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Virtue Rhetoric in Investor Communications: Setting Up for a Letdown?
Journal of Management ( IF 13.5 ) Pub Date : 2021-04-05 , DOI: 10.1177/01492063211002622
Miles A. Zachary , Brian L. Connelly 1 , G. Tyge Payne 2 , Lori L. Tribble 3
Affiliation  

Many companies prominently espouse their virtuous character in communications with investors, with a view toward influencing investor perceptions about the firm’s standards of behavior. While there are benefits to investors perceiving an organization to be virtuous, what happens if the firm violates those standards by engaging in unethical behavior? In this study, we use expectancy violations theory to argue that virtue rhetoric sets investors up for disappointment. When an organization claims to be virtuous but then acts unethically, investors respond to the ethics violation more negatively than they would otherwise. We also theorize about scenarios where investors may overlook unethical behavior or intensify their disapproval of it. To test our ideas, we assemble a unique sample of unethical events committed by S&P 500 companies over a 12-year period, combined with analysis of the virtue rhetoric found in their annual letters to shareholders. Our main finding is that investor reaction to unethical behavior is more negative for companies that claimed to be virtuous prior to the violation than for those that did not make such claims. This relationship is less strong when the company has high expected future value.



中文翻译:

投资者沟通中的美德修辞学:为失望而战吗?

许多公司在与投资者的沟通中都极力主张自己的品德,以期影响投资者对公司行为标准的看法。尽管投资者认为一个组织是有道德的,这会带来好处,但是如果公司通过进行不道德的行为违反了这些标准,会发生什么呢?在这项研究中,我们使用预期违约理论来论证,美德言辞会使投资者失望。当一个组织声称自己是道德的,但随后又不道德地行事时,投资者对道德违规的回应会比其他方式更为消极。我们还对投资者可能忽视不道德行为或加剧其不赞成行为的情况进行了理论分析。为了检验我们的想法,我们收集了由S&S实施的不道德事件的独特样本 在过去的12年中,排名前500位的公司,并结合其年度致股东的信中对美德言论的分析。我们的主要发现是,与那些没有提出此类要求的公司相比,投资者对那些在违规之前声称自己具有良好道德的公司的反道德行为的负面影响更大。当公司具有很高的预期未来价值时,这种关系就不那么牢固了。

更新日期:2021-04-05
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