scholarly journals Socially responsible investment: A view from the social rating agencies of Vigeo-Eiris and MSCI ESG STATS

2018 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 27-40 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. A. González Bueno ◽  
J. Núñez Rodríguez
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Investment Decision ◽  
Socially Responsible Investment ◽  
Decision Making Process ◽  
Socially Responsible ◽  
Responsible Investment ◽  
Rating Agencies ◽  
Investment Decision Making ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Rating

The concern of investors for environmental, social and corporate governance issues is giving rise to certain changes in the investment decision-making process. Given this situation, socially responsible investment has received the attention of practitioners and academics, and has reached a significant level of development in financial community in recent years. The main goal of this paper is to examine social rating methodologies developed by the two most renowned agencies worldwide: MSCI ESG STATS and Vigeo-Eiris.

scholarly journals Challenges for Responsible Investment in the retirement benefits sector of Kenya.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth Mathenge
Keyword(s):  
Risk Factors ◽  
Decision Making ◽  
Investment Decision ◽  
Decision Making Process ◽  
Financial Returns ◽  
Retirement Benefits ◽  
Responsible Investment ◽  
Investment Decision Making ◽  
Asset Managers ◽  
Specific Barriers

<p>Responsible investment (RI) is the investment strategy that incorporates environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors into the investment decision-making process (Hebb, Hawley, Hoepner, Neher, & Wood, 2015). RI has shifted from what was considered a niche market to become one of the fastest-growing areas of finance in many parts of the world (PRI, 2019b). However, a closer look at the development of RI and adoption rates in countries and regions reveals that RI is not commonly practised in sub-Sahara Africa (except for South Africa). This study explores the critical challenges for RI development in the retirement benefits sector of Kenya and, by engaging with a variety of key stakeholders, proposes how to overcome the identified challenges. It contributes to the literature on challenges for RI in a developing country by offering an in-depth case study of the retirement benefits sector.<br></p><p>My study employs qualitative methods to collect and analyse data collected from semi-structured interviews with 22 participants (asset managers, regulators and capital market experts, and a council member of the Association of Retirement Benefits Schemes of Kenya) as well as a collection of published documents by government agencies in Kenya. Also, I analysed 10 annual reports to assess the kind of ESG information that is disclosed by listed companies. My study explores, in particular, how actors in the retirement benefits sector conceptualise RI. It identifies the leading ESG factors in Kenya and draws on the business-case approach to RI to explore whether the participants consider those factors as material risk factors that present both risks and opportunities to the investment decision-making process. Further, my study identifies the specific barriers for RI development and proposes how to overcome them. </p><p>The findings show that participants define RI using several terminologies. This is consistent with the existing literature. My study finds that all participants consider corporate governance as a material risk factor that can impact the financial returns of a portfolio. However, most of the asset managers do not think that the environmental and social factors can present material risk factors to their investment decision-making process. Although over a third of the asset managers recognise that the environmental and social issues in Kenya present business opportunities to retirement benefits schemes, there is a shortage of well-structured assets in those areas. Further, this study identifies five specific barriers for RI development: diversification challenges; a lack of ESG data; a lack of demand/incentives; short-termism; and the demand for high financial returns and a lack of awareness and expert knowledge of RI practices. My study recommends that the National Treasury of Kenya develops RI policy for the entire finance sector. In addition, the findings support a recommendation for the Capital Markets Authority and the Retirement Benefits Authority to embark on capacity building programmes to educate the actors in the finance sector on RI strategies and to create awareness of the impact of ESG on financial returns in the long run. </p>

scholarly journals Challenges for Responsible Investment in the retirement benefits sector of Kenya.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth Mathenge
Keyword(s):  
Risk Factors ◽  
Decision Making ◽  
Investment Decision ◽  
Decision Making Process ◽  
Financial Returns ◽  
Retirement Benefits ◽  
Responsible Investment ◽  
Investment Decision Making ◽  
Asset Managers ◽  
Specific Barriers

