Role and Impact of Research Component 4: The effectiveness of capitalizing any corporate activities including ESG efforts in the stock markets is a function of two related elements: 1) the content value of the corporate actions and 2) the efficiency and quality of the relevant information disseminated to market, especially to the related institutional investors. For the second element, effective corporate communication is the key to success to achieve this goal. Unlike traditional financial data for which finance and accounting professionals get used to prepare under a mature mechanism, ESG data are non-financial and a new type of corporate information. Listed firms are expected to provide a professional investor relation function to handle significant information dissemination using channels such as annual shareholders’ meeting, earnings conference calls, and road shows.

In 2019, a team member of the research component organized focus groups with listed firm executives and learned that investor relation professionals including CFOs face difficulties in communicating ESG information to stakeholders. We are fortunate that the Hong Kong Investor Relation Association (HKIRA) has pledged its support to enhance our research process through participation of surveys and focus groups from their members. Through our strong professional network, we should be able to generate corporate communication solutions supported by our academic research. The output of this research will form a critical part of the overall ESG intelligence and have long-lasting effect academically and professionally as findings of our research can be used to enhance ESG communication effectiveness for listed firms.