Search results

This study examines the impact of firm-level climate risk exposure (FCRE) on firm stock liquidity by using a sample of Indian-listed firms from the financial years 2003–2004 to 2022–2023. Further, it endeavors to investigate the moderating role of environmental, social and governance (ESG) disclosure in this relationship.

A novel text-based FCRE metric is introduced using a sophisticated Word2Vec model through a Python-generated algorithm for each firm and year based on the management discussions and analysis (MD&A) reports. The panel fixed effect model is used to study how FCRE affects stock liquidity.

The result shows that FCRE negatively affects firms’ stock liquidity, and the effect remains robust after addressing endogeneity concerns. In addition, we find that a high ESG disclosure rating significantly moderated the adverse effect of FCRE. Furthermore, our analysis reveals that investor sentiment, information quality, corporate life cycle and institutional holdings moderate the impact of FCRE on liquidity.

The study offers valuable insights for investors, managers and policymakers on integrating climate risk into investment strategies, improving corporate climate governance and shaping policies that incentivize sustainable corporate behavior.

To the best of our knowledge, this study is an early study to explore the relationship between firm-specific climate risk exposure and stock liquidity using advanced machine learning techniques. It contributes to the existing literature by illustrating how climate risk can lead to adverse market reactions while highlighting the critical roles of corporate ESG practices, investor sentiment and disclosure quality in influencing this relationship.

Purpose: This chapter identifies performance factors that have the strongest impact on companies’ sustainable outcomes and compares the obtained results across different sectors.

Methodology: About 3,384 observations were gathered from 2015 to 2022 from companies in communication services, energy, financials, real estate, and utilities sectors that comprise the ‘STOXX Global ESG Leaders Select 50’ index. The multiple regression model is constructed with companies’ ESG scores as dependent variables and independent variables representing operational, financial, and market performance.

Findings: Companies that tend to have higher operational and financial performance in the financial sector are more likely to have higher ESG performance. The financial performance results of companies showed the strongest statistically significant relationship with environmental and the weakest with governance scores.

Implications: Results benefit private and institutional investors aiming to create more sustainable portfolios. The obtained results indicate that these investors should focus on companies operating in the financial and energy sectors with higher performance results. Better ROE, ROA, and Tobin’s Q may have a negative impact on sustainable outcomes for companies operating in the real estate and utility sectors.

Limitations: Firstly, not all ESG index providers disclose information about their index constituents. Secondly, within the chosen ‘STOXX Global ESG Leaders Select 50’ index, not all constituents had complete ESG data available on the Bloomberg platform. When selecting the analysis period, it was observed that the accessible ESG data on Bloomberg covers a relatively short time span, only from 2015 onwards.

Future research: A larger number of companies by choosing a more comprehensive available ESG index.

Purpose: This study focuses on the business case of Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG), namely its economic benefits and long-term value creation by attracting environmental-friendly and socially responsible investors.

Methodology: The central result of the von Neumann–Morgenstern (VNM) expected utility theory is that the optimal strategy under uncertainty is given by maximising the expected utility. The study introduces a second utility function to represent externalities. Total utility can be derived by a sum of the two functions where h is a scalar value which indicates to what degree the actor is interested in maximising the utility of externalities. The payouts could be set by ESG scores for the given companies, then the whole equation can be solved for simple cases such as the normal case.

Findings: By extending the traditional risk/return MPT framework to account for the additional utility of contributing towards externalities (in this case specifically ESG goals) the utility maximisation algorithm can be applied to the ESG dimension in a holistic manner and not as a separate filter on the investment universe nor a synthetic boost to expected returns.

Implications: Portfolio and asset managers can more efficiently optimise for consumer risk, return and sustainability preferences, allowing access to the widest possible investment universe while at the same time delivering an optimal bespoke solution for the specific sustainability preferences of the investors.

Future research: How to measure investment’s sustainability impact and what is the best way to estimate that. How to determine monetary impact of damages and externalities. Estimation of Hamilton’s coefficient.

Prior studies suggest that, in an industry in which several public firms operate (i.e. greater public firm presence), uncertainty about business operations within the industry is reduced due to greater analyst coverage and quality of information disclosure. In this study, the authors examine how UK private firms respond to investment opportunities in fixed intangible assets (FIAs) in an environment characterised by greater public firm presence (PFP).

Using data from 61,278 (1,358) private (public) UK firms operating in ten sectors spanning from 2006 to 2016, the authors conduct this analysis by using panel econometric techniques.

The authors observe that private firms are more responsive to their FIA investment opportunities when they operate in industries with more PFP. Also, the authors find that firms in industries with better information quality use more debt and have longer debt maturity security but less internal cash flow. Overall, the findings indicate that PFP generates positive externalities for private firms by lessening industry uncertainty and enhancing more efficient FIA investment. The results are robust to endogeneity concerns.

A key limitation of the study is that it focuses on a single country (the UK) and therefore there is a likelihood that the results found are specific to this setting but not others, particularly developing and emerging economies. Thus, future studies could explore these ideas from the viewpoint of multiple countries.

