The impact of accidents on firms' reputation for social performance

Drawing on the literatures of industrial crises, corporate reputation, and stakeholder theory, this article is an empirical investigation into the impact that accident characteristics have on the corporate reputation for social performance of the firms involved. The main findings are the following: First, environmental damage does have an impact on the reputational scores for social performance, whereas damage to human life, surprisingly, does not. Second, the complexity of an accident plays a role in the reevaluation of the social performance reputational scores. Third, industry executives and analysts differ in their reputational reevaluations of accidents with respect to the complexity of the event. The article concludes with a discussion of the implications of these findings