Do investors’ reactions to CSR-related news communication differ by shareholder? An empirical analysis from Japan
ISSN: 1472-0701
Article publication date: 26 May 2020
Issue publication date: 15 July 2020
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to examine the differences in investors’ reactions toward firms’ corporate social responsibility (CSR)-related news announcements between individuals and institutions.
Design/methodology/approach
Analyzed by the short-term event study and ordinary least squares (OLS) methods using a unique CSR data set collected from newspapers in Japan from 2001 to 2016.
Findings
The study finds, first, the different reactions toward CSR-related news announcements among shareholders. Second, the findings indicate that individual investors are more sensitive to CSR-related positive news, whereas institutional investors are more concerned about the negative news, providing one of the reasons for mixed results in the studies on the CSR and financial performance linkage. Those findings indicate that CSR-related news affects investors’ behaviors differently based on their purpose, ability and accessible information.
Practical implications
This study deepens the understanding of the different investing behaviors toward CSR-related announcements by shareholder type. Second, different attitudes among investors require different investor relations (IR) approaches depending on the type. It also provides valuable implications not only for Japanese business managers or policymakers but also for those from countries with a similar stage of market maturity in the CSR context.
Originality/value
This paper is original in two ways. First, to the best of the author’s knowledge, this is the first paper to deepen the understanding of investors’ reactions toward CSR-related events through analysis by the main shareholder, which provides some insights into mixed results in the previous studies. Second, the original CSR data set collected from newspapers by the author allows the analysis to use a larger data set than other research, resulting in more robust conclusions.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The author is grateful to the Editor in Chief, Associate Professor Gabriel Eweje and the two anonymous reviewers for their positive feedback and constructive suggestions that improves the quality of this paper. I would also like to express my gratitude to Professor Kaoru Nabeshima as well as to Professor Shujiro Urata, Professor Atsushi Kato, Professor Masahiko Gemma and Associate Professor Yasuhiro Arikawa, Waseda University, for sharing their wisdom with me in the course of this research, although any errors are mine and should not tarnish the reputations of these respected persons.
Citation
Murashima, M. (2020), "Do investors’ reactions to CSR-related news communication differ by shareholder? An empirical analysis from Japan", Corporate Governance, Vol. 20 No. 5, pp. 781-796. https://doi.org/10.1108/CG-11-2019-0346
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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