New Evidence on the Role of the Media in Corporate Social Responsibility

Prior research suggests that the media plays an important information intermediary role in capital markets. We investigate the role of the media in influencing firms’ engagement in corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities. Using a large sample of 4396 unique firms from 42 countries over the...

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Autori: El Ghoul, Sadok (Autore) ; Guedhami, Omrane (Autore) ; Nash, Robert (Autore) ; Patel, Ajay (Autore)
Tipo di documento: Elettronico Articolo
Lingua:Inglese
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Pubblicazione: Springer Science + Business Media B. V 2019
In: Journal of business ethics
Anno: 2019, Volume: 154, Fascicolo: 4, Pagine: 1051-1079
Altre parole chiave:B Media freedom
B M14
B Corporate social responsibility
B Corporate governance
B G34
B Corporate Reputation
Accesso online: Volltext (lizenzpflichtig)
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Riepilogo:Prior research suggests that the media plays an important information intermediary role in capital markets. We investigate the role of the media in influencing firms’ engagement in corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities. Using a large sample of 4396 unique firms from 42 countries over the period 2003–2012, we find strong evidence that firms engage in more CSR activities if located in countries where the media has more freedom. This relation is robust to using various proxies for media freedom, an alternative source of CSR data, and to applying the instrumental variables approach to address endogeneity. In additional analyses, we find that the positive relation between media freedom and CSR engagement is stronger for better governed firms and for larger firms. Since the media have the ability to impact reputational capital, we conclude that media freedom affects firms’ incentives to engage in costly CSR activities.
ISSN:1573-0697
Comprende:Enthalten in: Journal of business ethics
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1007/s10551-016-3354-9