Companies behaving badly suffer in the long run, according to research from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology. “Is dirty business more efficient than ethically sound business?” asked Julian Kölbel, a masters student in the department of management, technology and economics at ETH. He looked for a correlation between negative publicity on environmental and social issues and a company’s share price.

Using a reputational risk index compiled by Ecofact, Mr Kölbel found companies scoring highly in the index (critical press coverage) outperformed in the short term but underperformed over a longer period.