Socially-responsible Investing

This paper explores the role of strategic conversations in corporate social responsibility (CSR) strategy formation. The authors suggest that explicitly engaging stakeholders in the CSR strategy-making process, through the mechanism of strategic conversations, will minimize future stakeholder concerns and enhance CSR strategy making. In addition, suggestions for future research are offered to enable a better understanding of effective strategic conversation processes in CSR strategy making and the resulting performance outcomes.

Social capital is known as a key wealth underlying the development of nations, providing an environment of mutual respect, reciprocity and community awareness where strong civil societies can flourish. This paper shows how the development of social capital is included as a main topic in an entrepren eurship program for undergraduate students. It constitutes an approach to work on aspects like ethics and social responsibility that is very appropriate in the cont ext of entrepreneurship education. An activity is describe d where students are asked to generate social capital within their own community. In teams, they have to approach the owner or manager of a small business to perform a one-month technological, marketing or administrative work for the benefit of the business. Participants report that a major challenge is to conquer the owner's confidence, even after explaining that no financial compensation is expected by the team and its goal i s simply to generate social capital....

"L’Investissement Socialement Responsable (ISR) en France reste peu développé pour les investisseurs particuliers, en dépit d’une croissance forte des fonds ISR et du lancement de labels à leur intention. L’objectif de cet article est de mieux comprendre le rôle limité des labels. Notre analyse s’appuie sur l’interaction entre trois éléments : label et asymétrie d’information, choix des attributs informationnels des labels et objectifs des organismes porteurs de labellisation, concurrence induite entre labels. Deux facteurs expliquent l’impact limité des labels. D’une part, les attributs informationnels mis en évidence par les labels reflètent plus le point de vue des sociétés de gestion que celui des investisseurs particuliers. D’autre part, la distribution de l’ISR auprès des particuliers passe majoritairement par les réseaux des banques et assurances, réseaux pour lesquels il ne constitue pas un véritable axe de différenciation concurrentielle.

The attractiveness of SRI (Socially Responsible Investment) for retail investors in France has remained limited in spite of the launch of labeling schemes and a substantial growth of SRI funds. The article analyzes why the labeling impact has been limited. Our framework is based on the interaction of three elements: labels and information asymmetry, the labeling organizations and the selection of information attributes, the induced competition between labels. Two main factors explain the limited impact of labels. First, the information attributes disclosed by the labels reflect the viewpoint of asset managers rather than the one of retail investors. Second, the distribution of SRI by banking and insurance networks is not a factor of competitive advantage."

Children on the autistic spectrum display significant social deficits that negatively impact daily functioning and may lead to serious mental health problems. Research on the effectiveness of school based social skills programs and students with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), specifically children identified with Asperger Disorder (AS) and high functioning Autism (HFA), has yielded limited positive outcomes. This study evaluated the effectiveness of a school based social skills program, the Social Skills Improvement System (SSIS), over a 7 month period with six 8 grade middle school students who had been identified with autism or a social disability. Outcome data and program evaluation data were used to identify program modifications and implementation factors needed to adapt this program to meet the unique needs of these adolescents and promote skill generalization. The Social Skills Rating Scale (SSRS) was administered to parents, students, and teachers before and near the end of...

This paper argues that key differences between the UK and the US in the importance ascribed to a company's social responsibilities (CSR) reflect differences in the corporate governance arrangements in these two countries. Specifically, we analyse the role of a salient type of owner in the UK and the US, institutional investors, in emphasising firm-level CSR actions. We explore differences between institutional investors in the UK and the US concerning CSR, and draw on a model of instrumental, relational and moral motives to explore why institutional investors in the UK are becoming concerned with firms' social and environmental actions. We conclude with some suggestions for future research in this area. Copyright (c) 2006 The Authors; Journal compilation (c) 2006 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

The purpose of this article is to present a brief synthesis of the impact investment market as it relates to barriers to the full development of this market. We examine some developments that have emerged to address these barriers. We include a brief overview of the impact investing field and the current landscape of social enterprises, the vast majority of which are nonprofit organizations increasingly engaged in business activity. We address the lack of liquidity in this market and the need for secondary markets that enable investor exit. We present a preliminary summary of findings on a few exchange platforms – primary and secondary – that have emerged very recently to coordinate this market in several countries.

