经济与金融系学术讨论会第256期

题目：Shifting the Spotlight: Do Firms Change Their Advertising Strategies after ESG Reputational-Damaging Events?

演讲人：李伟凯（香港城市大学商学院金融学副教授）

时间：2025年10月9日（周四）12:00-13:00

地点：同济大厦A楼505室

同步#腾讯会议：557528866

会议密码：203240

链接：https://meeting.tencent.com/dm/tXXPHpFfaAqC

摘要：

This study utilizes granular data on firms’ advertising expenditures to examine how firms adjust their advertising spending in response to Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) incidents across local markets. Aligning with a visibility reduction strategy to manage negative stakeholder perceptions, we observe that firms on average cut advertising spending immediately following ESG incidents. These reductions are more pronounced for environmental and social (E&S) incidents and are strategically implemented in regions with heightened concerns to E&S issues. Further analysis indicates that the decision to reduce advertising spending is not driven by efforts to address the underlying ESG issues. Instead, it serves as a tactical approach for firms to reallocate their advertising expenditures from areas with higher ESG sensitivity to those with lower sensitivity. This approach minimizes negative exposure in some markets in the short term while aiming to boost sales in other markets. Importantly, the negative effect of E&S incidents on firm value is significantly alleviated when firms cut their advertising spending in the month following the incidents. Lastly, we find a spillover effect on advertising spending cut when suppliers and product-market peers experience E&S incidents, indicating that firms employ the visibility reduction strategy across broader networks. Our findings uncover a complex set of dynamic tactical responses to ESG incidents by firms, which vary by geographic market and change over time. This analysis provides a more comprehensive view of how firms strategically mitigate negative perceptions and balance overall business performance, while considering the heterogeneous concerns of local stakeholders across different regions over time.

个人简介：

香港科技大学金融学博士，特许金融分析师(CFA)，香港城市大学金融学（终生）副教授。研究领域涉及实证资产定价、行为金融以及可持续金融。曾在香港金融管理局香港货币及金融研究中心 (HKIMR)担任访问研究员。在Review of Financial Studies，Journal of Financial Economics，Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis，Journal of Econometrics, Review of Accounting Studies等国际学术期刊上发表多篇学术论文。他的研究曾在中国金融国际年会(CICF)，国际金融管理协会年会(FMA Asia & FMA Europe)，亚洲金融协会年会 (Asian FA)，芝加哥数量投资协会 (CQAsia)以及国际可持续金融研究联盟（GRASFI）等国际学术会议上获奖。曾多次在国内外金融机构宣讲研究论文，研究成果被《华尔街日报》，《金融时报》和《清华金融评论》等转载。现担任Pacific Basin Finance Journal 副主编。