Christopher Bruno

• 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 and Jack Auslander (Under Revision), Stakeholder strategies for managing financial distress*.
• 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.

• Ulrich Atz, Tracy Van Holt, Zoe Liu, Christopher Bruno (2022), Does Sustainability Generate Better Financial Performance? Review, Meta-analysis, and Propositions, Journal of Sustainable Finance & Investment. Abstract

  Sustainability in business and ESG (environmental, social, and governance) in finance have exploded in popularity among researchers and practitioners. We surveyed 1,141 primary peer-reviewed papers and 27 meta-reviews (based on ∼1,400 underlying studies) published between 2015 and 2020. Aggregate conclusions from a sample suggest that the financial performance of ESG investing has on average been indistinguishable from conventional investing (with one in three studies indicating superior performance) – in contrast with research in the wider management literature as well as industry reports. Until recently top finance journals did not publish climate change related studies, yet these studies capture the frontier of corporate risk and ESG investment strategies. We developed three propositions: first, ESG integration as a strategy seems to perform better than screening or divestment; second, ESG investing provides asymmetric benefits, especially during a social or economic crisis; and third, decarbonization strategies can potentially capture a climate risk premium.

• Co-instructor – Essentials of Entrepreneurship (Wharton Global Youth Program ’25)
• Teaching Assistant – Political & Social Environment of the Multinational Firm: ESG & Geo-strategy (’25)
• Guest Lecturer – Instrumental Variables (Undergraduate, Evaluating Evidence ’24)
• Recitation Instructor – Introduction to Management (Undergraduate ’22)
• Teaching Assistant – Advanced Global Strategy (MBA and Executive MBA, ’21 – ’23)

Past Courses

• MGMT1010 - Intro To Management

  We all spend much of our lives in organizations. Most of us are born in organizations, educated in organizations, and work in organizations. Organizations emerge because individuals can't (or don't want to) accomplish their goals alone. Management is the art and science of helping individuals achieve their goals together. Managers in an organization determine where their organization is going and how it gets there. More formally, managers formulate strategies and implement those strategies. This course provides a framework for understanding the opportunities and challenges involved in formulating and implementing strategies by taking a "system" view of organizations,which means that we examine multiple aspects of how managers address their environments, strategy, structure, culture, tasks, people, and outputs, and how managerial decisions made in these various domains interrelate. The course will help you to understand and analyze how managers can formulate and implement strategies effectively. It will be particularly valuable if you are interested in management consulting, investment analysis, or entrepreneurship - but it will help you to better understand and be a more effective contributor to any organizations you join, whether they are large, established firms or startups. This course must be taken for a grade.

• When Does Corporate Silence Backfire?, Knowledge at Wharton - 08/13/2025 Description

  Companies are increasingly expected to weigh in on politically polarizing issues, from voting rights to LGBTQ+ legislation. But not all do — and for some, silence carries little risk. New research from Wharton academics finds that backlash tends to follow only when companies are expected to speak out. For those firms, staying quiet may invite the very criticism they hoped to avoid.

Knowledge @ Wharton

• Inside Time’s Best Inventions and Innovation Selection Process, Knowledge @ Wharton - 12/18/2025
• Free Versus Fair Trade in a Changing Global Economy, Knowledge @ Wharton - 12/17/2025
• Breaking Down the College Football Playoff With Advanced Metrics, Knowledge @ Wharton - 12/17/2025
• Decoding the AI Bubble: Tulips, Dot-Coms, or Something Else?, Knowledge @ Wharton - 12/16/2025
• Can Reminders Help You Save More Money?, Knowledge @ Wharton - 12/15/2025
• How Banks Can Be Change Agents in Climate Consciousness, Knowledge @ Wharton - 12/15/2025
• Why Today’s AI Bubble May Fuel Tomorrow’s Economic Growth, Knowledge @ Wharton - 12/12/2025
• Best of 2025, Knowledge @ Wharton - 12/12/2025
• Understanding the True Costs Behind Credit Card Lending, Knowledge @ Wharton - 12/10/2025
• Best of 2025, Knowledge @ Wharton - 12/09/2025