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Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore the perception of environmental, social and governance (ESG) criteria by mainstream investors in an emerging financial market, that of Tunisia, country at the origin of the Arab Spring. Design/methodology/approach A series of focus groups and semi-structured interviews were conducted with financial professionals. Findings Despite efforts by the Tunisian state to promote CSR and ESG criteria since the outbreak of the revolution of January 14th, 2011, the results show that these criteria are fairly well known by our interlocutors. As part of an investment allocation decision, the ESG criteria are considered as secondary to financial ones. The three criteria are classified as follows according to their usefulness in the investment choices of financial professionals: corporate governance, social and environmental. Research limitations/implications In addition to the subjective nature of the data collected, this research is limited to the input of only financial professionals. It does not inform us about ESG indicators that may influence the investment decisions of financial professionals, and thus this issue deserves further reflection. Originality/value This exploratory study sheds light on a little-explored topic in Tunisia, country at the origin of the Arab Spring. It contributes to the existing literature in the areas of investor behavior toward ESG criteria and adds to the limited literature in the area of emerging countries.

Purpose In addition to financial reporting, more and more companies report environmental, social and governance (ESG) information in emerging countries. This practice is intended to fulfill the information needs of all the company’s stakeholders, and more specifically the investors. The purpose of this paper is twofold. First, to analyze whether investors include ESG information into their investment allocation decisions in Tunisian capital market. Second, to identify the information dimension having the more effect on their investment allocation decisions. Design/methodology/approach A field experiment was conducted in an emerging country (Tunisia) among 245 novices and experienced financial stakeholders to analyze how ESG information is taken into account in their investment allocation decisions. Findings The results of the factorial mixed analysis of variance show that ESG information influenced the investment allocation decisions in Tunisia. In addition, the results of the post-hoc test indicate that governance and social information had more influence than environmental information. Research limitations/implications This paper is limited to the analysis of the influence of ESG information only on the decisions of financial stakeholders in Tunisia. In future research works, it will be relevant to study the decisions of other stakeholders and to carry out comparative studies between several countries. Practical implications The results can only strengthen and motivate companies to pay more attention to their ESG information disclosure practices. They are also likely to attract the attention of the accounting standard setters on the need to standardize these practices. Originality/value The original contribution of this paper lies not only in the analysis of three dimensions of extra-financial information: E, S and G through an experiment carried out in an emerging country, but also especially in the comparison of the influence of each dimension on investment allocation decisions.

Based on the stakeholder model of corporate governance, this research analyzes the relationship between the integration of corporate social responsibility (CSR) into CEO compensation and corporate social and financial performance, in firms listed on France’s SBF 120 stock market between 2015 and 2019. The results of panel data regressions show that indexing CEO compensation on CSR criteria only influence corporate social performance Moreover, social performance has a positive impact on financial performance and a mediating effect between the integration of CSR criteria into CEO compensation and financial performance.

L’étude vise à identifier les facteurs de gouvernance expliquant la prise en compte des critères de responsabilité sociétale de l’entreprise (RSE) dans la rémunération variable des dirigeants. À partir d’un échantillon de sociétés cotées de l’indice boursier français SBF 120 sur une période de cinq ans, comprise entre 2012 et 2016, l’analyse empirique met en évidence l’influence positive du comité de RSE dans l’entreprise. L’actionnariat institutionnel a également un impact positif. La taille et la performance boursière modèrent les relations testées.