管科系系列讲座第193期预告

 

时间:2017年12月22日(周五)10:00

地点:史带楼303

主持人:吴肖乐副教授

主讲嘉宾:Xiaomeng Guo is an Assistant Professor at Department of Logistics and Maritime Study, Faculty of Business, Hong Kong Polytechnic University

TitleEffect of Consumer Awareness on Corporate Social Responsibility under Asymmetric Information

Abstract: This paper studies the interaction between a firm and consumers under the consideration of corporate social responsibility. The firm can be either socially responsible or socially irresponsible; however, the consumers cannot observe the firm’s exact type, which is private information. The firm can try to signal its type through pricing and other information sharing mechanism (e.g., issue sustainability reports and obtain third-party certifications). We find that due to the existence of asymmetric information, increasing consumer awareness on corporate social responsibility does not necessarily help promote responsible corporate behaviors. Specifically, when a larger fraction of consumers become socially concerned or when the consumers have stronger willingness to reward (punish) the responsible (irresponsible) firm, the responsible firm could be worse off whereas the irresponsible firm could be better off. This is because the seemingly attractive trend in consumer behavior will affect the responsible firm’s signaling cost as well as its equilibrium strategy (separating vs. pooling). In addition, we find that improving the signaling accuracy will always benefit the responsible firm but it may or may not hurt the irresponsible firm. Our results suggest that addressing the information asymmetry issue is the key in promoting corporate social responsibility. In particular, concerned parties should first exert efforts to create transparency of firms’ sustainability practices before making investments to educate consumers and influence their purchasing behaviors. 

 

管理科学系

2017-12-4