On peut remonter aux ouvrages de Bowen (1953) et Friedman (1962) pour discerner les fondements de ce qui constitue aujourd’hui la performance sociale des entreprises. Au fil des années, certains chercheurs, tels Johnson (1971), Carroll (1979, 1999), Wood (1991) et Spicer (1978) tentent de créer des modèles permettant d’évaluer la qualité de la performance sociale des firmes, menant ainsi aux premiers balbutiements de ce qui allait devenir l’investissement socialement responsable. Alors que plusieurs scandales corporatifs surviennent au début du 21e siècle, tels ceux d’Enron, d’Adelphia et de WorldCom, le concept d’investissement socialement responsable commence à se raffiner; différentes dimensions permettant de le quantifier sont créées et on assiste ici au début des critères ESG (environnement, social, gouvernance). Plusieurs essaient alors d’établir une relation entre la performance ESG et la performance financière des firmes en se fiant à différentes variables substitutives permettant de l’évaluer (Van Beurden & Gössling, 2008, Margolis et al., 2007), toutefois c’est avec l’avènement de banques de données professionnelles comme celle de Kinder, Lydenberg & Domini (KLD) qu’un portrait plus complet de la performance ESG est disponible pour les entreprises publiques. La présente étude s’intéresse à la dimension de gouvernance des entreprises publiques américaines. Plus précisément, on cherche ici à savoir si la qualité de la gouvernance telle qu’évaluée par KLD entretient un lien avec la probabilité d’occurrence d’événements de gouvernance négatifs recensés dans le Wall Street Journal (WSJ). Les hypothèses de travail sont déclinées de manière à déterminer si la qualité de la gouvernance entretient une relation avec la fréquence, l’amplitude ainsi que la durée du traitement médiatique de ces événements. Pour ce faire, un modèle logistique similaire à celui de Zavgren (1985) est utilisé, et la cote de gouvernance de KLD est construite selon la méthode suggérée par Bouslah et al. (2011). Outre cette cote, on contrôle également pour la taille, l’industrie et le risque des entreprises, ainsi que pour les variables d’information publique macroéconomiques telles que suggérées par Ferson & Schadt (1996). Un test de robustesse est également fait afin de contrôler pour le niveau de couverture médiatique totale des entreprises. Les résultats suggèrent que la qualité de la gouvernance d’une firme est généralement liée de manière négative et significative à sa probabilité de faire face à un événement de gouvernance négatif. La relation inverse semble exister en ce qui concerne certaines variables d’entreprise, soit la taille et le risque. Aucune relation stable à travers les différentes régressions n’est décelée concernant l’industrie ainsi que les variables de contrôle d’économie. Les relations décelées sont généralement robustes au niveau de couverture médiatique totale des entreprises, qui elle-même a une relation très significative avec la probabilité d’une firme de voir un événement de gouvernance négatif la concernant être médiatisé. Les implications pratiques de ce papier sont nombreuses, notamment car on illustre ici qu’il existe un certain contenu informationnel à la cote de gouvernance de KLD. De plus, il est démontré que la qualité de la gouvernance des firmes, entre autres variables, peut être indicatrice de la probabilité d’événements néfastes la concernant. Des tests similaires à ceux de la présente étude pourraient être performés avec différentes variables de performance sociale et provenant de différents fournisseurs autres que KLD afin de vérifier si les relations établies ici restent significatives selon la banque de données utilisée. Des études événementielles telles que suggérées par Botosan (1997), Diamond & Verrecchia (1991) et Gunthorpe (1997) pourraient être faites dans le but de déceler s’il existe une ou des relations entre la dissémination d’information dans les médias comme le WSJ et l’effet qu’elle peut avoir sur la performance des entreprises. L’implication pratique la plus importante de l’étude demeure cependant que le niveau de qualité de la gouvernance des entreprises publiques américaines contient de l’information quant à leur capacité d’éviter de faire face à des événements de gouvernance négatifs médiatisés, et, donc, qu’elle devrait être suivie au même titre que n’importe quel indicateur de performance extra-financière.