<p>Responsible investment (RI) is the investment strategy that incorporates environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors into the investment decision-making process (Hebb, Hawley, Hoepner, Neher, & Wood, 2015). RI has shifted from what was considered a niche market to become one of the fastest-growing areas of finance in many parts of the world (PRI, 2019b). However, a closer look at the development of RI and adoption rates in countries and regions reveals that RI is not commonly practised in sub-Sahara Africa (except for South Africa). This study explores the critical challenges for RI development in the retirement benefits sector of Kenya and, by engaging with a variety of key stakeholders, proposes how to overcome the identified challenges. It contributes to the literature on challenges for RI in a developing country by offering an in-depth case study of the retirement benefits sector.<br></p><p>My study employs qualitative methods to collect and analyse data collected from semi-structured interviews with 22 participants (asset managers, regulators and capital market experts, and a council member of the Association of Retirement Benefits Schemes of Kenya) as well as a collection of published documents by government agencies in Kenya. Also, I analysed 10 annual reports to assess the kind of ESG information that is disclosed by listed companies. My study explores, in particular, how actors in the retirement benefits sector conceptualise RI. It identifies the leading ESG factors in Kenya and draws on the business-case approach to RI to explore whether the participants consider those factors as material risk factors that present both risks and opportunities to the investment decision-making process. Further, my study identifies the specific barriers for RI development and proposes how to overcome them. </p><p>The findings show that participants define RI using several terminologies. This is consistent with the existing literature. My study finds that all participants consider corporate governance as a material risk factor that can impact the financial returns of a portfolio. However, most of the asset managers do not think that the environmental and social factors can present material risk factors to their investment decision-making process. Although over a third of the asset managers recognise that the environmental and social issues in Kenya present business opportunities to retirement benefits schemes, there is a shortage of well-structured assets in those areas. Further, this study identifies five specific barriers for RI development: diversification challenges; a lack of ESG data; a lack of demand/incentives; short-termism; and the demand for high financial returns and a lack of awareness and expert knowledge of RI practices. My study recommends that the National Treasury of Kenya develops RI policy for the entire finance sector. In addition, the findings support a recommendation for the Capital Markets Authority and the Retirement Benefits Authority to embark on capacity building programmes to educate the actors in the finance sector on RI strategies and to create awareness of the impact of ESG on financial returns in the long run. </p>

A Study on How Investors Decide on Socially Responsible Investments: Classification of Investment Behavior According to Companies’ Environmental Activities

2014 ◽  
Vol 8 (5) ◽  
pp. 677-687
Author(s):  
Nariaki Nishino ◽  
◽  
Kaoru Kihara ◽  
Kenju Akai ◽  
Tomonori Honda ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Prospect Theory ◽  
Investment Decision ◽  
Sustainable Production ◽  
Socially Responsible ◽  
Responsible Investment ◽  
Investment Decision Making ◽  
Socially Responsible Investments ◽  
People’S Attitudes

Environmental problems must be solved urgently, and sustainable production activities are desired. This study focuses on environmental finance, which is a method of promoting sustainable corporation activities. Environmental finance allows socially responsible investment to directly contribute to corporate activities and sustainable production activities. To clarify the mechanism of eco-friendly investment decision making, 4,843 respondents took a questionnaire survey on investment decision making, based on the framework of prospect theory. The results showed that prospect theory did not always work for environment issues and that people’s attitudes when they decide on eco-friendly investments could be classified to four clusters.

