Public Reaction and Corporate Stock Performance under Biodiversity Concerns: Insights from a Recent Himalayan Firework Incident

Chia-Hsuan Hsu and Jiefeng Kang

No zypvs_v1, SocArXiv from Center for Open Science

Abstract: Biodiversity provides essential ecological, economic, and cultural value, yet it continues to decline under anthropogenic pressures driven largely by economic development. Although many corporations are developing biodiversity-related measures and reporting frameworks, their actual environmental awareness and responsibility remain critical. On 19 September 2025, the outdoor sports brand Arc’teryx held a large-scale fireworks event, Ascending Dragon in the Himalayas, in Shigatse, China, which drew widespread criticism for its potential negative environmental impacts. To evaluate the societal and financial consequences of this incident, we analyzed Chinese public responses based on Weibo discourse (public reaction), Baidu Search Index (public attention), and the stock performance of Anta, Arc’teryx’s parent company. Both reaction and attention peaked two days after the event, and we found a negative correlation between online trends and stock performance. Causal analysis further demonstrated a significant causal influence of Baidu search activity related to Anta on its stock price. Textual analysis revealed that public concern centered primarily on environmental impacts, followed by expectations of corporate responsibility. To our knowledge, this is the first study to demonstrate that a negative environmental event, together with the resulting public reaction and attention, can directly and immediately influence a company’s financial performance. These findings underscore the importance of genuine biodiversity awareness and responsible decision-making in corporate practice.

Date: 2025-11-21
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cna
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://osf.io/download/691fdb7722f1c3f841b54d18/

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:osf:socarx:zypvs_v1

DOI: 10.31219/osf.io/zypvs_v1

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in SocArXiv from Center for Open Science
Bibliographic data for series maintained by OSF ().