert G. Eccles & Michael P. Krzus & George Serafeim, 2011. "Market Interest in Nonfinancial Information," Harvard Business School Working Papers 12-018, Harvard Business School.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Bedford, Anna & Bugeja, Martin & Ghannam, Samir & Jeganathan, Davina & Ma, Nelson, 2023. "Were CEO pay cuts during the COVID-19 pandemic merely symbolic? Shareholders' reaction and outrage," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    2. Qihang Xue & Huimin Wang & Caiquan Bai, 2023. "Local green finance policies and corporate ESG performance," International Review of Finance, International Review of Finance Ltd., vol. 23(4), pages 721-749, December.
    3. Ehsan Poursoleyman & Gholamreza Mansourfar & Mohammad Kabir Hassan & Saeid Homayoun, 2024. "Did Corporate Social Responsibility Vaccinate Corporations Against COVID-19?," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 189(3), pages 525-551, January.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Buchanan, Bonnie G. & Cao, Cathy Xuying & Wang, Shuhui, 2021. "Corporate social responsibility and inside debt: The long game," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    2. Buchanan, Bonnie & Cao, Cathy Xuying & Chen, Chongyang, 2018. "Corporate social responsibility, firm value, and influential institutional ownership," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 73-95.
    3. Thomas J. Chemmanur & Dimitrios Gounopoulos & Panagiotis Koutroumpis & Yu Zhang, 2022. "CSR and Firm Survival: Evidence from the Climate and Pandemic Crises," Working Papers 935, Queen Mary University of London, School of Economics and Finance.
    4. Li, Chengcheng & Wang, Xiaoqiong, 2022. "Local peer effects of corporate social responsibility," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 73(C).
    5. Hyeong Joon Kim & Seongjae Mun & Seung Hun Han, 2023. "Corporate social responsibility and the alignment of CEO and shareholders wealth: Does a strong alignment induce or restrain CSR?," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 30(2), pages 720-741, March.
    6. Liu, Xianda & Hou, Wenxuan & Main, Brian G.M., 2022. "Anti-market sentiment and corporate social responsibility: Evidence from anti-Jewish pogroms," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).
    7. Gillan, Stuart L. & Koch, Andrew & Starks, Laura T., 2021. "Firms and social responsibility: A review of ESG and CSR research in corporate finance," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 66(C).
    8. Minghui Yang & Yan Wang & Lu Bai & Petra Maresova, 2023. "Corporate social responsibility, family involvement, and stock price crash risk," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 30(3), pages 1204-1225, May.
    9. Amin, Abu & Chourou, Lamia & Kamal, Syed & Malik, Mahfuja & Zhao, Yang, 2020. "It’s who you know that counts: Board connectedness and CSR performance," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    10. Cai, Xiangshang & Gao, Ning & Garrett, Ian & Xu, Yan, 2020. "Are CEOs judged on their companies' social reputation?," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    11. Shu, Pei-Gi & Chiang, Sue-Jane, 2020. "The impact of corporate governance on corporate social performance: Cases from listed firms in Taiwan," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 61(C).
    12. Jongmoo Jay Choi & Hoje Jo & Jimi Kim & Moo Sung Kim, 2018. "Business Groups and Corporate Social Responsibility," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 153(4), pages 931-954, December.
    13. Arouri, Mohamed & Gomes, Mathieu & Pukthuanthong, Kuntara, 2019. "Corporate social responsibility and M&A uncertainty," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 176-198.
    14. Florian Habermann & Felix Bernhard Fischer, 2023. "Corporate Social Performance and the Likelihood of Bankruptcy: Evidence from a Period of Economic Upswing," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 182(1), pages 243-259, January.
    15. Fabrizio Rossi & Maretno Agus Harjoto, 2020. "Corporate non-financial disclosure, firm value, risk, and agency costs: evidence from Italian listed companies," Review of Managerial Science, Springer, vol. 14(5), pages 1149-1181, October.
    16. Yuanyuan Hu & Shouming Chen & Yuexin Shao & Su Gao, 2018. "CSR and Firm Value: Evidence from China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(12), pages 1-18, December.
    17. Hui-Ju Tsai & Yangru Wu, 2022. "Changes in Corporate Social Responsibility and Stock Performance," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 178(3), pages 735-755, July.
    18. Zhou, Gaoguang, 2022. "Good for managers, bad for shareholders? The effects of lone-insider boards on excessive corporate social responsibility," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 140(C), pages 370-383.
    19. Gary Chen & Bin Wang & Xiaohong Wang, 2021. "Corporate social responsibility and information flow," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 61(2), pages 2759-2807, June.
    20. Sandeep Yadav, 2020. "Institutional Ownership and Corporate Social Performance in Emerging Economies Multinationals: Evidence from India," Indian Journal of Corporate Governance, , vol. 13(2), pages 227-252, December.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:irvfin:v:22:y:2022:i:2:p:325-334. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=1369-412X .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.