The Heterogeneity of Socially Responsible Investment

Sandberg, Joakim; Juravle, Carmen; Hedesström, Martin; Hamilton, Ian

doi:10.1007/s10551-008-9956-0

Cited by 311 publications

(290 citation statements)

References 23 publications

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“…Entine (2003), for example, argues that raters assign high marks to firms that are later more likely to be embroiled in scandals. Hawken (2004, p. 16) (Sandberg et al, 2009). Not only do CSR rating agencies appear to differ about how to weigh a given criterion (such as the treatment of employees versus the respect of the environment), but they also differ about what constitutes relevant data for assessing the criteria.…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In turn, these indicators inform decision makers on an investment's social credentials (e.g. ethical investment funds, pension funds) and the risks attached to an enterprise's ethical profile (Sandberg et al, 2009;Scalet & Kelly, 2010;Bessire & Onnee, 2010). The users of ratings agencies also include non-financial stakeholders such as government (e.g.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Bessire & Onnee (2010) argue that many agencies adopt a utilitarian ideology privileging scientific methods, quantitative measures (metrics), financial-led clients and transparency of the methodologies. However, anecdotal evidence suggests that many agencies are not very transparent (SustainAbility, 2012) and noted differences have emerged between the ratings themselves (Woods & Jones, 1995;Entine, 2003;Koehn & Ueng, 2005;Chatterji & Levine, 2008;Sandberg et al, 2009;Hedesstrom et al, 2011). So far, there have been limited assessments of their methodologies (Hedesstrom et al, 2011;Escrig-Olmedo et al, 2010).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Exclusion criteria are in practice not particularly restrictive and what could be considered as a 'material' involvement in controversial businesses appears to vary significantly. Secondly, Igalens et al (2008) and Sandberg et al (2009) highlighted the potentially national or cultural character ingrained in some ratings (e.g. is gambling an acceptable business in given regions/countries?).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, when these agencies were directly prompted for information, we instead noted an apparent combination of commonality and difference of the methodologies and criteria, principally arising due to market and commercial rationales. In our overall discussion of the findings, we draw upon Sandberg et al (2009)'s conceptualisations to provide a tentative analysis of the findings. Admittedly, an assessment of a firm's corporate social performance on the basis of a given rating which then differs from the one devised by another rating agency may be acceptable for some informed users (e.g.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 4 more Smart Citations

An analysis of the methodologies adopted by CSR rating agencies

Saadaoui

Soobaroyen

2018

SAMPJ

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Purpose: This paper analyses the similarities and differences in the methodologies adopted by CSR (corporate social responsibility) rating agencies. Design/methodology:We gather secondary and primary evidence of practices from selected agencies on the methodologies and criteria they rely upon to assess a firm's CSR performance. Findings:We find evidence of similarities in the methodologies adopted by the CSR rating agencies (e.g. the use of environment, social and governance themes, exclusion criteria, adoption of positive criteria, client/'customised' input, quantification), but also several elements of differences emerge, namely in terms of the thresholds for exclusion, transparent vs. confidential approach, industry-specific ratings, and weights for each dimension. Drawing from Sandberg et al.'s (2009) conceptualisations, we tentatively argue that this mixed picture may reflect competing organisational pressures to adopt a differentiation approach at the strategic and practical levels whilst recognising, and incorporating, the 'globalising' tendencies of the CSR business at the terminological levels.Implications: Although our data is based on a relatively small number of agencies, our findings and analysis convey some implications for users of CSR ratings and policy-makers;

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Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

An analysis of the methodologies adopted by CSR rating agencies

Saadaoui

Soobaroyen

2018

SAMPJ

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Social Finance and Banking

Weber

Duan

2012

Socially Responsible Finance and Investing

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Environmental, Sustainable Behaviors and Innovation of Firms During the Financial Crisis

Kim

2013

Bus Strat Env

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In this paper, we analyze the relation between sustainable and environmental behaviors and performance and innovation. Altogether, 1032 observations are divided into specific groups according to the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) Global 500 report and the Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI) for 2008 and 2009. Based on legitimation theory and stakeholder theory, we regard the voluntary activities of firms as having long‐run effective characteristics that can be applied to industry in general. The environmental behavior of firms is represented by CDP activity, while the DJSI represents their sustainable activities. Based on the assumption that corporate environmentalism is a bilateral agreement between policymakers and firms, we answer four specific research questions. (i) What is the relation between voluntary activities and performance of firms? (ii) Do firms' voluntary activities in environmental and sustainable implementations induce innovation? (iii) How does the nature of innovation depend on voluntary type of the firms? (iv) What is the link between firm characteristics and innovation according to voluntary types? From the presented empirical analysis, we find positive relations between corporate environmentalism and innovative activities. We then classify environmental and sustainable issues and propose an empirical model of the links between environmental and sustainable behaviors and innovation activities. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.

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The Heterogeneity of Socially Responsible Investment

Abstract: ambiguity, business ethics, definitions, ethical investment, heterogeneity, mainstreaming, responsible investment, socially responsible investment, standardisation, sustainable investment,

Cited by 311 publications

References 23 publications

An analysis of the methodologies adopted by CSR rating agencies

An analysis of the methodologies adopted by CSR rating agencies

Social Finance and Banking

Environmental, Sustainable Behaviors and Innovation of Firms During the Financial Crisis

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