Företag engagerar sig allt mer i hållbarhetsfrågor, men då kostnaderna för hållbart arbete ofta är höga är det viktigt att det hållbara arbetet genererar någon form av vinst till företaget. Då största delen av privat sparande i Sverige sker i fonder, kapitalförsäkring eller investeringssparkonto är det därför intressant att undersöka om hållbarhetsinformation genererar en prispåverkan på hållbarhetsfonder. Syftet med denna uppsats är att undersöka huruvida hållbarhetsinformation är viktig för investerare vid val av fonder. Med utgångspunkt i en eventstudie undersöks effekten av hållbarhetsinformation på fonders avkastningar, vilka jämförs med avkastningar i MSCI World Index, genom hypotesprövningar. För att testa hypoteserna studerades totalt 75 hållbarhetsrankade fonder i ett eventfönster på fem dagar, samt bara för eventdagen. Resultaten av hypotesprövningarna tyder på att ny hållbarhetsinformation värderas negativt av investerare för såväl hela eventfönstret som för dagen då informationspubliceringen ägde rum, vilket är i linje med viss tidigare forskning. Dock begränsas resultatet till bara en av de tre delar som utför studiens underlag för hållbarhetsinformation. Då studien utgår från en ny hållbarhetsranking kan det tänkas att marknaden behöver en längre period, som undersökts i denna studie, för att värdera hållbarhetsinformationen. Implikationen av slutsatsen för företag kan vara att det i dagsläget inte finns ekonomiska incitament, genom ökat marknadsvärde, för företag att arbeta mer hållbart. För marknaden kan resultaten innebära att ökad hållbarhetsinformation på marknaden troligen inte bidrar till ökning av investeringar i hållbarhetsfonder.  Vidare studier krävs för att avgöra vilka slags åtgärder som behövs vidtas för att nå en mer hållbar fondmarknad.

Syftet med detta arbete är att öka förståelsen hur hållbarhetsrapportering bidrar med värde ur investerares perspektiv samt studera vilken dimension av ESG som bidrar till högst värde. I studien tillämpas en kvalitativ ansats för att besvara studiens syfte samt frågeställningar. Detta tillsammans med intervjuer och en litteraturgenomgång. Studien har visat på att ESG-dimensionerna ger upphov till värde, dock föreligger det varierande värderelevans mellan dem. Dimensionerna visar på olika nyckeltal som är av värde för investerare.

Sustainability is a common term in media and aims to take care of your own needs without compromising for future generations. ESG (environmental, social and governance) origins from CSR and SRI and is an important term in capital markets because of a new EU-directive was introduced in 2017.   The aim of this event study is to determine if the release of ESG-news have a significant impact on stock returns on companies listed on OMX30. This study includes news that were released from the year 2010 to April 2019 on the Swedish market OMX30. To test the hypothesis of this study, 199 news were selected, and the abnormal return was calculated on the event day.   The result of the hypothesis testing shows that only the environmental pillar shows a significant positive connection with return, while the social- and governance pillar does not. This study concludes that investors react strongly to negative ESG-news, and less positive to positive ESG-news. It can also be concluded that environmental news are what investors care most about.   Limitations of this study is that the selection of news was considered relatively small compared to earlier studies. If companies want to satisfy their stakeholders, extra focus should be addressed to these areas. The implication of this study is that investor care more about the environmental pillar then the other two pillars. / Hållbarhet är ett vanligt förekommande ord som syftar till att ta vara på egna behov utan att kompromissa för framtida generationer. ESG är ett viktigt begrepp inom hållbarhet och står för miljö, socialt ansvar och bolagsstyrning. Begreppet har sin uppkomst ur CSR och SRI och är väldigt aktuell på kapitalmarknaden för att ett nytt EU-direktiv trädde i kraft 2017.   Syftet med denna studie var att genom en eventstudie studera om offentliggörandet av ESG-nyheter har en signifikant påverkan på avkastningen hos företag listade på OMX30, samt om reaktioner vid offentliggörandet av ESG-nyheter skapar en över- eller underavkastning för företagen. För undersökningen användes 199 nyheter som offentliggjordes mellan år 2010 till april 2019 på den svenska marknaden (OMX30) och den abnormala avkastningen vid eventdagen.   Resultatet av hypotesprövningen visar att det enbart är miljöpelaren som har ett signifikant positivt samband på avkastningen då investerare reagerar mer på miljönyheter än vad de gör för den andra typen av nyheter. Slutsatsen av analysen visar att investerare reagerar stark negativt till negativa ESG-nyheter och svagt positivt till positiva. För företag innebär detta att ett extra fokus bör ligga på att implementera ESG i verksamheten, framförallt miljöarbete, för att belåtna sina intressenter.   Begränsningar av studien är urvalet av nyheter som anses vara relativt litet mot tidigare studier och för fortsätta studier rekommenderar vi att göra undersökningen på ett större urval för att få ett mer precist resultat.