ESG Integration Treats Ethics as Risk, but Whose Ethics and Whose Risk? Responsible Investment in the Context of Precarity and Risk-Shifting

2019 ◽  
Vol 46 (4-5) ◽  
pp. 573-587 ◽  
Author(s):  
Claire Parfitt
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Risk Management ◽  
Political Action ◽  
Investment Decision ◽  
Risk Shifting ◽  
Responsible Investment ◽  
Investment Decision Making ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Opening Up

This article contributes to scholarly debates about the relationship between precarity and financialization by applying Randy Martin’s concept of the social derivative to the phenomenon of responsible investment. It explores how responsible investment emerges as an avenue for political action in the context of disintermediated governance. Analyzing one strategy of responsible investment, the integration of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) risks into investment decision making, through the frame of the social derivative, the article argues that a derivative logic of ethics underpins ESG risk management. This complicates contemporary understandings of precarity as risk-shifting, because ESG integration creates connections between unlikely parties, opening up new forms and directions for political contest through finance. However, the article reveals that the contingent and profit-driven ethics on which ESG risk management is based establishes a narrow foundation on which these contests take place.

scholarly journals An Index to Measure the Integrity of Investment Companies Investing Responsibility

2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (5) ◽  
pp. 36-51
Author(s):  
Don Andrew
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Decision Making ◽  
Investment Decision ◽  
Decision Making Process ◽  
Responsible Investment ◽  
Investment Companies ◽  
Investment Decision Making ◽  
Sustainable Investment ◽  
Primary Strategy

Stakeholders realise the value and impact of Responsible Investment (RI) upon making informed decisions about investments. Due to this, more organisations are pressured to report on RI performances and put positive and/or negative strategies in place to address ESG issues and to implement ESG policies into the primary strategy of their operations. There are many governments and organisations globally which support sustainable investment and as one such administration, South Africa has legislated to manage RI issues (www.gov.za). Recognition is given to the both CRISA and PRI as well as taking the integrated environmental, social and governance (ESG) considerations into the investment decision making process into consideration when assisting in identifying, managing and mitigating potential ESG risks to achieve sustainable long-term investment outcomes.

The impact of regulatory risks of ESG integration on the sustainable development of power companies

2021 ◽  
Vol 17 (4) ◽  
pp. 624-648
Author(s):  
Irina V. ZENKINA
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Investment Decision ◽  
Investment Decisions ◽  
Decision Making Process ◽  
Responsible Investment ◽  
The Sustainable Development ◽  
Investment Decision Making ◽  
Development Concept ◽  
The Impact

Subject. The article focuses on modern trends in the integration of sustainable development drivers into the substantiation of investment decisions, related regulatory risks and their impact on the sustainable development of companies in the energy and fuel sector. Objectives. I study the global advancement of responsible investment through the sustainable development concept and determine how regulatory risks of the integration of environmental responsibility factors, social responsibility and administrative efficiency into the investment decision-making process on the sustainable development of power companies. Methods. The study relies upon the analysis and synthesis, detailed elaboration and generalization, comparison, abstraction, analogy, index method, systems, strategic and risk-based approaches. Results. The article demonstrates how the sustainable development concept currently evolves and is getting updated. I found the unstoppable evolution of the regulatory and legislative framework, which encourages sustainability projects, and business practice including ESG factors into the investment decision-making process. The article substantiates the role of the responsible investment mechanism and the impact of regulatory risks of ESG integration on the sustainable development of power companies. I show what results can be achieved by analyzing ESG performance of an oil and gas corporation via Thomson Reuters, which helps to assess ESG risks for the company, its investors, and other key stakeholders. Conclusions and Relevance. The integration of ESG factors into the investment decision-making process ensures the adequate awareness of investors, helps mitigate ESG risks, increases the reasonableness of decisions investors make, and raises the quality and completeness of ESG data disclosure in corporate reporting. Regulatory risks of the ESG integration stem from companies’ breaches in effective regulations and rules on ESG performance and result in negative legislative and economic consequences. Therefore, I make suggestions on the analysis of sustainability factors and indicators, which pursues the mitigation of ESG risks of power companies and their investors, and ensures the efficiency of investment decisions.

Integrating the costs of a manufacturing IT/IS infrastructure into the investment decision-making process

Technovation ◽  
1997 ◽  
Vol 17 (11-12) ◽  
pp. 695-706 ◽  
Author(s):  
Z. Irani ◽  
J.-N. Ezingeard ◽  
R.J. Grieve
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Investment Decision ◽  
Decision Making Process ◽  
Investment Decision Making

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.

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