We investigate the relationship between corporate and country sustainability on the cost of bank loans. We look into 470 loan agreements signed between 2005 and 2012 with borrowers based on 28 different countries across the world and operating in all major industries. Our principal findings...

The paper presents the concept of Fair Trade, which is considered an alternative to conventional trade, and becomes increasingly popular in the Western countries. In addition, some results of empirical research, conveyed in Poland and aimed at diagnosis and assessment of Fairtrade products...

We explore the role of ESG raters' business models in the production of their ratings, noting that increasingly ESG raters not only produce ESG ratings but also construct and sell index products based on their ESG ratings. We examine whether deriving revenue from ESG rating-based indices is...

The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI)'s Sustainability Reporting Guidelines is the most widely used standard for sustainability reporting worldwide. The GRI has initiated an innovative program to join companies reporting under its Guidelines with university students in an effort to provide...

In the field of global rule-setting for responsible business behaviour, multi-stakeholder standards have emerged in recent years because of their potential for effective consensus-building, knowledge-sharing and interest representation. Proponents also hold that multi-stakeholder standards could...

We analyse the relationship between the extent of a firm's corporate social responsibility (CSR) and its long-term survival probability. We conjecture that a better CSR rating is associated with a lower probability of corporate failure and a longer survival period. Consistent with this, we...

We examine the role of corporate culture in M&As by utilizing a unique corporate social responsibility (CSR) dataset, providing in-depth information on multiple dimensions of organizational culture in 22 developed markets. In accordance with the prediction of the culture clash theory, a wider...

We document that investors derive nonpecuniary utility from investing in dual-objective VC funds, thus sacrificing returns. Impact funds earn 4.7 percentage points (ppts) lower IRRs ex post than traditional VC funds. In random utility/willingness-to-pay (WTP) models investors accept 2.5-3.7 ppts...

We examine how corporate environmental responsibility (CER) affects the cost of equity capital for manufacturing firms in 30 countries. Using several approaches to estimate firms' ex ante equity financing costs, we find in regressions that control for firm-level characteristics as well as...

We study the impact of exposure to conservative media on firms' CSR activities using the quasi-natural expansion of Sinclair Broadcast Group: the largest conservative broadcasting network in the U.S. local TV markets. In a difference-in-differences setting, we find that firms significantly...