Corporate response to natural disaster in the forms of cash and/or in-kind donations (corporate philanthropic disaster response, or CPDR) is a growing form of corporate philanthropy. Through an event study methodology based on 1,775 firms listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, we analyze shareholder reaction to CPDR announcements after the 2016 Kumamoto earthquakes in Japan. Controlling for the possibility that the most common explanations (buying goodwill and corporate governance) are at play, our results provide an empirical test of a little-explored explanation for the positive shareholder reaction to CPDR: namely, that corporate philanthropy is a market signal to outside investors of the firm’s future financial prospects. We find this explanation to be significant. Of note are also the facts that shareholder reaction is only significantly positive in the case of cash donation (as opposed to in-kind), and is more positive when announced early. Overall, our results align with the “strategic philanthropy” view grounded in resource-dependence theory. But instead of the typical focus on non-financial stakeholders, we argue that philanthropic donations can be used to directly influence investors.

企业以现金和/或实物捐赠（企业慈善救灾，或 CPDR）的形式对自然灾害作出反应是一种不断发展的企业慈善形式。通过基于在东京证券交易所上市的 1,775 家公司的事件研究方法，我们分析了 2016 年日本熊本地震后股东对 CPDR 公告的反应。控制最常见的解释（购买商誉和公司治理）发挥作用的可能性，我们的结果为股东对 CPDR 的积极反应提供了一个鲜为人知的解释的实证检验：即，公司慈善事业是一个市场信号公司未来财务前景的外部投资者。我们认为这个解释很重要。值得注意的是，股东的反应仅在现金捐赠（与实物捐赠相对）的情况下才会显着积极，并且在提前宣布时更为积极。总的来说，我们的结果与基于资源依赖理论的“战略慈善”观点一致。但是，我们认为慈善捐赠可以用来直接影响投资者，而不是通常关注非金融利益相关者。