Publication Type

Journal Article

Version

acceptedVersion

Publication Date

10-2016

Abstract

Sequences of individual words make up media reports. And sequences of media reports constitute the power of the news media to influence corporate practices. In this paper, we focus on the micro-foundations of news reports to elaborate how an atmosphere of negative news reports following an initial exposure of corporate pollution activity can help stop such activity through their impact on corporate managers. We extend our understanding of the corporate governance effect of news media by considering two new aspects of reports—one, the proportion of words in negative reports relative to the total number of words in all reports; and two, the geographical origin of news media. We suggest that the more negative the media coverage, and the more local this coverage, the greater the impact on corporations. Our study of news media reports from more than 600 newspaper sources on disciplining pollution activities of listed Chinese firms from 2004 to 2012 provides strong support for our hypotheses. These findings have valuable implications for the handling of pollution issues in transitional economies via the power of news words.

Keywords

Word count, Negative reports, Geographic location, Corporate pollution

Discipline

Business and Corporate Communications | Business Law, Public Responsibility, and Ethics

Publication

Journal of Business Ethics

Volume

138

Issue

3

First Page

437

Last Page

458

ISSN

0167-4544

Identifier

10.1007/s10551-015-2596-2

Publisher

Springer Verlag (Germany)

Copyright Owner and License

Authors

Additional URL

https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-015-2596-2

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