Publications

Publications

Filter Results: (44) Arrow Down

Show Results For

Page 1 of 44 Results →
  • September 2023
  • Article

Stock Price Reactions to ESG News: The Role of ESG Ratings and Disagreement

By: George Serafeim and Aaron Yoon
We investigate whether ESG ratings predict future ESG news and the associated market reactions. We find that the consensus rating predicts future news, but its predictive ability diminishes for firms with large disagreement between raters. Relation between news and... View Details
Keywords: ESG; ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) Performance; ESG Disclosure; ESG Ratings; ESG Reporting; ESG Disclosure Metrics; Sustainability; Investments; Disagreement; Rating Disagreement; Ratings; Environmental Sustainability; Social Issues; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Performance; News; Investment; Financial Markets; Stocks; Price
Related
  • January 2022
  • Article

Why is Corporate Virtue in the Eye of The Beholder? The Case of ESG Ratings

By: Dane Christensen, George Serafeim and Anywhere Sikochi
Despite the rising use of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) ratings, there is substantial disagreement across rating agencies regarding what rating to give to individual firms. As what drives this disagreement is unclear, we examine whether a firm’s ESG... View Details
Keywords: ESG Ratings; Rating Agency Disagreement; ESG Disclosure; Corporate Social Responsibility; Sustainability; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Environmental Sustainability; Corporate Disclosure
Related
  • 2021
  • Working Paper

International Evidence on the Effects of a Local Presence by U.S. Credit Rating Agencies

By: Liran Eliner, Michael Machokoto and Anywhere Sikochi
Major U.S. credit rating agencies are criticized for failing to understand developments in other economies and thereby impeding capital access by assigning lower ratings. Consistent with this, we find that Moody's and S&P credit ratings are more favorable after the... View Details
Keywords: Credit Rating Agencies; Credit Ratings; Rating Adjustments; Rating Disagreement; Geographic Proximity; Soft Information; Credit; Geographic Location; Local Range
Related
  • 09 Mar 2021
  • Working Paper Summaries

Stock Price Reactions to ESG News: The Role of ESG Ratings and Disagreement

Keywords: by George Serafeim and Aaron Yoon; Financial Services
  • Article

Conversational Receptiveness: Expressing Engagement with Opposing Views

By: M. Yeomans, J. Minson, H. Collins, H. Chen and F. Gino
We examine “conversational receptiveness”—the use of language to communicate one’s willingness to thoughtfully engage with opposing views. We develop an interpretable machine-learning algorithm to identify the linguistic profile of receptiveness (Studies 1A-B). We then... View Details
Keywords: Receptiveness; Natural Language Processing; Disagreement; Interpersonal Communication; Relationships; Conflict Management
Related
  • October 2000 (Revised April 2001)
  • Case

Cost of Capital at Ameritrade

By: Mark L. Mitchell and Erik Stafford
Ameritrade Holding Corp. is planning large marketing and technology investments to improve the company's competitive position in deep-discount brokerage by taking advantage of emerging economies of scale. In order to evaluate whether the strategy would generate... View Details
Keywords: Developing Countries and Economies; Asset Pricing; Cash Flow; Cost of Capital; Investment; Marketing; Mathematical Methods; Competition; Information Technology; Internet and the Web; Financial Services Industry
Related
  • 22 Nov 2022
  • Research & Ideas

When Agreeing to Disagree Is a Good Beginning

Disagreements don’t have to end discussions. In fact, as researchers from the Harvard Kennedy School and Harvard Business School discussed at a recent event, engaging with those who hold opposing views can be constructive and lead to new... View Details
Keywords: by Clea Simon, Harvard Gazette
  • 23 Jan 2023
  • Research & Ideas

After High-Profile Failures, Can Investors Still Trust Credit Ratings?

rating agencies’ strategic behavior incentivized by the issuer-pay model,” the study concludes. You Might Also Like: What Does an ESG Score Really Say About a Company? Stock Price Reactions to ESG News: The Role of ESG View Details
Keywords: by Ben Rand
  • 25 Aug 2017
  • Op-Ed

Op-Ed: After Charlottesville, Where Does a CEO's Responsibility Lie?