Afghanistan has a long history of social unrest and ethnic conflict, and the manipulation of the education system by internal and external powers for political purposes has been one of the major contributors to these divisions. As Afghanistan attempts to build peace and maintain co‐existence after more than 20 years of violence, there continues to be limited attention given to one of the main contributors to the social divisions. More than four million children returned to school in the first two years of ‘peace’ in Afghanistan. Hundreds of millions of dollars were spent by the United Nations and other international donors on ensuring the physical provision of schools for children. However in 2005, three years into ‘the new era for Afghanistan’, teachers continue to teach ethnic hatred and intolerance. The textbooks continue to be highly politicised, promoting social divisions and violence, seemingly unnoticed by the International Community, whose expensive investments fuel rather than restrain this problem. A new curriculum for Afghanistan together with upgraded teacher capacities are the most pertinent factors to ensure that peace is established and maintained in the country. This will ensure that the new generation of Afghans learns a sense of social responsibility and national pride, incorporating ideas of unity in diversity and not an intolerance of perceived ‘difference’ based on militant ideologies.

ABSTRACT This paper aims to define the meaning of corporate social responsibility (CSR) in the context of the European framework and examine three different European countries. The main elements which encompass the meaning of CSR focus on activities with social and environmental sensitiveness, on a voluntary basis. The paper analyses the dimensions of CSR and presents its benefits. Furthermore, the paper provides a brief description of the recent CSR activities in the European Union, and attempts a comparative analysis of CSR activities and their respective impacts on three European countries: Greece; Denmark; and Hungary. Finally, the paper concludes that the effective implementation of CSR strategy cannot follow strict rules and should be adjusted to the culture, needs and particularities of each country.

This paper aims to understand how Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) accountability metrics influence 1) firm’s profits and 2) value.  The study is a cross-sectional analysis of S&P 500 companies in the US. This study specifically studies 1) the relationship between ESG metrics and Free Cash Flow and 2) the relationship between ESG metrics and Market Capitalization. I find that ESG accountability, specifically Environmental and Employee accountability is correlated with profit creation in the form of free cash flow, while, a significantly negatively correlation is found between the “Community” factor and profit creation.  Meanwhile, the value equation yields no such significant results between ESG metrics and market capitalization. Therefore, I conclude that while ESG factors drive profits in large US firms, ESG metrics fail to be accounted for in market performance measures as evident in the market capitalization equation. These findings have two main implications. First, a failure to account for value creating ESG assets will continue to result in the eroding value of firms in the US. Second, the inability of the market to price ESG factors results in imperfect information that creates problems for decision-making for investors and company leaders alike. Therefore, the study concludes that while ESG factors have been an important step in quantifying sustainability accountability in the market system, they nevertheless fall short in providing key sustainability data needed for decision making and are not reflected in market-based measures of firm performance. Therefore, in order for sustainability initiatives to be accounted for, they must be integrated within existing accounting systems and must require material disclosure of sustainability information.

The objective of this paper is to understand the manner in which research in ethical finance has evolved and development of literature in the field of ethical/ socially responsible investing has taken place, which would provide us directions for future research work in the area. Contributions of 108 research studies published in the area of ethical finance, over a time span of 15 years were analyzed using a framework that classified research in the area of ethical finance according to research agenda and data analysis framework. This points to the areas which lack in – depth research and are worthy of being explored in future research. The literature review reveals that research in ethical finance or socially responsible investment has been concentrated in a few areas. While some important areas like financial performance of ethical funds and indices have received adequate attention by researchers, there are several other areas which need focused research. Measurement of ESG performance, ESG criteria for selection of stocks for an ESG/ ethical investment portfolio, process of integration of ESG criteria into investment decision making and regulatory mechanisms that need to be evolved to promote adoption of ethical finance are some of the areas worthy of being explored in future research. The study also suggests that models using multi–decision criteria for portfolio selection could greatly improve the performance of an ethical portfolio.

From the outset, the sustainable business movement has confronted instances of so-called 'greenwash', in which companies promote token but well-publicized sustainability initiatives to divert attention from environmentally damaging core businesses they have no intention of changing.

Twenty years on, we may now be facing a new affliction of 'greenwish' – the earnest hope that well intended efforts to make the world more sustainable are much closer to achieving the necessary change than they really are.