Sustainability performance of a firm is gaining equal importance as the economic performance in today’s world. Sustainability scores or ESG ratings have successfully emerged to be popular sustainability performance measurements for firms across the globe. Therefore, many studies have been done focusing on relating the firms’ sustainability performance with the financial performance from different aspects in different regions. Other studies have also looked at the relationship between sustainability performance/CSR/ESG and the risks related to the firms. But no study has been found that consider the relationship between ESG/CSR and more extreme stock price movements, i.e., so called stock price jumps, which is an important part of the total risk. To fill this knowledge gap, this study aims to investigate the relationship between firms ESG score, as well as how separate E, S and G scores, relate to stock price jumps.The Nordic countries are chosen as the research area as the four Nordic countries, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, and Norway are ranked among the top five countries in terms of ESG ratings for the last two years. Logically, the investors in these countries should be interested in the firms ESG score as well. Data source for this study is mainly the Thomson Reuters Eikon database. In total 105 companies listed in the Nordic Stock Exchanges have been selected as the sample within the time frame 2008-2017. The findings of this study indicate that, there is no statistically proven significant relationship between firms’ overall sustainability performance or the ESG score and the number of stock price jumps. However, some significantresults have been found at the country levelandforindividual E, S and G scores however. Therefore, individual environmental, social and governance scores have been recommended to be studied by investors before taking any investment decision if they want to reduce the probable stock price jump risk.

Syfte: En grundläggande övertygelse är att socialt ansvar lönar sig för företaget såväl som för intressenter och samhället i allmänhet. Det finns bevis för att företag som lägger ned mer resurser på CSR-arbete ökar i värde, och får ett bättre anseende. Syftet är att förklara sambandet mellan CSR och företagets utdelning, samt om olika stadier i livscykeln har en modererande effekt på sambandet.   Metod: En positivistisk forskningsfilosofi med en hypotetisk-deduktiv ansats tillämpas i studien. Studien har en kvantitativ forskningsstrategi som implementerat data från åren 2013–2017. Studien består av 426 europeiska börsnoterade företag. När de modererande effekterna undersöks består urvalet av 142 företag i mognadsstadiet respektive 70 företag i tillväxtstadiet. Studien består av sekundärdata från Thomson Reuters Datastream som analyseras i statistikprogrammet IBM SPSS.   Resultat & slutsats: Resultatet från studien visar att det föreligger ett positivt samband mellan företagets CSR-aktiviteter och utdelning, samt att mognadsstadiet har en modererande effekt på sambandet. Resultatet antyder att CSR-aktiviteter och utdelning ökar tillsammans när företag befinner sig i mognadsstadiet.   Examensarbetets bidrag: Studien bidrar till den företagsekonomiska forskningen genom att undersöka livscykelstadiernas modererande effekt på sambandet mellan CSR och utdelning, samt således ökad kunskap om ämnet. Studien bidrar även med praktisk information till potentiella investerare om vilken utdelning de kan förvänta sig av ett företag beroende på hur mycket de satsar på CSR och var i livscykeln de befinner sig.     Förslag till fortsatt forskning: Urvalet i den här studien består av europeiska börsnoterade företag. Det vore intressant att se om resultaten skiljer sig åt om fler världsdelar inkluderas. Ett annat förslag är att använda fler variabler, exempelvis vid uppskattning av företagets livscykelstadie. / Aim: It is a fundamental belief that social responsibility benefits companies as well as stakeholders and society as a whole. Evidence suggests that companies that devote more resources to CSR increase in value, and they also earn a greater reputation. The aim of this study is to explain the relationship between a company’s CSR activities and its dividend policy, and whether different stages of the corporate life cycle have a moderating effect on the relationship.   Method: The study is based on a positivistic research philosophy with a hypothetical-deductive approach. The study applies a quantitative research strategy that includes data from the years 2013–2017. The study consists of 426 European publicly listed companies. When the moderating effect is examined the data selection consists of 142 companies in the mature stage of the corporate life cycle, and 70 companies in the growth stage. The study is based on secondary data collected from Thomson Reuters Datastream. The data analysis was then conducted using IBM SPSS statistics software.   Result & Conclusions: The result of the study shows a positive correlation between CSR and dividend policy, and that the mature stage of the corporate life cycle has a moderating effect on the relationship. The result suggests that CSR-activities and dividends increase together when companies are in the mature stage of the life cycle.   Contribution of the thesis: This study contributes to business research by examining the effect of the corporate life cycle stages on the relationship between CSR and dividend policy, and thus increasing the knowledge of the subject. The study also provides important practical information to potential investors about expected dividend payout depending on how much a company invests in CSR, and where it is in the corporate life cycle.   Suggestions for future research: The data selection of this study consists of data from publicly traded European companies. It is our belief that it would be interesting to see the effect on the relationship if companies from a wider selection of countries is used. Another suggestion for future research is to widen the scope of the study by including a greater number of variables, for example when estimating the company’s life cycle stage.

