Predicting pension beneficiaries’ behaviour when offered a socially responsible and impact investment portfolio

Impact investing in social sector organisations: a systematic review and research agenda

“…In an online survey experiment of 145 wealthy, private investors in Germany, Schr€ otgens and Boenigk (2017) find that younger investors, as opposed to their older counterparts, are more likely to contribute part of their overall investments to impact investments. This finding also echoes Apostolakis et al (2018a), who show that among 637 individual investors in The Netherlands, older investors (rather than younger ones) are less likely to invest in an investment portfolio that has a more social focus. This indicates that younger investors are relatively more interested in impact investing, and that it may be relatively easier for social organisations to persuade younger, private investors to allocate funds to impact investments.…”

“…Furthermore, research shows that the perceived innovativeness of impact investment products is positively related to private investors' willingness to participate in impact investing (Schr€ otgens and Boenigk, 2017). Indeed, individual investors are more inclined to allocate funds to impact investment products when they have higher confidence in the products' claims about their effectiveness in addressing targeted social problems (Apostolakis et al, 2018a). However, individual investors who have less confidence in the impact investment products' claims are more guided by social norms in deciding whether to participate in impact investing or not (Apostolakis et al, 2018a).…”

Value matters or values matter? An analysis of heterogeneity in preferences for sustainable investments

“…Surveys show that the vast majority (up to three quarters) of the Dutch pension fund participants are willing to pay a higher premium or to forego pension income for the realization of these non-financial preferences (Erbé, 2008;Motivaction, 2012;Borgers and Pownall, 2014;I&O Research, 2015;Apostolakis et al, 2016). Apostolakis et al (2018) find that beneficiaries' attitudes and social norms impact on their willingness to adopt socially responsible portfolios, but that this also depends on consumer confidence and perceived effectiveness. Similarly, using a survey questionnaire, Jansson et al (2014) find that beneficiaries in Sweden on average prefer their pension funds to engage in SRI, and that financial motives as well as self-transcendent value priorities drive heterogeneity herein.…”

“…We consulted existing studies on the preferences of Dutch pension fund members and their willingness to pay for sustainable investments (Erbé, 2008;Rietjens, 2011;Motivaction, 2012;Borgers and Pownall, 2014;I&O Research, 2015;|Apostolakis et al, 2016|Apostolakis et al, , 2018 to develop measurement of participants' willingness to pay. Due to our research aim of analyzing pension investments preferences, we restricted our sample to respondents aged 40 and older (5,034 respondents of the LISS panel) and that are pension fund participants.…”

Super‐sizing Renewable Energy Investment: Examining the Portfolio Preferences of Superannuation Fund Members*

“…These attitudes are also reflected in the SRI literature, which distinguishes between two types of SRI investors: value-driven investors who emphasise return on investment less than other attributes and profit-driven investors who find return on investment to be the most important factor when making investment decisions (Derwall et al, 2011). Studies also find that SRI investors are likely to perceive that their social environment expects them to invest in SRI (Apostolakis et al, 2018). These studies therefore suggest that superannuation fund members who value investing in renewable energy more favourably are likely to hold pro-environmental values and believe their communities support such investments.…”