Suchergebnisse

PurposeThis paper fits in a research field dealing with the impact of Corporate Ethics Assessment on Financial Performance. The authors argue how environmental, social and governance (ESG) paradigm, meant to measure corporate social performance by rating issuance, can impact on abnormal returns of Italian firms listed on Financial Times Stock Exchange Milano Indice di Borsa (FTSE MIB) Index, developing a panel data analysis which runs from 2007 to 2015.Design/methodology/approachThis study aims at exploring whether socially responsible investors outperform an excess market return on Italian Stock Exchange because of their investment behavior, testing statistically the relationship between the yearly ESG assessment issued by Standard Ethics Agency on FTSE MIB's companies and their abnormal returns. To verify the impact of an ESG Rating on a company's abnormal return, the authors developed a panel data analysis through a Fixed Effects Model. They measured abnormal returns via Fama–French approach, running a yearly Jensen's Performance Index for each company under investigation.FindingsThe empirical results denote in Italy both a growing interest to corporate social responsibility (CSR) and sustainability by managers over the past decade, as well as an improving quality in ESG assessments because of a reliable corporate disclosure. Thus, despite investors have been applying ESG criteria in their stock – picking operations, the authors found a not positive and statistically significant impact in terms of market premium, when they have been undertaking a socially responsible investment (SRI).Practical implicationsThe findings described above show that ethics is not yet a reliable fundraising tool for Italian-listed companies, despite SRIs having a positive growth rate over past decade. Investors seem to be not pricing CSR on Stock Exchange Market; therefore, listed companies cannot be rewarded with a premium price because of their highly stakeholder oriented behavior.Originality/valueThis paper explores, for the first time in Italy, when market extra-returns (if any) are related to corporate social performance and how managers leverage ethics to build capital added value.

Purpose
This study aims to explore the impact of controversial firms' corporate sustainability assessments on their risk exposure according to the environmental, social and governance (ESG) paradigm.


Design/methodology/approach
This study conducts a cross-sectional study using the ordinary least squares approach to test how corporate social responsibility practices affect firms' risk exposure, testing the three single impacts of ESG components and the impact of an overall ESG assessment. This study considers the largest Standard & Poor's (S&P) 500 stock market index companies and focus on a double-risk measurement – systematic and idiosyncratic – developing an empirical study on 132 controversial companies listed on the S&P index.


Findings
Empirical findings indicate that the overall ESG assessment and the environmental and social sub-dimensions decrease idiosyncratic firm risk. At the same time, no significant results are found according to the systematic risk component.


Originality/value
This study fits into the domain of risk management research, investigating whether additional and non-financial disclosures regarding sustainability issues decrease information asymmetries, improving investors' decision-making and stakeholders' relations. Prior literature has shown limited evidence on the relationship between corporate social performance (CSP) and firm risk based on controversial companies. The main contribution is to consider the controversy as an independent factor from the industry sector, given that the implications of CSP actions and practices are mainly firm-specific.

AbstractThis work fits into a stream of research dealing with the role of the Internet and social networks as effective disclosure tools. We argue that the asset management company's (AMC) self‐presentation, its product disclosure, and how it communicates in the social media can be positively associated to its performance. In this paper we have studied these relationships on 21 Italian and UK AMCs in the EUROSIF Panel by adopting an experimental study asking business ethics course university students to evaluate the AMCs' ethical commitment. Our research shows that a high corporate social performance (CSP) disclosure through Web and social media is positively associated to AMCs' economic performance. Even a high perceived coherency between AMCs' self‐presentation and ethical financial product communication can enhance AMCs' financial success. In reverse, a high perceived coherency between financial products and corporate social responsibility communication through Web and social media networks does not seem to improve AMCs' economic performance.

Il presente lavoro di ricerca si focalizza sull'analisi empirica di alcune destinazioni al fine di comprendere le modalità con cui è avvenuta la costruzione della «brand identity». A tal proposito, sono confrontate le esperienze di New York e Sydney nell'àmbito del destination branding. In particolare, la prima destinazione è il classico esempio di «city branding» mentre la seconda, proprio per emulare il successo di New York, ha istituito la Greater Sydney Partnership per la gestione del progetto «Brand Sydney». L'analisi segue un approccio sistemico e, in modo particolare, il filone della «Resource-based Theory». Inoltre, il confronto tra questi «case study» avviene ad un doppio livello. Infatti, l'analisi delle strategie di promozione delle destinazioni distingue le politiche di marketing volte ad attirare il potenziale turista (livello indotto) da quelle attuate nella fase di erogazione del servizio (livello organico), che devono favorire i processi di «customer loyalty» (Della Corte, 2009). Infine, a tale analisi è affiancata l'identificazione della «Destination Management Organization» (DMO) e del ruolo che essa ricopre nella costruzione della «brand identity». A tal proposito, la struttura del lavoro di ricerca risulta essere la seguente: in primo luogo, un focus sulla letteratura del brand management permette di comprendere il recente interesse verso questo specifico tema; in secondo luogo, l'approfondimento dei casi studio offre la possibilità di stabilire in che modo avviene la promozione del territorio sia a livello indotto che a livello organico.