The public's interest and awareness in sustainable options is growing, resulting in a higher demand for high levels of sustainability in companies. Therefore, the question whether there is a profit to be made from being sustainable is becoming increasingly more relevant. Earlier research shows ambiguous results, with the majority indicating either positive or no connection between sustainability and profitability. Folksam’s index of responsible enterprise was used to get an assessment of the environmental and social performance of Swedish firms registered on the Swedish stock exchange between the years 2006 and 2013, where 303 individual firms were included in total. In order to measure the profitability of the included firms, two traditional financial ratios, ROA and ROE was used. A third financial ratio, Nissim & Penman’s RNOA was also used to include a more sophisticated and less researched measure. The differences between these measurements was analyzed to see whether they can explain the relationship between sustainability and profitability differently. Firstly, the reasoning behind the chosen topic of study is discussed, and the problems are formulated. Next, a literature review is conducted in order to better understand the state of research related to this study. Key concepts such as sustainability and measurements of profitability is explained in depth, and earlier research on the area is reviewed. The theoretical reference of this study is based on stakeholder and legitimacy theory. This leads up to research hypotheses to help answer whether there is a difference between RNOA and ROA, and if it is profitable to be sustainable. Our practical method discusses the data and leads to the usage of a fixed and random effects model for estimating the relationships previously mentioned. The result indicates that there is no relationship between sustainability and profitability. However, empirical evidence shows a difference in using RNOA instead of ROA, indicating that RNOA could possibly be a more accurate measure of profitability. Furthermore, our results indicate that a company can “greenwash” their organization by investing in sustainable options to legitimize their operations in the eyes of their stakeholders.

