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5. Conclusions
Our empirical results clearly show that as compared to non-CSR firms, CSR winners
enjoy superior financial performance, and those firms with a higher media reputation will
ultimately exhibit better financial performance in the future. These findings provide
support for both Eberl and Schwaiger (2005) and Lai et al. (2010) — CSR performance
and media reputation can enhance the reputation of firms, ultimately leading to further
improvements in their financial performance.
We also propose that the media provides an important channel for delivering a signal
of CSR activities to the stakeholders in a firm; however, the impact of media reputation on
the financial performance of a firm is found to be superior to the impact from the signal
provided by CSR awards, with the reason for this potentially lying in the fact that the
positive image provided by CSR awards can be substituted by media reputation.
19
Firms participating in the CSR award competitions may actively attract the attention
of reporters and investors, and indeed, since such firms may well be continuously and
actively engaging in CSR activities, the related information is likely to be released through
media reports. Since those firms participating in the CSR award competitions may be
routinely involved in CSR activities and other related topics, this results in better media
coverage and less volatile news sentiment.
However, with the approach of the CSR award announcement date, a resultant
reversal in the sentiment ratio leading to a higher media reputation for non-CSR firms,
even exceeding that of CSR winners. This would seem to imply that non-CSR firms may
be trying to manipulate the media in an attempt to enhance their overall level of coverage
and create a positive image amongst investors so as to counteract the strong image
enjoyed by CSR winners. Nevertheless, our finding indicate that even if non-CSR firms
are provided with sufficient motivation to try to manipulate their media reputation prior to
CSR award announcements, it cannot improve their stock returns and CARs.
Following the announcement of their award, the better media reputation of CSR
winners can strengthen their image amongst investors and improve their future stock
market performance. Furthermore, the signaling effect of a firm winning a CSR award
(CSR dummy) has a significantly positive effect on its stock returns during the 90-day
19 See Deephouse (2000), Simpson and Kohers (2002), and Servaes and Tamayo (2013).