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Business ethics, company value and ownership structure

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Abstract

This paper examines the effect of ethical performance on the value of a company and the attractiveness of its stocks for major owners; institutional investors and insiders. Using the Ethisphere® Institute Ethics Quotient to distinguish between ethical and unethical companies, results show that good ethical performance enhanced company value for a sample of 240 large US companies. Furthermore, strong evidence is found that institutional investors are attracted to ethical companies, but that insiders do not show any investment preferences based on the ethical performance of a company.

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Notes

  1. According to US SIF, assets under SRI strategies went from $2.1 bn in 1999 to $3.7 bn in 2002. EURO SIF claims 1.7 € bn in 2005, increasing to 11.7 € bn in 2011 which includes norm-based screening since 2009.

  2. http://lexicon.ft.com/Term?term=corporate-social-responsibility--(CSR).

  3. http://www.ethicalsystems.org/content/compliance-ethics-programs.

  4. https://www.worldsmostethicalcompanies.com/scoring-methodology.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Business Administration, University of Bahrain (Bh), Zallaq, Bahrain

    Mehdi Mili

  2. Faculty of Law, Economics and Business, University of Jendouba (Tn), Jendouba, Tunisia

    Sami Gharbi

  3. IPAG Business School (Fr), Paris, France

    Frédéric Teulon

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  1. Mehdi Mili
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  2. Sami Gharbi
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  3. Frédéric Teulon
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Correspondence to Sami Gharbi.

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Mili, M., Gharbi, S. & Teulon, F. Business ethics, company value and ownership structure. J Manag Gov 23, 973–987 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10997-019-09475-z

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