As evidenced by the rapid increase of United Nations Principles for Responsible Investment (UNPRI) signatories, the integration of environmental, social and governance indicators (ESG) in investment decisions has become a popular topic. However, despite its popularity, there is no consensus among practitioners on what this actually means and how it should be tackled. The obvious lack of standardization is reflected by divergent ESG rating procedures, incomparable company sustainability reports and the widely differing strategies by asset managers and asset owners. This is a substantial hurdle as it can cause misalignment of perspectives within the investment chain, which keeps ESG from being pushed up the agenda. There appear to be substantial struggles on the road to ESG integration and several questions arise; are the perspectives on ESG integration aligned between companies, asset managers and asset owners? Where do possible obstacles on the road to responsible investment reside, what are they and how can they be overcome? My main findings are four-fold. First, I find ESG reporting fatigue among companies due to the sheer number of ESG ratings and rankings. Companies should not let this overwhelm them and be clear that they only respond to a handful. Investors should only use it as a starting point and ensure that it does not become a substitute for a real conversation with their portfolio companies about ESG. This interest is necessary for top management to sign off on sustainability initiatives. Second, I find that asset owners are not as convinced of the business case of ESG as asset managers and companies are. This is often reflected in the way they select, monitor and review their asset managers. Third, the lack of in-depth ESG due diligence by asset owners likely lets asset managers get away with decoupling statements from actions. More specifically, it appears that ESG and finance are often still separated. Lastly, companies are more reactive than proactive when it comes to ESG efforts. The main driver for them to embark on their ESG journey is the consumer. We can therefore play a significant role in creating a more sustainable world, either as the beneficiary or the consumer.

Problem background and discussion: Emerging countries economies are growing substantially; one of these is India which stock market has been one of the best performing in the world in recent years. Analysts are forecasting further development and some claims that India has the most business- and investment-stimulating political leaders in the world. However, stock markets in emerging countries are highly volatile and normally more risky than in developed economies. One approach to emphasise the more common risks in emerging countries are by including Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) rating into the fundamental investment model. However, there is a conflict of what previous studies suggest regarding ESG investments. Some argues there is a positive relation and others a negative relation between ESG factors and risk- adjusted return. Research question: “Is there a relation between risk-adjusted return and ESG performance at the Indian stock market?” Objective: The objective is to determine if there is a relationship between ESG performance and risk-adjusted return in India. Another objective is to determine if there is a relationship between ESG performance and risk-adjusted return among companies with high Total ESG rating as well as for companies with low Total ESG rating. Theoretical framework: ESG is an established approach to describe sustainability issues, where screening is a process designed to select those companies that meet ESG criteria. A basic description of Capital Asset Pricing Model CAPM, which calculates an asset's expected return, has been used to calculate risk-adjusted return. Efficient Market Hypothesis EMH is the basic theory of market efficiency and is used to explain any non-linear relationship between ESG factors and risk-adjusted returns. Adaptive Market Hypothesis AMH has been taken into account as it deals with financial behaviour. Method: A quantitative study using a deductive approach has been selected to perform this study. The practical approach is a cross sectional study where the relationship in the Indian market has been analysed and significance-tested during 2014. ESG information for 126 companies listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) has been purchased from Sustainalytics, a global leader in research for responsible investment. Empirical findings and analysis: The results of the study demonstrate no significant relationship between Total ESG rating and risk-adjusted return during 2014. In the examination of individual categories, Environmental and Social rating does not have a significant association with the risk-adjusted Return. Though, the results display a negative relationship between Governance rating and risk-adjusted return. This relationship is also obtained among companies in with low Total ESG rating but not companies with high ESG rating. Conclusion: Results implies that investors have not been able to use the information of Total ESG performance to obtain a better risk-adjusted return on the Indian stock market in 2014. However, this can be achieved by using Governance rating.

In the last few years, the inefficiencies of the current corporate reports have become increasingly evident. With increasing engagement in mindful business practices, firm value goes beyond just the financial capital. It is important to consider the environmental, social and governance impacts of operating activities. However, the corporate reporting landscape in the United States of America still lags behind in integrating its information. This paper recognizes the need for corporate reporting to evolve to the Integrated Reporting method. This is followed by an explanation of the benefits and improvements that Integrated Reporting can bring to published information and decision making through its multiple capital model and the guiding principles. This is followed by an analysis of an Integrated Report produced in the United States to shed light on the lack of consolidation with IR in the U.S. In comparison, we will look at an exemplary Integrated Report to understand how implementation of IR Framework has benefited reporting entities in other parts of the world. This paper attempts to bring to the attention the dwindling pace of the U.S. entities in keeping up with corporate reporting trends, why this is potentially problematic and what needs to be done to improve the corporate reporting atmosphere in the U.S. for the benefit of organizations as well as their stakeholders.