IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/kap/jbuset/v190y2024i4d10.1007_s10551-023-05335-x.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

How Much Does Workplace Sexual Harassment Hurt Firm Value?

Author

Listed:
  • Shiu-Yik Au

    (University of Manitoba)

  • Ming Dong

    (York University)

  • Andréanne Tremblay

    (Université Laval)

Abstract

It is widely recognized that workplace sexual harassment has significant negative psychological and personal consequences, and employees facing harassment suffer reductions in productivity. Our contribution is to propose a novel measure of workplace sexual harassment risk and provide a fuller estimation of the firm value impact of sexual harassment. In contrast to recent studies that focus on short-run market reactions to media announcements of harassment scandals, we use employee job reviews to identify low-profile harassment incidents that better reflect the pervasive, toxic environment pertaining to sexual harassment than do newsworthy scandals, and we measure the longer-term effect on firm value starting from the date when harassment risk affects employee morale. We identify firm harassment risk by analyzing employee job reviews and estimate the sexual harassment score (SH) through textual analysis of online job reviews. Our sample of high-SH firms, or firms with unusually high-SH scores, exhibits significant reductions in future stock performance and profitability. For example, firms with a top 2% SH score earn a value-weighted risk-adjusted stock return of − 17% in the 1-year period after high-SH classification, and this damage is concentrated in firms with higher investor attention. Furthermore, high-SH firms experience a decline in operating profitability and an increase in labor costs during a 5-year period around high-SH classification. Our evidence suggests that sexual harassment can cause greater damages to firm value than previously documented.

