scholarly journals The Link Between SRI and Financial Performance: Effects and Moderators

2013 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 105-122 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christophe Revelli ◽  
Jean-Laurent Viviani
Keyword(s):  
Financial Performance ◽  
Meta Analysis ◽  
Socially Responsible Investment ◽  
Empirical Literature ◽  
Empirical Methods ◽  
Socially Responsible ◽  
Responsible Investment ◽  
Counting Approach ◽  
Performance Effects ◽  
Vote Counting

Over the last twenty years, the debate on financial performance of socially responsible investment (SRI) has not yielded a clear consensus, arguing mainly that there was no difference in performance between SRI and ‘conventional’ investment, although SRI could underperform or outperform in some cases. Our research, based on a meta-analysis ‘vote-counting’ approach of the empirical literature, allows us to observe that the effects of SRI on financial performance are multiple. Second, we conclude that the financial performance of SRI is radically changing according to the empirical methods employed by researchers.

Environmentally friendly and socially responsible investment in and by occupational pension funds in the USA and in the EU

2021 ◽  
pp. 138826272110269
Author(s):  
Lauren Daniels ◽  
Yves Stevens ◽  
David Pratt
Keyword(s):  
Financial Performance ◽  
Investment Decision ◽  
Pension Funds ◽  
Socially Responsible Investment ◽  
Occupational Pension ◽  
Socially Responsible ◽  
Responsible Investment ◽  
Occupational Pensions ◽  
The Usa ◽  
The Eu

Worldwide pension funds, in their capacity as large institutional investors, are under increasing pressure to take social and environmental considerations into account in their investment decision-making process. The concepts Socially Responsible Investment (SRI) and Environmental Social Governance (ESG) are indeed ubiquitous in the current investment and pension community. This article aims to provide some insight into the conceptual relationship between SRI and ESG and its legal implications for the investment behaviour of private pension funds in the USA and the EU. Hence, the first part of the article gives some background to the distinct concepts of SRI and ESG. This leads to the finding that SRI goes one step further than ESG by prioritising moral or ethical considerations that may not be material to an investment’s financial performance, whereas ESG functions as a guideline to enhance financial performance. The second part analyses the legal possibilities and constraints for responsible investment in American occupational pensions and the third part does the same for European occupational pensions. The article concludes with a summary and comparative overview of the American and European lessons.

Investor reactions to socially responsible investment

2015 ◽  
Vol 53 (3) ◽  
pp. 571-604 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carmen Pilar Martí-Ballester
Keyword(s):  
Mutual Fund ◽  
Fixed Effects ◽  
Time Horizon ◽  
Pension Plan ◽  
Pension Plans ◽  
Socially Responsible Investment ◽  
Socially Responsible ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Responsible Investment ◽  
Management Fees

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to analyze investor reactions to ethical screening by pension plan managers. Design/methodology/approach – The author presents a sample consisting of data corresponding to 573 pension plans in relation to such aspects as financial performance, inception date, asset size, number of participants, custodial and management fees, and whether their managers adopt ethical screening or give part of their profits to social projects. On this data the author implements the fixed effects panel data model proposed by Vogelsang (2012). Findings – The results obtained indicate that investors/consumers prefer traditional or solidarity pension plans to ethical pension plans. Furthermore, the findings show that ethical investors/consumers are more (less) sensitive to positive (negative) lagged returns than caring and traditional consumers, causing traditional consumers to contribute to pension plans that they already own. Research limitations/implications – The author does not know what types of environmental, social and corporate governance criteria have been adopted by ethical pension plan managers and the weight given to each of these criteria for selecting the stock of the firms in their portfolios that could influence in the investors’ behaviour. Practical implications – The results obtained in the current paper show that investors invest less money in ethical pension plans than in traditional and solidarity pension plans; this could be due to the lack of information for their part. To solve this, management companies could increase the transparency about their corporate social responsibility (CSR) investments to encourage investors to invest in ethical products so these lead to raising CSR standards in companies, and therefore, sustainable development. Social implications – The Spanish socially responsible investment retail market is still at an early phase of development, and regulators should promote it in order to encourage firms to adopt business activities that take into account societal concerns. Originality/value – This paper provides new evidence in a field little analysed. This paper contributes to the existing literature by focusing on examining the behaviour of pension funds investors whose investment time horizon is in the long-term while previous literature focus on analysing behaviour of mutual fund investors whose investment time horizon is in the short/medium term what could cause different investors’ behaviour.

Exit versus voice – options for socially responsible investment in collective pension plans

2019 ◽  
Vol 36 (2) ◽  
pp. 246-264
Author(s):  
Peter Dietsch
Keyword(s):  
Final Section ◽  
Decision Procedures ◽  
Pension Plans ◽  
Socially Responsible Investment ◽  
Institutional Arrangements ◽  
Conventional Wisdom ◽  
Effective Strategy ◽  
Socially Responsible ◽  
Reasonable Disagreement ◽  
Responsible Investment

AbstractWhat do we owe participants in collective pension plans in terms of socially responsible investment (SRI)? This paper draws into question current conventional wisdom on SRI, which considers investor engagement a more effective strategy than divestment to change morally problematic corporate behaviour. More fundamentally, in light of reasonable disagreement about the objective of SRI, the paper argues that participants in collective pension plans are owed some kind of control over their investments. The final section considers four different institutional arrangements to respect this requirement in practice, ranging from democratic decision procedures to the availability of SRI alternatives.

scholarly journals Financial Performance of Government Bond Portfolios Based on Environmental, Social and Governance Criteria

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (9) ◽  
pp. 2514 ◽  
Author(s):  
Guillermo Badía ◽  
Vicente Pina ◽  
Lourdes Torres
Keyword(s):  
Financial Performance ◽  
Performance Measures ◽  
Socially Responsible Investment ◽  
Government Bond ◽  
Socially Responsible ◽  
Government Bonds ◽  
Responsible Investment ◽  
Bond Portfolios ◽  
Financial Performance Measures

We evaluated the financial performance of government bond portfolios formed according to socially responsible investment (SRI) criteria. We thus open a discussion on the financial performance of SRI for government bonds. Our sample includes 24 countries over the period of June 2006 to December 2017. Using various financial performance measures, the results suggest that high-rated government bonds, according to environmental, social, and governance (ESG) dimensions, outperform low-ranked bonds under any cut-off, although differences are not statistically significant. These findings suggest that ESG screenings can be used for government bonds without sacrificing financial performance.

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