← Search

Journal of Banking & Finance Vol. 37 No. 4 2013

The impact of the dimensions of social performance on firm risk

Kais Bouslah1; Lawrence Kryzanowski2; Bouchra M’Zali3

1 University of St Andrews · 2 Concordia University · 3 Université du Québec à Montréal

Abstract

This paper examines the impact of the individual dimensions of social performance (SP) on firm risk (total and idiosyncratic) using 16,599 firm-year observations over the period 1991–2007. We find that firm risk for S&P500 members is positively affected by Employee, Diversity, and Corporate Governance concerns. On the other hand, Community (Diversity) strengths negatively (positively) affect their risk. As to non-S&P500 members, firm risk is positively affected by Employee concerns and Diversity strengths. However, firm risk of non-S&P500 members is negatively affected by Environment strengths. The direction of causation between firm risk and SP depends on the dimension examined.

DOI
10.1016/j.jbankfin.2012.12.004
Volume
37
Issue
4
Pages
1258-1273
Language
en
Sources
openalex crossref bibtex:phds-export.bib

Cite