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EMAC 2024 Annual


How does Firms’ Social ESG Rating Influence Online Brand Equity
(A2024-119433)

Published: May 28, 2024

AUTHORS

Lingling Zhang, China Europe International Business; Yajin Wang, China Europe International Business; Hongyu Shan, China Europe International Business; Ziqing He, China Europe International Business School

ABSTRACT

Businesses across industries now increasingly incorporate their ESG ratings in strategy and marketing planning. One significant limitation is that rating agencies such as MSCI and RepRisk provide firm-level ESG metrics rather than brand level. Therefore, current ESG ratings lack the granularity to identify brand-specific ESG risks and opportunities, especially for brand house firms. Furthermore, extant ESG databases primarily consist of public news outlets, whereas social media has now become the main platforms where consumers discuss and engage with brand- and product-related content. To fill these gaps, we propose an innovative social ESG rating to measure how consumers react to brands’ ESG performance on social media. Collaborating with a leading data platform in China, which provides realtime data coverage of the major social media sites, we examine the volume and sentiment of the ESG topics mentioned for brands. Our initial results show that a brand’s social ESG rating is positively correlated with its online brand equity but provides unique orthogonal information. These findings provide evidence for the association between a brand’s ESG performance and its online brand equity. Using our metric, marketers can monitor consumers’ user-generated content on ESG issues and take actions accordingly.