Keywords
Reports
Investment Decision
ESG
How to Cite
Abstract
Purpose: To conduct an experimental study with Brazilian investors to investigate the impact of ESG information on investment decisions, notably information regarding worker safety measures taken by publicly traded companies to mitigate the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic during an economic crisis caused by COVID-19
Methodology/approach: The experiment involved 70 participants, divided between specialists and non-specialists in the business field, who responded to questions about fund allocation preferences when exposed to conventional and ESG information sets. T-tests and one-way ANOVA were used to test the hypotheses.
Originality/Relevance: The justification for this study lies in the need to test the findings of Belkaoui (1980) and contemporary literature on the impact of ESG disclosure in the context of a profound health, social, and economic crisis caused by the pandemic.
Key findings: In this study, it can be concluded that companies receive larger investment amounts when they disclose ESG information regarding the company’s actions in sustainability, governance, inequality reduction, and measures to address the COVID-19 pandemic, and that in the presence of ESG information, investors allocate their funds to companies with better performance in these indicators."
Theoretical/methodological contributions: The study expands the existing literature on the impact of ESG information on investment decisions. Methodologically, the hypotheses of the linguistic relativity paradigm in accounting were validated through an experiment with Brazilian investors, involving both specialists and non-specialists, allowing for a more robust analysis of perceptions regarding ESG information.
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