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Working Paper | HBS Working Paper Series | 2018

Public Sentiment and the Price of Corporate Sustainability

by George Serafeim

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Abstract

Combining corporate sustainability performance scores based on environmental, social, and governance (ESG) data with big data measuring public sentiment about a company’s sustainability performance, I find that the valuation premium paid for companies with strong sustainability performance has increased over time and that the premium is increasing as a function of positive public sentiment momentum. An ESG factor going long on firms with superior or increasing sustainability performance and negative sentiment momentum and short on firms with inferior or decreasing sustainability performance and positive sentiment momentum delivers significant positive alpha. This low sentiment ESG factor is uncorrelated with other factors, such as value, momentum, size, profitability, and investment. In contrast, the high sentiment ESG factor delivers insignificant alpha and is strongly negatively correlated with the value factor. The evidence suggests that public sentiment influences investor views about the value of corporate sustainability activities and thereby both the price paid for corporate sustainability and the investment returns of portfolios that consider ESG data.

Keywords: sustainability; ESG; ESG (environmental, social, governance) performance; asset pricing; investment management; investment strategy; big data; Machine learning; environment; human capital; corporate governance; Environmental Sustainability; Corporate Governance; Performance; Public Opinion; Asset Pricing; Investment; Strategy; Value;

Language: English Format: Print 56 pages SSRN Read Now

Citation:

Serafeim, George. "Public Sentiment and the Price of Corporate Sustainability." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 19-044, October 2018.

About the Author

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George Serafeim
Charles M. Williams Professor of Business Administration
Accounting and Management

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More from the Author

  • Case | HBS Case Collection | March 2011 (Revised December 2019)

    Wealth Management Crisis at UBS (A)

    Paul M. Healy, George Serafeim and David Lane

    The case describes the challenges that UBS faced as a result of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) investigation for tax fraud, that claimed that UBS had helped some 52,000 U.S. residents hide billions of dollars in untaxed assets in secret Swiss accounts between 2000 and 2007, depriving the U.S. Treasury of hundreds of millions of dollars in taxes. Why did this happen inside UBS? What were the incentives and the corporate governance failures that led to these events? How should the board of directors of UBS respond to the requests of the tax and regulatory authorities?

    Keywords: fraud; regulatory enforcement; Reputation incentives; crony capitalism; tax havens; legitimacy; multinational; strategic change; incentives; transparency; financial services; Taxation; Crime and Corruption; Global Range; Asset Management; Ethics; Problems and Challenges; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Corporate Governance; Financial Services Industry; United States; Switzerland;

    Citation:

    Healy, Paul M., George Serafeim, and David Lane. "Wealth Management Crisis at UBS (A)." Harvard Business School Case 111-082, March 2011. (Revised December 2019.)  View Details
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  • Teaching Note | HBS Case Collection | December 2019

    Facebook's Libra: The Privatization of Money?

    Marco Di Maggio, Ethan Rouen and Georgios Serafeim

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    Di Maggio, Marco, Ethan Rouen, and Georgios Serafeim. "Facebook's Libra: The Privatization of Money?" Harvard Business School Teaching Note 220-048, December 2019.  View Details
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  • Working Paper | HBS Working Paper Series | 2019

    Pathways to Materiality: How Sustainability Issues Become Financially Material to Corporations and Their Investors

    Jean Rogers and George Serafeim

    As sustainability issues, also labelled environmental, social, and governance (ESG) issues, become financially material, companies, investors, and regulators are designing strategies and policies to improve sustainability disclosure and performance. In this paper, we outline a framework of how sustainability issues become financially material arguing that materiality is not a “state of being” but a “process of becoming.” Our framework could assist companies and investors to make resource allocation decisions based on expectations about future materiality, social entrepreneurs and NGOs to develop their theories of social change, and policy makers to design disclosure regulations. Moreover, our framework generates predictions about the conditions under which sustainability issues become financial material that could be empirically tested in the future.

    Keywords: materiality; ESG; Pharmaceutical Companies; Business ethics; sustainability; environment; finance; accounting; disclosure; disclosure and access; regulation; social impact; valuation; Environmental Sustainability; Social Issues; Corporate Governance; Ethics; Corporate Disclosure; Corporate Accountability; Resource Allocation;

    Citation:

    Rogers, Jean, and George Serafeim. "Pathways to Materiality: How Sustainability Issues Become Financially Material to Corporations and Their Investors." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 20-056, November 2019.  View Details
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