Lönsamheten hos olika typer av aktier har länge intresserat både investerare och företag. Detta intresse sträcker sig även till många akademiker och forskare, där en del kunnat påvisa att så kallade värdeaktier kan generera en högre avkastning jämfört med marknaden och tillväxtaktier. Dessa värdeaktier anses vara undervärderade på marknaden och kan identifieras genom låga prismultiplar, så som P/E- och P/B-värden, till skillnad från tillväxtaktier som anses vara övervärderade på marknaden och identifieras genom höga prismultiplar. En strategi som fokuserar på att investera i värdeaktier är värdeinvestering, som har utvecklats sedan 30-talet och genererat goda avkastningar för många investerare. Under flera år har dock intresset för hållbara investeringar ökat och fått större vikt i investeringsbeslutet. Investerare är beredda att kompromissa med lönsamheten för mer hållbara investeringsalternativ, men de vill inte förlora för mycket i avkastning. Syftet med studien är därför att undersöka huruvida värdeinvestering kan vara en fungerande strategi för hållbara investeringar på en europeisk marknad, och fokus ligger på företag med höga ESG-poäng samt högt marknadsvärde under åren 2011-2018. Detta undersöks genom att jämföra prestationerna hos värde- och tillväxtaktier, samt hos ett marknadsindex utan hållbarhetsfokus som representerar den europeiska marknaden. I studien skapas fyra olika portföljer, baserade på hållbara företags låga respektive höga P/E- samt P/B-värden. Prestationen hos dessa portföljer, samt hos marknadsindexet, mäts i form av riskjusterad avkastning, och genom hypotesprövning undersöker studien ifall det finns någon signifikant skillnad i den riskjusterade avkastningen mellan dessa portföljer samt mellan portföljerna och marknadsindexet. Samtliga hypotestester visar att det inte finns någon signifikant skillnad i riskjusterad avkastning mellan de hållbara värde- och tillväxtaktierna, eller mellan de hållbara portföljerna och marknadsindexet. Detta indikerar att aktierna på marknaden är korrekt prissatta och är således varken under- eller övervärderade, i enlighet med den effektiva marknadshypotesen. Denna står i kontrast till strategin för värdeinvestering som bygger på att finna undervärderade företag på marknaden. Utifrån dessa resultat dras slutsatsen att värdeinvestering inte nödvändigtvis är en fungerande strategi vid hållbara investeringar i stora företag på den europeiska marknaden. Enligt studien kan inte värdeaktier anses generera en signifikant högre riskjusterad avkastning jämfört med tillväxtaktier eller den generella marknaden. Investerare kan dock välja att investera i antingen ett brett marknadsindex, eller i mer hållbara värde- eller tillväxtaktier, och förvänta sig en relativt lik riskjusterad avkastning på denna marknad oavsett vilket investeringsalternativ de väljer. Att investera mer hållbart behöver således inte innebära en lägre avkastning.

The issues surrounding sustainability continues to be at the forefront of the human agenda and firms are increasingly being held accountable by their stakeholders to assist in bringing about sustainability. Despite this, there is a tension surrounding the role of firms and the benefits implementing sustainability practices and policies has for these actors. On the one hand, being sustainable underpinned by a strong CSR-oriented governance board with the right compositional factors results in superior firm performance. On the other hand, sustainability is suggested to increase costs and reduced competitiveness thereby reducing firm performance. These contrasting results supported by mixed scholarly findings concerning different mediating factors influencing the overarching relationship creates a confusion gap that warrants this current study. As such, the study’s purpose is to investigate the relationship between two distinct yet interrelated relationships, the impact of board of directors’ composition on CSR performance measured by ESG scores and the impact of CSR performance on firm performance so as to contribute to the debate on these notion that continues to plague academia and the pragmatic world. This study is realized through a quantitative archival-longitudinal study design underpinned by metaphysical assumptions. Regression analyses using panel data on a sample of 123 listed companies headquartered in the Nordic Countries for the period 2010-2018 is undertaken to analyze the potential relation between CSR performance and five board composition factors, specially the gender diversity, independence, size, frequency of meetings and the presence of CSR committee. The association between CSR performance and firm performance is investigated in a similar way. Under rigorous statistical testing and analysis, the results indicate that there potentially is a relation between board composition and firms’ ESG performance. The results derived from the relationship between CSR and firm performance is inconsistent and cannot be fully accepted. This study contributes theoretically to CSR, corporate governance and finance literature by expanding upon how these three notions are linked in light of the sustainability trend that is gripping modern society. Socially, this research is useful for providing empirical evidence on the value of strong governance structures so as to foster sustainability and encourage debate on its value. Pragmatically, our study suggests what board composition factors are most conducive for supporting CSR that may assist firms’ corporate governance structuring and focus.

