Socially Responsible Investing and Sustainable Indices: A Sustainability Agenda

2021 ◽  
pp. 097468622110457
Author(s):  
Firdaus Khan M. R.

COVID-19 pandemic has brought climate change and socially responsible investing back to the forefront. Sustainable investing, though well-entrenched in developed countries, is slowly gaining traction in emerging markets. Sustainability indices operate as quality indicators and bridge information gap. This study explores the usefulness of three such indices and offers an autoregressive moving average model on Carbonex series for sustainable investments on Bombay Stock Exchange. However, the model fails to align with the long-term goals of socially responsible investing and the investor community needs to engage with regulators, corporations and rating agencies so that these sustainability indices can better serve their information needs and offer a valid measure of sustainable practices. COVID-19 brings with it the opportunity to ideate and envision innovative approaches to support a carbon-free economic agenda and to design eco-friendly infrastructure, planned urban development and transition to clean energy. Take–make–consume–waste attitude is out and the philosophy of preserve–endure–nurture–bequeath will be the new normal.

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (6) ◽  
pp. 253
Author(s):  
Chayakrit Asvathitanont ◽  
Nopphon Tangjitprom

The environmental, social, and governance (ESG) investment has evolved from the concept of socially responsible investing (SRI) starting in the period concerned with the civil rights movement and social responsibility. The concept of socially responsible investing has evolved into sustainable investment focusing on the companies that show concerns about environmental, social, and governance (ESG). This study aims to investigate the performance of ESG investment in the Stock Exchange of Thailand based on the list of companies with good performances in environmental, social and governance known as “ESG100 Companies” in Thailand. The performance of ESG investment is not different from the corresponding benchmarks. However, the risk of ESG portfolio is lower both in term of total risk and systematic risk, which results in the abnormal performance measured by Jensen’s Alpha. Finally, the list of ESG100 companies does not provide only static information in portfolio selection, but it can also provide information like the persistence in the list or the new inclusion to the list that can help in constructing the investment portfolio and generate abnormal performance.


2021 ◽  
pp. 231971452098028
Author(s):  
Vanita Tripathi ◽  
Amanpreet Kaur

Socially responsible investing (SRI) is the catalyst in aligning financial growth with sustainable development. The current study is an attempt to investigate the viability of responsible investment across major developing and developed countries of the world. The authors evaluate and compare the performance of socially responsible indices, against their general and conventional counterparts, in select developing and developed countries through market conditions of bull and bear over a 12-year window. Descriptive statistics and risk-adjusted-performance evaluation methods of performance evaluation reveal socially responsible investing to be non-penalizing in developing countries. Premium rewards earned by SRI help the responsibility indices in emerging countries secure topmost ranks, using Fama’s decomposition model. While no significance in difference of performance is found among the indices in overall period, the study finds that the SRI strategy in emerging economies can provide investors with a safe investment vehicle during adversity. Thus, SRI can provide diversification benefit to the international investor seeking country effect, social impact as well as financial reward through responsible investing. The study on SRI index evaluation implies useful insights for achieving global sustainability goals through the use of financial tools to every market participant, especially in the era of globalization.


2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Mohd Nizam Barom

Understanding Socially Responsible Investing and Its Implications for Islamic Investment Industry // // // // // Social, ethical and environmental concerns have been used as important consideration for investment decision by an increasing number of investors. This can be seen by the size and growth of the socially responsible investment (SRI) industry in the developed economies. At the same time, scholars and commentators of Islamic finance have also called for Islamic investment industry to learn from the experience of SRI in incorporating social responsibility issues in the investment process, in line with the ethical principles of Islam and the overall objective of the Shari’ah (Maqasid al-Shari’ah). This would require Islamic investment sector to have a clear understanding of the SRI industry in order to effectively benefit from its experience. This is particularly critical due to the significant diversity of investors and complexity in the issues and strategies adopted in the SRI industry. Hence, this paper adds to the Islamic investment literature by providing an extensive  and systematic survey of SRI industry in terms of its (i) underlying motivations and values; (ii) issues of concerns; (iii) types of investors; and (iv) screening strategies. It then synthesizes these components within the context of the ‘value-based’ investors. This synthesized framework offers a useful tool for Islamic investment practitioners to understand the theoretical and practical aspects of SRI. Subsequently, the paper highlights important implications of the findings for Islamic investment industry in terms of the issues that it needs to consider in emulating SRI practices and a number of lessons that it can learn from the SRI experience.  


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