Do ethical firms create value?
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to examine the value relevance of ethics information.
Design/methodology/approach
This study adopts event study methodology to test the market’s reaction around the announcements of World’s Most Ethical Companies (WME), a ranking based on firms’ overall corporate social responsibility performance. The authors calculate the abnormal returns of firms on the WME lists to investigate how stockholders respond to the disclosure of ethical information.
Findings
The authors find significant and positive abnormal returns around the announcements of the lists of ethical firms. Specifically, positive market reaction on the first day after the WME announcement (Day 1) is observed.
Originality/value
This study contributes to the existing literature of the relationship between business ethics and firm value. The authors provide evidence that ethics can be aligned with firms’ financial goals. Further, this study is the first to use the WME announcement as a proxy for ethical firms.
Keywords
Citation
Karim, K., Suh, S. and Tang, J. (2016), "Do ethical firms create value?", Social Responsibility Journal, Vol. 12 No. 1, pp. 54-68. https://doi.org/10.1108/SRJ-09-2014-0127
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2016, Emerald Group Publishing Limited