Overall, the study demonstrates the importance of information disclosure in driving investment decisions of firms.

While this paper builds on the information disclosure and corporate investment literature, it is one of the first attempts, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, to explore how private UK firms respond to investment in FIAs in an environment characterised by greater PFP.

In this study, the authors developed a conceptual model to investigate sustainable consumption behavior, specifically the intention to use reusable bags, and its relationship with two crucial factors influencing the use of single-use plastic bags: cost savings and convenience. This study also aims to explore the mediating roles of environmental concern, guilt and self-efficacy.

A quantitative study using online survey involving 421 respondents was conducted, and data analysis performed using structural equation modeling.

The results indicate that self-efficacy influenced environmental concern and sustainable consumption, while perceived savings did not. Perceived convenience significantly influenced sustainable consumption behavior. Environmental concern had indirect effects on the relationships between perceived savings, perceived convenience and sustainable consumption behavior, whereas guilt did not moderate the relationship between environmental concern and sustainable consumption behavior.

The main contribution lies in the insights for promoting the sustainable use of reusable shopping bags, benefiting both theoretical understanding and practical applications in efforts to encourage sustainable consumption behavior.

We aim to ascertain whether and how an individual’s social comparison affects their self-gifting motivations (SGMs).

We survey a North American sample comprising 619 Canadian and US respondents. We apply partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) to examine relationships between social comparison, attachment orientation, parenthood, and self-gifting motivations.

We find that social comparison positively impacts self-gifting motivations. Additionally, we find that attachment orientation and parenthood can moderate social comparison’s impact on positively valenced SGMs and negatively valenced SGMs, respectively.

We elevate and expand existing scholarship on consumers’ self-gifting. Through the current study, we contribute new, empirical evidence illuminating how individuals’ attachment orientation (i.e. secure v. insecure) and parenthood status (i.e. parent v. non-parent) serve as agency-oriented moderators to temper social comparison’s influences on SGMs.

The paper explores the notion of worker voice in terms of its implications for supply chain justice. The paper proposes the value of the recognition perspective on social justice for framing workers’ experiences in global supply chains and identifies opportunities for the advancement of the worker voice agenda with recognition justice in mind.

The paper adopts a conceptual approach to explore the notion of worker voice in supply chains in terms of the recognition perspective on social justice.

Sustainable supply chain management (SSCM) scholarship has considered worker voice in terms of two key paradigms, which we term communication and representation. To address recognition justice for workers in global supply chains, the worker voice agenda must consider designing worker voice mechanisms to close recognition gaps for workers with marginalised identities; the shared responsibilities of supply chain actors to listen alongside the expectation of workers to use their voice; and the expansion of the concept of worker voice to cut across home-work boundaries.

The paper offers conceptual clarity on the emerging notion of worker voice in SSCM and is the first to interrogate the implications of recognition justice for the emergent worker voice agenda. It articulates key opportunities for future research to further operationalise worker voice upon a recognition foundation.

The study investigates the linkage between personality traits and firm performance. It examines the role of the pursuit of excellence, perseverance, a proactive mindset and formal education in determining the entrepreneurial success of MSMEs.

Data were collected from 432 MSME entrepreneurs using a structured questionnaire from India's two major industrial towns to analyze the impact of personality traits on firm performance. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was employed to assess the direct and indirect relationships with the help of mediation analysis.

The findings assert that personality traits improve firm performance and determine the success of MSMEs. The results reveal that the need for achievement, a proactive mindset and the pursuit of excellence are crucial to firm performance. In addition, formal education mediates between perseverance and the pursuit of excellence personality attributes on the one side and firm performance on the other.

The research has various theoretical and practical implications for entrepreneurs, financial institutions and policymakers. The results could be productively used to nurture the entrepreneurial ecosystem in India.

Although research on personality traits as a driver of firm performance is growing, the pursuit of excellence, perseverance and proactive mindset attributes as enablers of firm performance have not garnered much attention. The study presents a precise conceptual model by integrating the aforementioned dimensions in the backdrop of an emerging market.

This study addresses the remarkable research gap in the existing literature on Chat Generative Pre-training Transformer (ChatGPT), which has primarily explored its functional benefits rather than the psychological states of its users. By integrating the self-concept theory and functional theory of attitudes, this study develops a moderated-mediating model to examine the impact of the bandwagon effect on users’ habit formation and subsequent feelings of pride associated with the ChatGPT application.

This study analyzed self-reported survey data from 568 respondents from mainland China using partial least squares structural equation modeling.

The findings reveal that the bandwagon effect indirectly influences users’ pride through the formation of habits related to ChatGPT applications. This study also identifies the boundary condition of social-adjustive attitude, which strengthens both the direct relationship between the bandwagon effect and habit formation and its indirect relationship with pride.

This study contributes to the field by offering a novel perspective on ChatGPT adoption, highlighting the role of self-concept and attitudinal functions in driving users’ intentions to utilize the technology, with a focus on the desire for pride as a motivating factor.