Investors are more sensitive to information about financial rather than ethical reputation of a company: Evidence from an experimental study

Abstract

The aim of the research was to identify the nature of the relationship between corporate reputation and individuals’ investment decisions. We focused on three reputational factors that influence such decisions: value of stock market analysts’ recommendation (either neutral or positive), reputation value (either positive or negative), and reputation domain (either ethical or financial). We tested two hypotheses in an online experiment and we have confirmed that investors are more sensitive to firm’s financial rather than to its ethical reputation. However, we could not confirm that a reputation damage has a stronger impact on changes in the planned investment’s value than an improvement in company’s reputation.