This study investigates the relationship between corporate sustainability and dividend policy in the Nordic countries. In the field of finance, the importance of corporate sustainability is growing, particularly in the Nordic countries, which excel in global sustainability rankings. In response to this occurrence many firms are increasingly incorporating sustainability into their operations, which in turn might affect the strategic decisions of these firms. One of these is the dividend policy decision. Dividend policy in the form of cash dividends is a central concept in finance and is affected by conservation of capital and time value of money. The purpose of this study is to clarify the relationship between sustainability and dividend policy, which the authors have done by including different theoretical arguments. These are grounded in the agency theory, the signaling theory and the stakeholder theory. Previous research such as Benlemlih (2019) has examined the relationship between sustainability and dividends, but not in the same regional setting. ESG is used as a proxy for sustainability, while two proxies are used for dividend policy; dividend payout ratio and dividend yield. Through a quantitative approach information is collected on the ESG score and dividend data using the Thomson Reuters Eikon database and then analyzed using regression analysis. The data spans over 10 years (2008-2018) and covers 117 firms with available ESG and dividend payout data.  The findings indicate that there is a significant relationship between the ESG score and the dividend payout ratio of Nordic firms, while the dividend yield has no relationship with the ESG score. As both measurements had positive coefficients, the authors determined that there is a positive relationship between sustainability and dividend policy. Based on the findings, the excess liquidity hypothesis was dismissed, while the authors concluded that there was support for and against the overinvesting hypothesis and the signaling hypothesis. The authors believe one possible explanation for these mixed results could be due to the regional setting, as it differs from the settings of previous studies. By illustrating the relationship between corporate sustainability and dividend policy, this study could be of interest to large and medium sized firms in the Nordic countries that use business strategies involving ESG practices or consider implementing such strategies. Similarly, it could be used by investors that use ESG-screening as a decision criterion when investing.

The footprint firms leave behind on this planet is widely discussed, and the topic of corporate social responsibility is constantly receiving additional attention. The gravity of working towards a more sustainable way of conducting business is illustrated by the incentivized tax system in various countries, where CSR can render tax deductions. It is widely debated if CSR and tax aggressiveness can live in symbiosis, and what relationship the two areas have. However, the literature investigating thisrelationship is scarce, which has left a research gap for the authors of this study to fill.This study does through a quantitative method investigate the relationship between CSR and tax aggressiveness of 3899 firms from 68 different countries, measuredat the end of 2018. By equivalating the level of social responsibility of a firm with the widely accepted ESG-score and the level of tax aggressiveness of a firm with the ETR-index created by the authors, the statistical testing of the relationship was enabled. Further, the control variables country, industry, leverage, beta, and size were included to account for variance in tax aggressiveness which is not captured by the ESG-score.To guide the authors through the establishment of hypothesis and statistical testing,a theoretical framework was established, concluding theories speaking for the implementation of tax aggressiveness, against it, and theories which reconciles the two contradicting views. The data was thereafter processed to investigate which statistical model to utilize. The robust OLS was found to be the best suited model, which was used to test the relationship between the aggregated ESG-score, as well as its components, relationship to the ETR-index.The statistical results in this study did not exhibit a significant relationship between the aggregated ESG-score, nor for the two components S and G, and the ETR-index. There is however a significant positive relationship between the E-score and the ETR-index, showing that environmentally friendly firms are less tax aggressive in general. This relationship could be explained by the stakeholder theory, which indicates that a firm's objective should be to maximize the value creation for all its stakeholders, as well as by the legitimacy theory, stating that firms seek to conduct proper business within socially constructed norms. Furthermore, the results show that tax aggressiveness depends on the country of headcounter, the industry, and the beta of a firm.

