Does Social Network Sentiment Influence S&P 500 Environmental & Socially Responsible Index?

M. Ángeles López-Cabarcos, Ada M. Pérez-Pico and M. Luisa López-Pérez
Additional contact information
M. Ángeles López-Cabarcos: Department of Business Administration, University of Santiago de Compostela, Faculty of Business Administration and Management, Ave. Alfonso X El Sabio s/n-27002 Lugo, Spain
Ada M. Pérez-Pico: Department of Business Administration, University of Santiago de Compostela, Faculty of Business Administration and Management, Ave. Alfonso X El Sabio s/n-27002 Lugo, Spain
M. Luisa López-Pérez: Department of Business Administration, University of Santiago de Compostela, Faculty of Business Administration and Management, Ave. Alfonso X El Sabio s/n-27002 Lugo, Spain

Sustainability, 2019, vol. 11, issue 2, 1-10

Abstract: The influence of social network sentiment on stock market indices and companies has been proven in several studies. However, the influence of social network sentiment on sustainability indices and sustainable companies has not been analyzed so far. Therefore, this study analyzed the influence of social network sentiment on sustainability indices (S&P 500 Environmental & Socially Responsible Index) and focused on variations of this influence on sustainable and non-sustainable companies, namely, in companies included in the Information Technology sector. To this end, two methodologies were used: GARCH (1,1) models and logit-probit models. The results showed that social network sentiment influences S&P 500 Environmental & Socially Responsible Index’s volatility; this influence was greater than the influence of social network sentiment when considering the S&P 500 Index. Additionally, the results showed that social network sentiment influences sustainable companies’ returns but had no effect on unsustainable companies’ returns. These results highlighted the importance of managing the companies’ profiles in social networks and their corporate image in general, because investors will consider these aspects to design their investment strategies.

Keywords: sustainability indices; S&P 500 Environmental & Socially Responsible Index; social network sentiment; S&P 500 Index; Information Technology sector (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/2/320/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/2/320/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:11:y:2019:i:2:p:320-:d:196371

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().