Doing good with or without being known? Media coverage of corporate social performance and its impact on corporate financial performance

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to examine the media coverage of corporate social performance (CSP), as well as the ultimate impact that such coverage has on the financial performance of corporate entities. Design/methodology/approach - Based on a sample of financial holding companies (FHC) listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange, the authors select the two most popular newspapers in Taiwan, to construct the unique media coverage of CSP activity database. Findings -First, the quantity of news articles about social activities of FHCs is positively correlated with financial performance. Second, the authors find that news articles about FHCs’ positive social activities for shareholders will trigger a positive evaluation by shareholders; however, news articles about FHCs’ positive (negative) social activities for employees will trigger a negative (positive) evaluation by shareholders. But if the news articles about FHCs’ positive social activities for employees are initiated by the media, rather than by the company itself, they will trigger a positive evaluation by shareholders. Originality/value -The average shareholders may praise management for one particular CSP activity of a positive nature, whereas they may criticize another CSP activity, despite it being generally regarded outside of the firm as also being positive in nature. It therefore becomes clear that when setting out to investigate whether “doing good” actually does translate into “doing well,” the authors should not attempt to total different kinds of information on CSP; In this paper, the authors emphasize that they need to be analyzed separately.