JOURNAL OF APPLIED BUSINESS AND ECONOMICS
Economic Outcomes of Corporate Espionage
Author(s): Chengcheng Li, Yi Liu, Xiaoqiong Wang
Citation: Chengcheng Li, Yi Liu, Xiaoqiong Wang, (2020) "Economic Outcomes of Corporate Espionage," Journal of Applied Business and Economics, Vol. 22, Iss.3, pp. 139-149
Article Type: Research paper
Publisher: North American Business Press
Abstract:
This paper investigates the economic outcomes of corporate espionage (also known as trade secrets) lawsuits. Utilizing 137 hand-collected trade secret cases, we find significantly positive (negative) abnormal returns for the favorable (unfavorable) court decisions up to 5 days around the court decision dates. Our findings are consistent with two hypotheses: information leaking before the event and investor overreaction/underreaction on and after the event days. Our analysis on firm fundamentals show that the consequences of losing trade secret lawsuits are long-lasting. The findings indicate that the punishment incorporated by the market is more severe for the losing firms.