Christopher Bruno

Christopher Bruno, Jason Miklian, Kristian Hoelscher (Under Review), ESG Integration in conflict-affected settings*.

Christopher Bruno (Working), Going local: Corporate adaptation to communities’ most pressing social and environmental issues.

Abstract: Social and environmental issues vary across geographic communities – some prioritize poverty alleviation, while others face greater climate risks. Despite corporations operating across diverse local communities (e.g., cities), stakeholder strategy research often ignores this spatial variation. Further, many corporations apply standardized approaches from headquarters to leverage competencies, maintain coherence, and reduce costs despite the potential value of tailoring locally. This raises two questions: Is “going local” worth it, and when should corporations tailor engagement towards local issues versus apply standard approaches? I examine local issue adaptation (LIA), reflecting whether a corporation’s engagement is perceived to address a geographic community’s pressing social and environmental issues. Using a novel dataset of corporate operations, media coverage, and issue engagement across US cities, I find that LIA associates with more positive local sentiment, which translates into higher local sales. Findings also suggest that corporations perceived as deliberately adapting to local issues experience more positive sentiment where issue landscapes diverge from national patterns, while standardized approaches can suffice elsewhere. Supplementary analyses examine LIA’s antecedents and, separately, help validate local stakeholder reciprocity as a core mechanism underlying LIA’s effectiveness. This study contributes to stakeholder strategy by demonstrating the importance of local issue variation, revealing when LIA creates value.

Christopher Bruno (Working), Corporate headquarters departures, cohesion, and community welfare.

Abstract: The declining number of corporations poses economic challenges to US communities, yet research on the social welfare implications is limited. This study examines how a decrease in US corporate headquarters across cities from 2001 to 2018 differentially affected both the need for and supply of resources for welfare nonprofits. Utilizing a shift-share instrumental variable approach and city-year panel models, I show that declines in corporate headquarters led to increased poverty and decreased resources for welfare nonprofits in US cities. I also examine contingencies in which cities are more or less affected by corporate loss, focusing on the ability of residents to quickly mobilize and respond to shocks via political and social cohesion. Overall, the findings support an integrated view of nonprofit sector growth. Whereas prior research had only emphasized corporations’ effects on the supply of resources for nonprofits, this study demonstrates that they affect the demand for nonprofits as well. Considering both sides is essential for predicting changes in the nonprofit sector, and for management theory to address corporate impacts on society. Moreover, this study highlights the unique roles of political and social cohesion in communities rebounding from economic shocks such as the loss of corporate headquarters. Practically, findings inform public policy by unveiling the downstream social impacts of corporate departures on US cities.

Cecilia Varendh Mansson, Tyler Wry, Christopher Bruno (Under Review), The costs to digital technology adoption in social enterprises*.

Christopher Bruno, Adam J Cobb, Timothy Werner, Tyler Wry (Under Review), Expectations, polarizing social issues, and corporate silence*.

Christopher Bruno, Jack Auslander, James McGlinch (Under Revision), Stakeholder strategies for managing financial distress*.

Christopher Bruno, Witold Henisz, Anastasia Gracheva (Under Review), Managing political risk: a multidisciplinary perspective*.

Christopher Bruno, Adam J Cobb, Timothy Werner, Tyler Wry (Under Revision), Affective Polarization and Organizations*.

Christopher Bruno, Farhed Shah, Gary Robbins (2025), An Economic Model of Transboundary Water Agreements With Groundwater and Surface Water Interaction: Application to a US River Basin With a History of Conflict, Water Resources Research, 61 (7). 10.1029/2024WR037585

Abstract: This study examines the connection between groundwater and surface water in the design of transboundary compacts. A steady‐state hydro‐economic model is developed and applied to a river basin in the United States. Simulations demonstrate that when a water compact is designed to govern only surface water, the assigned allocations are nonbinding and lead to decreased river‐flow in the downstream region. When the compact is designed to govern surface water and groundwater usage combined, however, the assigned allocations are binding and changes in them can increase overall net benefits, with the extent dependent on flexibility in compact design.

Description: Key Points: • Allocation of transboundary water resources can cause conflict between regions, especially if mechanisms for allocation are not adequate • Economic analysis of transboundary water compacts often does not incorporate the connection between groundwater and surface water • We develop a hydro‐economic model that considers this connection and apply it to a case region in the US

Christopher Bruno and Witold Henisz (2024), Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) Outcomes and Municipal Credit Risk, Business & Society, 63 (8), pp. 1709-1756.

Abstract: We investigate the association between a wide range of community-level environmental, social, and governance (ESG) outcomes and the credit risk of U.S. municipal finance fixed-income securities. We develop a novel dataset of multiple ESG outcomes for U.S. counties and connect it to a 2001-2020 panel of municipal bonds issued within those counties. Overall, we find supportive evidence that collective increases in community-level ESG factors (i.e., ESG outcomes) are associated with reductions in credit risk for U.S. municipal finance instruments over time. We theorize that these associations arise from variations in investor perceptions and manifested changes in fiscal health over time as a function of changing ESG outcomes. Post hoc analyses leveraging quasi-exogenous shocks to uncertainty, as well as connecting ESG outcomes to various measures of fiscal health at the county-year level, and credit ratings at the bond-year level, help validate this theory. Our research suggests that even socially agnostic investors should investigate the environmental and social performance of a municipality as part of their credit due diligence.