The effect of corporate reputation on investors' decisions following a stock price shock

Corporate reputation is an important predictor of stock investors’ decisions. The aim of this study was to investigate whether corporate reputation remains a significant factor in investment decisions in the event of a price shock contrary to investors' expectations. A vignette study was designed to simulate a stock exchange. We also controlled for selected behavioural characteristics. The induced perception of collective corporate reputation was found to be important for investment decisions. However, the findings indicated that after a price shock, this factor became insignificant. Furthermore, most of the participants decreased their propensity to invest. Hence, the observation was split into two cases. In the case of a good corporate reputation and a decrease in stock prices, relatively fewer investors decided to decrease their propensity to invest. Nevertheless, male investors and those with a greater need for cognition were more likely to exhibit the same or higher propensity to invest after the shock price. In the case of a poor corporate reputation and an increase in stock prices, more investors decided to decrease their propensity to invest. However, the changes in propensity to invest were driven only by the initial amount of money invested.