Can event studies be applied to non-stock listed organizations? – The impact of COVID-19 on social media p2p fundraising
(A2022-108163)

AUTHORS

Beatrice Martin, WHU - Otto Beisheim School of Management; Christian Schlereth, WHU - Otto Beisheim School of Management

ABSTRACT

Event studies are a powerful tool to study the impact of a sudden, unexpected event on the stock market value of a company. Having stock market data is one essential prerequisite. However, this requirement prevents applying the method to non-stock listed organizations, such as the non-profit sector or specific divisions of a company. This paper justifies whether and how it is possible to adapt event studies to other contexts. We showcase this adaptation by studying the impact of the start of the COVID-19 crisis on a new digital fundraising channel, namely social media peer-to-peer fundraising. We show that in contrast to previous crisis literature, COVID-19 positively impacted this channel. Our research further indicates that a non-profit’s public rating and its cause matters to fundraiser initiators on social media p2p fundraising during a crisis.