Date of Award
5-2026
Degree Type
Doctoral Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Business Administration (DBA)
Department
Jack Welch College of Business & Technology
Dissertation Supervisor
Dr. Loran Chollete
Committee Member
Dr. Md. Nazmul Islam
Committee Member
Dr. Mahfuja Malik
Abstract
This study examines whether biodiversity-related risks are priced in global equity markets and whether that pricing varies across regions, using a cross-sectional sample of more than 10,000 globally listed firms with biodiversity and financial data drawn from the fourth quarter of 2025. Consistent with a regional heterogeneity hypothesis, the results show that biodiversity risk is significantly negatively associated with firm valuation in developed markets such as the United States and OECD countries, while the relationship is weaker, insignificant, or even positive in certain emerging regions including Latin America and the Middle East and Africa. The analysis further distinguishes between value-chain and direct company-level biodiversity exposure, finding that value-chain exposure exhibits a more consistent association with firm valuation across the full sample, consistent with a double materiality framework in which supply-chain dependencies transmit biodiversity risk beyond direct operations. The findings support the view that biodiversity constitutes a financially material risk in global capital markets and suggest that firms — particularly those in developed markets — should integrate nature-related dependencies and impacts into their risk management and capital allocation frameworks rather than treating biodiversity solely as an ESG reporting obligation.
JEL Classification
G12, G15
Recommended Citation
Wentzel, M. (2026). Biodiversity risk and firm valuation: Regional heterogeneity and value-chain exposure in global capital markets. Jack Welch College of Business & Technology dissertation, Sacred Heart University, Fairfield CT. Retrieved from https://digitalcommons.sacredheart.edu/wcob_theses/52/
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Included in
Business Administration, Management, and Operations Commons, Corporate Finance Commons, Finance and Financial Management Commons
Comments
Submitted as partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Business Administration in Finance Sacred Heart University, Jack Welch College of Business and Technology, Sacred Heart University
Dissertation Number DBA01/2026