Suggested Citation

  • Shiu-Yik Au & Ming Dong & Andréanne Tremblay, 2024. "How Much Does Workplace Sexual Harassment Hurt Firm Value?," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 190(4), pages 861-883, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:jbuset:v:190:y:2024:i:4:d:10.1007_s10551-023-05335-x
    DOI: 10.1007/s10551-023-05335-x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10551-023-05335-x
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s10551-023-05335-x?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Carhart, Mark M, 1997. "On Persistence in Mutual Fund Performance," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 52(1), pages 57-82, March.
    2. Andrea L. Eisfeldt & Dimitris Papanikolaou, 2013. "Organization Capital and the Cross-Section of Expected Returns," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 68(4), pages 1365-1406, August.
    3. Malcolm Baker & Jeremy C. Stein & Jeffrey Wurgler, 2003. "When Does the Market Matter? Stock Prices and the Investment of Equity-Dependent Firms," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 118(3), pages 969-1005.
    4. Cline, Brandon N. & Walkling, Ralph A. & Yore, Adam S., 2018. "The consequences of managerial indiscretions: Sex, lies, and firm value," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 127(2), pages 389-415.
    5. Hoje Jo & Maretno Harjoto, 2011. "Corporate Governance and Firm Value: The Impact of Corporate Social Responsibility," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 103(3), pages 351-383, October.
    6. Dadanlar, Hazel H. & Abebe, Michael A., 2020. "Female CEO leadership and the likelihood of corporate diversity misconduct: Evidence from S&P 500 firms," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 118(C), pages 398-405.
    7. Sophie A Shive & Margaret M Forster & Jose Scheinkman, 2020. "Corporate Governance and Pollution Externalities of Public and Private Firms," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 33(3), pages 1296-1330.
    8. R. David Mclean & Jeffrey Pontiff, 2016. "Does Academic Research Destroy Stock Return Predictability?," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 71(1), pages 5-32, February.
    9. Fama, Eugene F & MacBeth, James D, 1973. "Risk, Return, and Equilibrium: Empirical Tests," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 81(3), pages 607-636, May-June.
    10. Edmans, Alex, 2011. "Does the stock market fully value intangibles? Employee satisfaction and equity prices," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 101(3), pages 621-640, September.
    11. S. P. Kothari & Susan Shu & Peter D. Wysocki, 2009. "Do Managers Withhold Bad News?," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 47(1), pages 241-276, March.
    12. Maretno Harjoto & Indrarini Laksmana, 2018. "The Impact of Corporate Social Responsibility on Risk Taking and Firm Value," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 151(2), pages 353-373, August.
    13. Bereskin, Fred & Byun, Seong K. & Officer, Micah S. & Oh, Jong-Min, 2018. "The Effect of Cultural Similarity on Mergers and Acquisitions: Evidence from Corporate Social Responsibility," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 53(5), pages 1995-2039, October.
    14. Henri Servaes & Ane Tamayo, 2013. "The Impact of Corporate Social Responsibility on Firm Value: The Role of Customer Awareness," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 59(5), pages 1045-1061, May.
    15. Ma, Qingzhong & Whidbee, David A. & Zhang, Wei, 2019. "Acquirer reference prices and acquisition performance," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 132(1), pages 175-199.
    16. Fama, Eugene F. & French, Kenneth R., 2015. "A five-factor asset pricing model," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 116(1), pages 1-22.
    17. Huang, Jiekun, 2018. "The customer knows best: The investment value of consumer opinions," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 128(1), pages 164-182.
    18. Stephen R. Stubben & Kyle T. Welch, 2020. "Evidence on the Use and Efficacy of Internal Whistleblowing Systems," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 58(2), pages 473-518, May.
    19. Peter Cziraki & Jordi Mondria & Thomas Wu, 2021. "Asymmetric Attention and Stock Returns," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 67(1), pages 48-71, January.
    20. Green, T. Clifton & Huang, Ruoyan & Wen, Quan & Zhou, Dexin, 2019. "Crowdsourced employer reviews and stock returns," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 134(1), pages 236-251.
    21. George A. Akerlof & Rachel E. Kranton, 2000. "Economics and Identity," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 115(3), pages 715-753.
    22. Au, Shiu-Yik & Dong, Ming & Tremblay, Andreanne, 2021. "Employee Flexibility, Exogenous Risk, and Firm Value," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 56(3), pages 853-884, May.
    23. Li, Feng, 2008. "Annual report readability, current earnings, and earnings persistence," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 45(2-3), pages 221-247, August.
    24. Joni Hersch, 2011. "Compensating Differentials for Sexual Harassment," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 101(3), pages 630-634, May.
    25. Bernard, Vl & Thomas, Jk, 1989. "Post-Earnings-Announcement Drift - Delayed Price Response Or Risk Premium," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 27, pages 1-36.
    26. Bert Scholtens, 2006. "Finance as a Driver of Corporate Social Responsibility," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 68(1), pages 19-33, September.
    27. Emily Oster, 2019. "Unobservable Selection and Coefficient Stability: Theory and Evidence," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 37(2), pages 187-204, April.
    28. Yermack, David, 2006. "Flights of fancy: Corporate jets, CEO perquisites, and inferior shareholder returns," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 80(1), pages 211-242, April.
