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Misconduct allegations have been found to not only affect the alleged firm but also other, unalleged firms in form of reputational and financial spillover effects. It has remained unexplored, however, how the number of prior allegations against other firms matters for an individual firm currently facing an allegation. Building on behavioral decision theory, we argue that the relationship between allegation prevalence among other firms and investor reaction to a focal allegation is inverted U-shaped. The inverted U-shaped effect is theorized to emerge from the combination of two effects: In the absence of prior allegations against other firms, investors fail to anticipate the focal allegation, and hence react particularly negatively (“anticipation effect”). In the case of many prior allegations against other firms, investors also react particularly negatively because investors perceive the focal allegation as more warranted (“evaluation effect”). The multi-industry, empirical analysis of 8,802 misconduct allegations against US firms between 2007 and 2017 provides support for our predicted, inverted U-shaped effect. Our study complements recent misconduct research on spillover effects by highlighting that not only a current allegation against an individual firm can “contaminate” other, unalleged firms but that also prior allegations against other firms can “contaminate” investor reaction to a focal allegation against an individual firm.

Previous work has shown that corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives can preserve shareholder value after an organization experiences a negative event. I expand on this theory by examining one boundary condition that could lead to the opposite relationship: when the organization has a CSR initiative intended to prevent the type of event that occurs. The author argues that activist pressure will enhance the negative relationship between event-specific CSR and shareholder value. Using an event-study, the author examines the apparel industry after the collapse of Rana Plaza which killed over a thousand apparel supply chain employees.

This chapter investigates how market competition relates to firm corporate social responsibility (CSR) investment strategy. Using separate measures to capture different dimensions of competition, we find that firms are likely to invest more (less) in socially responsible initiatives when competition from existing rivals (potential entrants) is high. We also find that industry leaders are more likely to engage in more CSR when higher levels of competition exist, while followers primarily choose to strengthen other aspects of their competitiveness instead. Finally, analyzing the impact of CEO overconfidence on CSR engagement, our study finds novel evidence suggesting that firms with overconfident CEOs tend to underestimate the intensity of competition and are less sensitive to the impact of market competition on CSR engagement, relative to rational CEOs.

Over the last several decades, businesses have faced mounting pressures from diverse stakeholders to alter their corporate operations to become more socially and environmentally responsible. In turn, many firms appear to have responded by implementing more sustainable practices — measuring, documenting, and publishing annual CSR or sustainability reports to showcase how they are addressing important issues in this area, including: resource stewardship, waste management, greenhouse gas emission reductions, fair and safe labor practices, amongst other stakeholder concerns. And yet, research in this domain has not yet systematically examined whether businesses have, on the whole, changed their practices in tandem with the important changes in its institutional context over time. Have corporate CSR initiatives, in fact, been growing over the last 25 years or has the increased attention to CSR actually been much ado about nothing? In this chapter, we review the empirical literature on CSR to uncover that common measures of CSR such as the KLD do not support the concept that CSR practices have increased substantively over the last 25 years. We supplement this historical review by modeling the growth curves of CSR implementation in practice and find that the pace of positive change has indeed been glacial. More alarmingly, we also look at corporate social irresponsibility (CSiR) and find that, contrary to expectations, businesses have become more, not less, irresponsible during this same time period. Implications of these findings for theory are presented as are suggestions for future research in this domain.

Owing to the changing roles of business enterprises in social life, the term “corporate social responsibilty” has received growing interest both in the related literature and in practical applications. Although the framework of the term is still debatable, it is acknowledged that the issues involved in the concept have significant functions for society as a whole and for the business enterprises involved.

Researchers recommend a reorganization of the medical profession into larger groups with a multispecialty mix. We analyze whether there is evidence for the superiority of these models and if this organizational transformation is underway.

We summarize the evidence on scale and scope economies in physician group practice, and then review the trends in physician group size and specialty mix to conduct survivorship tests of the most efficient models.

The distribution of physician groups exhibits two interesting tails. In the lower tail, a large percentage of physicians continue to practice in small, physician-owned practices. In the upper tail, there is a small but rapidly growing percentage of large groups that have been organized primarily by non-physician owners.

While our analysis includes no original data, it does collate all known surveys of physician practice characteristics and group practice formation to provide a consistent picture of physician organization.

Our review suggests that scale and scope economies in physician practice are limited. This may explain why most physicians have retained their small practices.

Larger, multispecialty groups have been primarily organized by non-physician owners in vertically integrated arrangements. There is little evidence supporting the efficiencies of such models and some concern they may pose anticompetitive threats.

This is the first comprehensive review of the scale and scope economies of physician practice in nearly two decades. The research results do not appear to have changed much; nor has much changed in physician practice organization.

This study develops an environment, social, and governance (ESG) momentum strategy by combining information about ESG scores and the momentum effect. This study, subsequently, applies the ESG momentum strategy to Taiwanese and Japanese stock markets and investigates the performance of the ESG momentum strategy in each market. Detailed comparisons of the ESG scores and ESG momentum performance between the two markets are conducted. The empirical results show that the ESG momentum strategy can obtain enhanced profits in the Taiwanese market, while the ESG momentum strategy cannot lead to substantial profits in the Japanese market. In addition, the ESG momentum effect in the Taiwanese market can last for three years after portfolio formation. In the Japanese market, the ESG contrarian strategy may deliver better profits than the ESG momentum strategy.

Introduction: The Indian insurance sector has a large number of insurance companies. More than 20 companies are in the life insurance business, and nearly 35 are non-life insurers – only one public sector company among the life insurers (Life Insurance Corporation (LIC)). However, there are six public sector insurers in the property insurance division. The government policies have recently increased the foreign direct investment (FDI) share from 49% to 74%.

Purpose: The purpose of the study is based on the latest decision by the Government of India (GOI) to increase the FDI in the insurance sector, which was earlier 49% and now increased to 74%. The study will have objectives that impact change in FDI and its effect on customers’ decisions.

Methodology: This chapter is based on secondary information collected from the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority and Articles from various journals for objectives 1 and 2. Qualitative analysis is done with the use of NVIVO software. There are primary two objectives taken under consideration in this chapter: objective 1: regulatory framework of insurance sector post-FDI change in limits by GOI and objective 2: customer awareness regarding changed limits of FDI in the insurance sector and its various factors. Fifty-four interviews were conducted, out of which a total of 40 responses have been considered for final analysis. An incomplete and unclear answer has been excluded from the study.

Findings: In the study’s findings, it was found that in accordance with the first objective, GOI changes policies according to time to time. Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in the insurance sector recently increased by GOI Earlier, it increased in the year 2015 and recently this year, it increased by 49% again to 74%. In the second objective findings, the awareness about changes in FDI in the insurance sector respondent’s sentiments is positive and constructive. A maximum of respondents has said that they are aware of the insurance sector and the participation of various foreign international players in the insurance industry.