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Taking Stock Of Work-Family Initiatives: How Announcements Of "Family'friendly" Human Resource Decisions Affect Shareholder Value, M. M. Arthur, Alison Cook

Alison Cook

Sampling 231 work-family initiatives announced in the Wall Street Journal, this study examines the relationship between work-family human resource decisions and share price reaction. Consistent with past research, the results suggest that firm announcements of work-family initiatives positively affect shareholder return. In addition, we find that timing influences the relationship in three scenarios. First, pioneers of work-family initiatives generate larger share price reactions than later adopters of the same initiative. Second, the first work-family announcement a firm releases influences share price reaction more than successive work-family announcements by the same firm. Third, share price reactions to work-family human resource decisions …