The reputational contagion effects of ransomware attacks

Abstract

Little research examines investor attention outcomes spreading between firms through partial ownership, without additional business or industry linkages, including the spread of investor attention reactions to firms that are competitors to those firms having ownership stakes in impacted firms. We take advantage of the recent Colonial Pipeline ransomware attack, evidencing reputational contagion from firms impacted directly by reputation events to firms that are competitors of the firms that have significant ownership with the impacted firm, but otherwise no other industrial overlaps. Our results suggest investor attention events have greater breadth of impact than previously realized.