Xuebing Dong, Xin Wen, Kui Wang and Chuangneng Cai
Negative media coverage has important impacts on firm financial performance, but existing studies have inconsistent views of this relationship and lack a unified theoretical…
Abstract
Purpose
Negative media coverage has important impacts on firm financial performance, but existing studies have inconsistent views of this relationship and lack a unified theoretical framework to explain how such impacts arise. This study aims to bridge this gap in the literature.
Design/methodology/approach
This study uses two sets of data encompassing publicly listed companies in Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges from 2013 to 2019, which are covered by the China Stock Market and Accounting Research Database.
Findings
This study finds that the number of negative news coverages has an inverted U-shaped relationship with firm financial performance; this relationship is weakened by the proportion of shares held by institutional investors and strengthened by advertising intensity.
Practical implications
This study suggests that corporate executives should be aware of the potential value of a limited amount of negative news coverage and react with tolerance and caution when their companies encounter it.
Originality/value
This study uses two different routes provided in the elaboration likelihood model theory to fully explain the processes underlying changes in investors’ attitudes toward firms experiencing negative media coverage.
Details
Keywords
Siyu Hou, Zhaoyang Guo, Chuangneng Cai and Xiaobo Jiao
The purpose of this study is to examine the influence of firm performance on corporate social responsibility (CSR) and its possible moderating effect. Despite the significance of…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to examine the influence of firm performance on corporate social responsibility (CSR) and its possible moderating effect. Despite the significance of CSR, there remains an extensive debate about how it is affected by firm performance.
Design/methodology/approach
The conceptual model is mainly built on goal-setting theory. Based on archival data from multiple data sets on 1,650 companies, collected from 2010 to 2017, the hypotheses are tested using the two-stage instrumental variable regression method.
Findings
There is an inverted U-shaped relationship between firm performance and CSR that first increases and then decreases. In addition, considering the boundary conditions, state ownership makes the inverted U-shaped curve steeper, while high executive wage concentration makes the inverted U-shaped curve flatter.
Research limitations/implications
This study harmonizes the traditional contradictory findings of the influence of firm performance on CSR, that is, it supports a positive, negative or neutral relationship between the two.
Originality/value
This research provides a necessary structure for the CSR literature. By delving deeply into the relationship between firm performance and CSR, it enables scholars to better address the critical management question of whether earning more will lead to doing good.