Analyst coverage overlaps and similarity in corporate social activities

This study explores the relationship between analyst coverage overlaps and firm-pair corporate social responsibility (CSR) homogeneity in a sample of Chinese listed companies. We find that firm pairs sharing at least one common analyst exhibit greater similarity in their CSR activities, suggesting an information flow from analysts to the firms they cover. Our mechanism analysis shows that firm pairs covered by a greater number of CSR-oriented analysts engage in more homogeneous CSR activities, providing supporting evidence that analyst-induced information transmission contributes to interfirm CSR convergence. Further analyses show that the information spillover is more salient when shared analysts are more specialised and reputable and when firms face greater uncertainty. Moreover, we find that the positive association is more pronounced among state-owned enterprise pairs and that it varies across CSR domains. By highlighting analysts' broader role as information brokers who drive CSR knowledge spillovers and interfirm alignment, this study expands the application of resource dependence theory to include financial analysts as critical external resource providers within capital markets.