Trump, the demographics of opposition to the president put unique pressure on business leaders. He is astoundingly unpopular with the young. In August, among adults under 35, Trump had a disapproval rating of 62 percent with only 22... View Details
Keywords: by Gautam Mukunda
  • 13 Apr 2010
  • First Look

First Look: April 13

Interest Rates Author:Luis M. Viceira Publication:International Journal of Forecasting (forthcoming) Abstract This paper explores time variation in bond risk, as measured by the covariation of bond returns with stock returns and with... View Details
Keywords: Martha Lagace
  • 21 Jul 2021
  • Research & Ideas

What Does an ESG Score Really Say About a Company?

Receiving more information can clarify the complex, but not when it comes to environmental, social, and governance (ESG) scores. A recent study shows that the more information a company discloses about its ESG practices, the more rating agencies disagree on how well... View Details
Keywords: by Kristen Senz
  • 13 Jan 2023
  • Research & Ideas

Are Companies Actually Greener—or Are They All Talk?

Most companies now account for social good in their financial reports in some way, but with regulation scattershot and evolving, it’s complicated for investors to assess so-called ESG reports. The disclosures, known as Environmental, Social, and Governance reports,... View Details
Keywords: by Rachel Layne
  • 16 Feb 2023
  • HBS Case

ESG Activists Met the Moment at ExxonMobil, But Did They Succeed?

The impact-investment hedge fund Engine No. 1 made a big splash in May 2021 when it managed to get three nominees elected to the ExxonMobil board of directors. It was an open effort to prod the oil giant toward renewable energy and test whether activist investing could... View Details
Keywords: by Lane Lambert; Financial Services
  • 01 Oct 2001
  • Research & Ideas

How To Make Restructuring Work for Your Company

to shareholders. So any attempt to cut labor expense could well have provoked a public backlash—especially since at the time the company's home city of Schweinfurt had an unemployment rate of 16 percent. For publicly traded companies, the... View Details
Keywords: by Stuart C. Gilson
  • Web

2023 Reunion Presentations - Alumni

failure and making it work for us. Why Startups Fail Professor Thomas Eisenmann (DBA 1998, MBA 1983) + More Info – Less Info Most startups fail. About two-thirds of venture capital investments do not earn a positive return. Surprisingly, late-stage startups fail at the... View Details
  • 26 Feb 2019
  • First Look

New Research and Ideas, February 26, 2019

materiality remains unclear. Using a series of vignettes based on actual private investor meetings, I investigate how managers and regulators understand Reg FD. I find considerable uncertainty and disagreement among both managers and... View Details
Keywords: Dina Gerdeman
  • 30 Jul 2007
  • Research & Ideas

Repugnant Markets and How They Get That Way

houses these days. Why don't you just check off this box here, if you ever fall behind on your payments?" And the bank adds, "We almost never do this . . . but it allows you our best rate. If you can't check off the box for some obscure personal reason, then... View Details
Keywords: by Martha Lagace
  • 20 May 2014
  • Research & Ideas

Managing the Family Business: Survival’s Secret Sauce

faster than your family or business consumes them. Of course, growing families and businesses are both good at consuming assets. For many family companies we have researched, their sustainable real growth rate is 6 percent. That might... View Details
  • 04 Feb 2014
  • What Do You Think?

Has Listening Become a Lost Art?

recorded voice thanked me for cooperating and assured me that the poll would take only two minutes. The first question was, "On a scale of 1 (low) and 5 (high) how would you rate your overall experience?" I pressed the "1" on my phone.... View Details
Keywords: by James Heskett
  • Web

2022 Reunion Presentations - Alumni

face is managing diverse perspectives. At the same time, productive disagreement and engagement with opposing views are crucial to high-functioning teams and organizations. Drawing from my research I will discuss how leaders can approach... View Details