IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/finlet/v47y2022ipas1544612321005018.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Where does corporate social capital matter the most? Evidence From the COVID-19 crisis

Author

Listed:
  • Fiordelisi, Franco
  • Galloppo, Giuseppe
  • Lattanzio, Gabriele

Abstract

Firms with high social capital systematically outperform their peers during periods of economic distress. Yet, it is not clear under which institutional conditions corporate social capital is the most valuable to shareholders. By studying the performance of 1,789 firms in 27 countries during the initial phases of the COVID-19 pandemic, we document that the resilience effect of social capital is heterogeneous across countries. We identify the flexibility of a country's labor market as a critical determinant of corporate's returns on social capital-related investments. These findings are consistent with social capital hedging firms against systematic shocks by mitigating employee-related litigation risk.

Suggested Citation

  • Fiordelisi, Franco & Galloppo, Giuseppe & Lattanzio, Gabriele, 2022. "Where does corporate social capital matter the most? Evidence From the COVID-19 crisis," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 47(PA).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:finlet:v:47:y:2022:i:pa:s1544612321005018
    DOI: 10.1016/j.frl.2021.102538
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1544612321005018
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.frl.2021.102538?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Fama, Eugene F & French, Kenneth R, 1992. "The Cross-Section of Expected Stock Returns," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 47(2), pages 427-465, June.
    2. Caballero, Ricardo J. & Cowan, Kevin N. & Engel, Eduardo M.R.A. & Micco, Alejandro, 2013. "Effective labor regulation and microeconomic flexibility," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 101(C), pages 92-104.
    3. Hao Liang & Luc Renneboog, 2017. "On the Foundations of Corporate Social Responsibility," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 72(2), pages 853-910, April.
    4. Luigi Guiso & Paola Sapienza & Luigi Zingales, 2008. "Alfred Marshall Lecture Social Capital as Good Culture," Journal of the European Economic Association, MIT Press, vol. 6(2-3), pages 295-320, 04-05.
    5. Juan C. Botero & Simeon Djankov & Rafael La Porta & Florencio Lopez-de-Silanes & Andrei Shleifer, 2004. "The Regulation of Labor," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 119(4), pages 1339-1382.
    6. Luigi Guiso & Paola Sapienza & Luigi Zingales, 2007. "Social Capital as Good Culture," NBER Working Papers 13712, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    7. Pagano, Marco & Wagner, Christian & Zechner, Josef, 2023. "Disaster resilience and asset prices," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 150(2).
    8. Karl V. Lins & Henri Servaes & Ane Tamayo, 2019. "Social Capital, Trust, and Corporate Performance: How CSR Helped Companies During the Financial Crisis (and Why It Can Keep Helping Them)," Journal of Applied Corporate Finance, Morgan Stanley, vol. 31(2), pages 59-71, June.
    9. Edmans, Alex, 2011. "Does the stock market fully value intangibles? Employee satisfaction and equity prices," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 101(3), pages 621-640, September.
    10. Luigi Guiso & Paola Sapienza & Luigi Zingales, 2004. "The Role of Social Capital in Financial Development," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 94(3), pages 526-556, June.
    11. Hung-Ju Chen, 2012. "Social status, human capital formation and the long-run effects of money," Journal of Economics, Springer, vol. 105(3), pages 225-246, April.
    12. Kinateder, Harald & Campbell, Ross & Choudhury, Tonmoy, 2021. "Safe haven in GFC versus COVID-19: 100 turbulent days in the financial markets," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 43(C).
    13. Karl V. Lins & Henri Servaes & Ane Tamayo, 2017. "Social Capital, Trust, and Firm Performance: The Value of Corporate Social Responsibility during the Financial Crisis," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 72(4), pages 1785-1824, August.
    14. Katherine Scrivens & Conal Smith, 2013. "Four Interpretations of Social Capital: An Agenda for Measurement," OECD Statistics Working Papers 2013/6, OECD Publishing.
    15. Miguel Palacios, 2015. "Editor's Choice Human Capital as an Asset Class Implications from a General Equilibrium Model," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 28(4), pages 978-1023.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Huanan Sun & Lianmei Zhu & Anqi Wang & Shali Wang & Haijing Ma, 2022. "Analysis of Regional Social Capital, Enterprise Green Innovation and Green Total Factor Productivity—Based on Chinese A-Share Listed Companies from 2011 to 2019," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(1), pages 1-21, December.
    2. Wu, Hua & Zhang, Ke & Li, Renyu, 2024. "ESG score, analyst coverage and corporate resilience," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 62(PB).
