Broad or Narrow Stakeholder Management? A Signaling Theory Perspective
基于信号理论，研究了企业环境、社会和治理（ESG）举措的广度与股权风险之间的U型关系，发现广泛ESG举措会带来信号一致性和加速的信号成本，且媒体负面报道会加剧这种关系。
To mitigate risk, should companies signal a broad range of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) initiatives or instead focus on only a few ESG issues? Drawing on signaling theory, we propose that a broad array of ESG initiatives generates not only signal consistency but also accelerating signal costs. Our empirical results support the resultant hypothesis of a curvilinear relationship between ESG scope and equity risk. In addition, this U-shaped curve seems to become steeper when firms face multiple media-reported ESG controversies. Overall, our study qualifies the conventional wisdom that firms can reduce equity risk by attending to a wide variety of stakeholders and highlights the moderating (signal-amplifying) impact of the firm’s media environment.