Corporate Social Performance & the Quarterly Earnings Call: Insights From the Interactions Between Leading Companies and Wall Street Analysts, 2015-2017

Abstract

This research examines 240 quarterly earnings call transcripts from the top 10 companies on the 2017 U.S. Fortune 500 and Fortune Future lists, respectively. The research aims to assess (1) the ways and extent to which corporate executives communicate corporate social performance (CSP) on quarterly earnings calls, and (2) the ways and extent to which participating representatives from financial institutions respond to or request CSP information. This study suggests that corporate executives’ descriptions of CSP are, with some exceptions, intermittent across multiple years of earnings calls. Almost universally, financial firms represented on earnings calls offer few to no questions or comments regarding CSP. This paper argues that the relative absence of CSP-related dialogue between executives and analysts on quarterly earnings calls represents a missed opportunity for leading companies and financial institutions to affirm CSP as a dimension of mutually recognized value.