Does Social Capital Mitigate Managerial Self-Dealing? Evidence From Insider Trading

Abstract

In this study, we examine whether the social capital surrounding the firm’s corporate headquarters mitigates managerial self-dealing in the form of opportunistic insider trading. We find strong evidence that the level of social capital in the region surrounding the firm’s headquarters is negatively and significantly associated with insider trading profitability. We also find that the negative association between social capital and insider trading profitability is more pronounced when governance is weaker and corporate opacity is higher, instances where insiders have greater opportunities to trade on their private information. Further analyses on the potential mechanisms suggest that the negative association is stronger when the firm’s social networks are denser and when the civic norms in the region are stronger. Overall, our article contributes to the growing social capital literature in accounting and finance by providing direct empirical evidence that social capital mitigates managerial self-serving behavior in the form of opportunistic insider trading.