Research Seminar: Professor Jonathan Doh

Title: ESG Performance and Capital Market Survival: Evidence from Foreign Firms’ Delisting on U.S. Stock Exchanges

Abstract: Drawing on institutional theory as it relates to the liability of foreignness and approaches to overcome those liabilities via legitimacy-enhancing strategies, we propose that ESG performance confers legitimacy upon foreign firms and enhances their prospects for survival in capital markets. We also investigate two country-level factors that we suggest moderate the effect of ESG performance on capital market survival: The political affinity and FDI interdependence between the home and host country. High political affinity signifies aligned national interests and thus reduces perceived regulative distance and associated political risks. The result is that legitimacy concerns faced by foreign firms are alleviated and therefore the benefits of higher sustainability performance on legitimacy or less pronounced. We also suggest that higher levels of FDI interdependence between host and home country enhance the cognitive legitimacy of foreign firms, reducing the benefits of ESG performance as a legitimacy signal. We test our intuition on a sample of 829 foreign firms that were listed on U.S. stock exchanges between 2010 and 2021 and find broad support for our hypotheses that is robust under multiple specifications.

Bio: Jonathan Doh is Senior Associate Dean for Research, Faculty Development, and Global Engagement; Rammrath Chair in International Business; Founding Faculty Director of the Moran Center for Global Leadership, and Professor of Management at the Villanova School of Business. He teaches and does research at the intersection of international business, strategic management, and corporate sustainability. Doh has been a visiting professor at Vienna University of Economic and Business, University of Auckland, and University of Sydney, among others. Previously, he was on the faculty of American and Georgetown Universities and a trade official with the U.S. Department of Commerce, with responsibilities related to NAFTA and North American trade. Jonathan is author or co-author of more than 100 refereed articles, 35 chapters, a dozen teaching cases and simulations, and eight books. His articles have appeared in leading management journals, including the Academy of Management Review, Journal of International Business Studies, Journal of Management, Journal of Management Studies, Management Information Studies Quarterly, Organization Science, Strategic Management Journal, among others. His co-authored books include Multinationals and Development (Yale University Press, 2007), NGOs and Corporations: Conflict and Collaboration (Cambridge University Press, 2009), Aligning for Advantage: Competitive Strategies for the Political and Social Arenas (Oxford University Press, 2014), and International Management: Culture, Strategy, and Behavior (McGraw-Hill/Irwin), which is in its 12th edition. Jonathan made more than 200 presentations to the Academy of Management, Academy of International Business and others, and served these groups in numerous leadership capacities. He has been Associate or Consulting Editor of numerous journals and was Editor-in-Chief of Journal of World Business from 2014-2018 and General Editor for Journal of Management Studies. He is currently Editor (Sustainability) at JIBS. He has won numerous awards for his teaching, research and service, including the Villanova Outstanding Research Award, Villanova’s highest award for research accomplishment. In addition, he has consulted and/or provided executive training for more than 120 global organizations. He is a fellow of both the Academy of International Business and the Academy of Management. He was ranked the 12th most prolific international business scholar in the world for the period 2001-2009 (Lahiri & Kumar, 2012) 298 out of 44,945 scholars in business and management (Stanford University Scientists Ranking, 2023), placing him among the top .65%, and he has more than 24,000 Google Scholar citations. He holds a Ph.D. in strategic and international management from George Washington University.

Note: Tea/coffee and sandwiches will be served between 2:15 - 3:15 pm at Lower Ground Floor.

Photographs will be taken during this seminar and may be shared on social media. If you do not wish to appear, please notify tbs.research@tcd.ie.