    29. Karpoff, Jonathan M. & Lee, D. Scott & Martin, Gerald S., 2008. "The Cost to Firms of Cooking the Books," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 43(3), pages 581-611, September.
    30. Huang, Jiekun & Kisgen, Darren J., 2013. "Gender and corporate finance: Are male executives overconfident relative to female executives?," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 108(3), pages 822-839.
    31. Adhikari, Binay K. & Agrawal, Anup & Malm, James, 2019. "Do women managers keep firms out of trouble? Evidence from corporate litigation and policies," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 67(1), pages 202-225.
    32. Feng Li & Venky Nagar, 2013. "Diversity and Performance," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 59(3), pages 529-544, September.
    33. Bae, Kee-Hong & Kang, Jun-Koo & Wang, Jin, 2011. "Employee treatment and firm leverage: A test of the stakeholder theory of capital structure," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 100(1), pages 130-153, April.
    34. Dr. Neelu Tiwari & Sneha, 2013. "Impact of Gender Diversity on the Performance of the Companies," Journal of Commerce and Trade, Society for Advanced Management Studies, vol. 8(12), pages 28-34, AprilOcto.
    35. Zhi Da & Joseph Engelberg & Pengjie Gao, 2011. "In Search of Attention," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 66(5), pages 1461-1499, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Li, Frank Weikai & Sun, Chengzhu, 2022. "Information acquisition and expected returns: Evidence from EDGAR search traffic," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 141(C).
    2. Liu, Chelsea, 2021. "CEO gender and employee relations: Evidence from labor lawsuits," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 128(C).
    3. Barnes, Spencer & Cheng, Yingmei, 2023. "Employee approval of CEOs and firm value: Evidence from Employees' choice awards," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    4. Xin Chen & Wei He & Libin Tao & Jianfeng Yu, 2023. "Attention and Underreaction-Related Anomalies," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 69(1), pages 636-659, January.
    5. Theissen, Erik & Zimmermann, Lukas, 2020. "Do contented customers make shareholders wealthy? Implications of intangibles for security pricing," CFR Working Papers 20-12, University of Cologne, Centre for Financial Research (CFR).
    6. Kewei Hou & Chen Xue & Lu Zhang, 2017. "Replicating Anomalies," NBER Working Papers 23394, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    7. Edeling, Alexander & Srinivasan, Shuba & Hanssens, Dominique M., 2021. "The marketing–finance interface: A new integrative review of metrics, methods, and findings and an agenda for future research," International Journal of Research in Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 38(4), pages 857-876.
    8. Zhu, Zhaobo & Sun, Licheng & Yung, Kenneth & Chen, Min, 2020. "Limited investor attention, relative fundamental strength, and the cross-section of stock returns," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 52(4).
    9. Green, T. Clifton & Huang, Ruoyan & Wen, Quan & Zhou, Dexin, 2019. "Crowdsourced employer reviews and stock returns," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 134(1), pages 236-251.
    10. Zhou, Zhenkun & Wu, Danni & Su, Zhi & Ren, Tao, 2024. "Exploring the investment value of retail sales growth: Evidence from the China Retailer Alliance," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 63(C).
    11. Amal Aouadi & Sylvain Marsat, 2018. "Do ESG Controversies Matter for Firm Value? Evidence from International Data," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 151(4), pages 1027-1047, September.
    12. Cederburg, Scott & O’Doherty, Michael S. & Wang, Feifei & Yan, Xuemin (Sterling), 2020. "On the performance of volatility-managed portfolios," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 138(1), pages 95-117.
    13. Lioui, Abraham & Tarelli, Andrea, 2022. "Chasing the ESG factor," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 139(C).
    14. Liu, Xin & Yin, Chengxi & Zheng, Weinan, 2021. "The invisible burden," Journal of Financial Markets, Elsevier, vol. 52(C).
    15. Chenyu Shan & Dragon Yongjun Tang, 2023. "The Value of Employee Satisfaction in Disastrous Times: Evidence from COVID-19," Review of Finance, European Finance Association, vol. 27(3), pages 1027-1076.
    16. David Hirshleifer & Po-Hsuan Hsu & Dongmei Li, 2018. "Innovative Originality, Profitability, and Stock Returns," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 31(7), pages 2553-2605.
    17. Long, Huaigang & Zaremba, Adam & Zhou, Wenyu & Bouri, Elie, 2022. "Macroeconomics matter: Leading economic indicators and the cross-section of global stock returns," Journal of Financial Markets, Elsevier, vol. 61(C).
    18. Hiroki, Takashi & Iwatsubo, Kentaro & Watkins, Clinton, 2022. "Does firm-level productivity predict stock returns?," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 72(C).
    19. Ayed, Sabrine & Waxin, Timothée, 2023. "LGBT discrimination and harassment, firm value, and reputation repair," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 90(C).
    20. Tong Fang & Zhi Su & Libo Yin, 2021. "Does the green inspiration effect matter for stock returns? Evidence from the Chinese stock market," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 60(5), pages 2155-2176, May.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Sexual harassment; Employee reviews; Firm value; Stock returns; Enviornmental; Social; and Governance (ESG);
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
    • G34 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Mergers; Acquisitions; Restructuring; Corporate Governance
    • G14 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Information and Market Efficiency; Event Studies; Insider Trading

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:kap:jbuset:v:190:y:2024:i:4:d:10.1007_s10551-023-05335-x. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.