    3. Hooi Hooi Lean & Fabio Pizzutilo & Kimberly Gleason, 2023. "Portfolio performance implications of investment in renewable energy equities: Green versus gray," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 30(6), pages 2990-3005, November.
    4. Liu, Xiujuan & Zhang, Shengnan, 2024. "The impact of credit risk on labor investment efficiency," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 61(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Gonul Colak & Kent Hickman & Timo Korkeamäki & Niclas O. Meyer, 2022. "ESG Issues and Career Prospects of Directors: Evidence from the International Director Labor Market," Financial Markets, Institutions & Instruments, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 31(4), pages 147-203, November.
    2. Shima Amini & Sofia Johan & Eilnaz Kashefi Pour & Abdulkadir Mohamed, 2023. "Employee Welfare, Social Capital, and IPO Firm Survival," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 47(6), pages 2174-2204, November.
    3. Massimiliano Barbi & Valentina Febo & Giancarlo Giudici, 2023. "Community-level social capital and investment decisions in equity crowdfunding," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 61(3), pages 1075-1110, October.
    4. Alberto Alesina & Yann Algan & Pierre Cahuc & Paola Giuliano, 2015. "Family Values And The Regulation Of Labor," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 13(4), pages 599-630, August.
    5. Algan, Yann & Cahuc, Pierre, 2014. "Trust, Growth, and Well-Being: New Evidence and Policy Implications," Handbook of Economic Growth, in: Philippe Aghion & Steven Durlauf (ed.), Handbook of Economic Growth, edition 1, volume 2, chapter 2, pages 49-120, Elsevier.
    6. Zhe Li & Ping Wang, 2023. "Cross‐border mergers and acquisitions and corporate social responsibility: Evidence from Chinese listed firms," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 50(1-2), pages 335-376, January.
    7. Li, Xiaorong & Wang, Steven Shuye & Wang, Xue, 2019. "Trust and IPO underpricing," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 224-248.
    8. Liang, Hao & Renneboog, Luc & Vansteenkiste, Cara, 2020. "Cross-border acquisitions and employment policies," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 62(C).
    9. Sadok El Ghoul & Omrane Guedhami & Yang Ni & Jeffrey Pittman & Samir Saadi, 2012. "Does Religion Matter to Equity Pricing?," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 111(4), pages 491-518, December.
    10. Graham, John R. & Grennan, Jillian & Harvey, Campbell R. & Rajgopal, Shivaram, 2022. "Corporate culture: Evidence from the field," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 146(2), pages 552-593.
    11. Poursoleyman, Ehsan & Mansourfar, Gholamreza & Rezaee, Zabihollah & Homayoun, Saeid, 2024. "Corporate social responsibility and investment efficiency: The roles of national stakeholder orientation and legal origins," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 93(PA), pages 889-911.
    12. Giuseppe Terzo, 2021. "Social capital, social economy and economic resilience of Italian provinces," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 100(5), pages 1113-1135, October.
    13. Servaes, Henri & Tamayo, Ane, 2017. "The role of social capital in corporations: a review," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 69209, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    14. Castriota, Stefano & Rondinella, Sandro & Tonin, Mirco, 2023. "Does social capital matter? A study of hit-and-run in US counties," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 329(C).
    15. El Ghoul, Sadok & Gong, Zhaoran (Jason) & Guedhami, Omrane & Hou, Fangfang & Tong, Wilson H.S., 2023. "Social trust and firm innovation," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).
    16. Gupta, Atul & Raman, Kartik & Shang, Chenguang, 2018. "Social capital and the cost of equity," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 87(C), pages 102-117.
    17. Ağca, Şenay & Togan-Eğrican, Aslı, 2024. "Managerial activism," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 86(C).
    18. Hsin, Chin-Wen & Peng, Shu-Cing, 2023. "The role of social capital in price efficiency: International evidence," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 89(C).
    19. Alberto Alesina & Yann Algan & Pierre Cahuc & Paola Giuliano, 2015. "Family Values And The Regulation Of Labor," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 13(4), pages 599-630, August.
    20. Harjoto, Maretno A. & Hoepner, Andreas G.F. & Li, Qian, 2021. "Corporate social irresponsibility and portfolio performance: A cross-national study," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 70(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Corporate social capital; Labor market rigidity; Reputational capital; COVID-19; Stakeholders;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G11 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Portfolio Choice; Investment Decisions
    • G12 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Asset Pricing; Trading Volume; Bond Interest Rates
    • G18 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Government Policy and Regulation

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:finlet:v:47:y:2022:i:pa:s1544612321005018. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/frl .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.