ESG controversies and the cost of equity capital of European listed companies: the moderating effects of ESG performance and market securities regulation

Fabio La Rosa and Francesca Bernini

International Journal of Accounting & Information Management, 2022, vol. 30, issue 5, 641-663

Abstract: Purpose - This paper aims to investigate the effect of environmental, social and governance (ESG) controversies on the cost of equity (COE) capital, exploring the moderating role of both positive ESG performance and market securities regulation. Design/methodology/approach - This paper adopts a sample of 2,599 time observations related to European listed companies for which the authors examine a set of 30 negative ESG scores across the three pillars in terms of controversies, compliance and other negative issues. This study uses the average of seven implied COE estimates. Findings - The results show that negative ESG performance, particularly environmental controversies, increases the COE, although this impact is mitigated when associated with company efforts to improve environmental performance. Besides, environmental controversies are likely to increase the COE in countries where the market regulation is stronger, as a consequence of higher investors’ expectations towards the scrutiny role of more efficient markets against companies’ controversies. Practical implications - Companies should take care seriously of environmental issues such as biodiversity, product impact and resource impact, because investors do react accordingly. As despite no direct effects of positive ESG performance are observed in terms of COE reduction, the mitigating role on the ESG controversies–COE relationship makes ESG practices still significant for European investors. Social implications - The effects of ESG performance on company financial performance should be investigated under the assumption that bad events weight more than positive ESG performance. Originality/value - Because no prior studies have specifically assessed the effect of the European listed companies’ ESG controversies on their COE, this paper delivers insights into the relationship between positive and negative ESG performance and their effects on capital market financing.

Keywords: ESG controversies; ESG performance; Cost of equity; Market securities regulation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.110 ... d&utm_campaign=repec (text/html)
https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.110 ... d&utm_campaign=repec (application/pdf)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers

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:eme:ijaimp:ijaim-03-2022-0047

DOI: 10.1108/IJAIM-03-2022-0047

Access Statistics for this article

International Journal of Accounting & Information Management is currently edited by Dr Xin (Robert) Luo and Professor Han Donker

More articles in International Journal of Accounting & Information Management from Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Emerald Support ().