Submitted by Adriana Alves Rodrigues (aalves@espm.br) on 2018-10-09T11:30:30Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertacao_MPCC - Cristine_ Marian_Naum_2018 V. FINAL 27-4.pdf: 1570692 bytes, checksum: 8a2fe858218f4673caefa924fc17abfa (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Adriana Alves Rodrigues (aalves@espm.br) on 2018-10-09T11:31:07Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertacao_MPCC - Cristine_ Marian_Naum_2018 V. FINAL 27-4.pdf: 1570692 bytes, checksum: 8a2fe858218f4673caefa924fc17abfa (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Debora Cristina Bonfim Aquarone (deborabonfim@espm.br) on 2018-10-09T11:32:44Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertacao_MPCC - Cristine_ Marian_Naum_2018 V. FINAL 27-4.pdf: 1570692 bytes, checksum: 8a2fe858218f4673caefa924fc17abfa (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2018-10-09T11:32:55Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertacao_MPCC - Cristine_ Marian_Naum_2018 V. FINAL 27-4.pdf: 1570692 bytes, checksum: 8a2fe858218f4673caefa924fc17abfa (MD5) Previous issue date: 2018-03-19 / Since the mid-twentieth century, climate change has had a significant impact in several economy sectors whilst scandals related to corporate governance as well as political and social instability have directly influenced the value of companies and also altered the way investments are considered. Due to this scenario, environmental, social and corporate governance factors have been taken into account in business analysis, demanding engagement, transparency and new forms for data evaluation. In search for identifying the motivations for the integration of environmental, social and governance factors (ESG) into investment analysis, as well as evaluating the use of this data, the present research discusses the challenges imposed by this model of asset analysis through the dialogue with nine actors and institutions related to the financial market. As to create a qualitative and exploratory methodological approach, interviews were held in depth using a semi structured script with five new Brazilian Asset Management professionals and with institutions related to this topic. For the development of this study, a theoretical revision of the evolution of sustainability of the financial market was necessary, which imposes new challenges to the investment management. According to the results of this research, the main motivators for the adoption of ESG factors to investment analyses are the adoption of the Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI) by the greatest financial institutions in Brazil, followed by the awareness of the rise of financial and reputational risks originated from company operations. The data sources used in this research are diverse, with special emphasis on sustainability reports released by companies. However, a lack of comparability, reliability, history, format and integration in the companies’ results still damages the use of this information by other entities. The present study contributes with the adoption of ESG factors by several segments of the financial sector, as well as with the improvement of management of those which already integrate them. Besides, companies will be able to better comprehend the importance of adequate communication and of the quality of data for investors through sustainability reports. / Desde meados do século XX, as mudanças climáticas impactam significativamente diversos setores da economia, ao mesmo tempo que escândalos sobre governança corporativa e instabilidades políticas e sociais têm influenciado diretamente o valor das empresas e alterado a forma de se pensar os investimentos. Fatores ambientais, sociais e de governança passam, pois, a ser considerados nas análises de negócios, exigindo engajamento, transparência e novas formas de avaliação de dados. Com o objetivo de identificar as motivações para integração dos fatores Ambientais, Sociais e de Governança (ASG) à análise de investimento, bem como analisar o uso dos dados, a presente pesquisa, através do diálogo com nove atores relacionados ao mercado financeiro e entidades, traz os desafios impostos por esse modelo de avaliação de ativos. Para uma abordagem metodológica exploratória qualitativa, foram realizadas entrevistas em profundidade com roteiro semiestruturado com novos profissionais de Assets Management que atuam no Brasil e de entidades que se relacionam ao tema. Para o desenvolvimento desse estudo foi necessária a revisão teórica da evolução da sustentabilidade no mercado financeiro, que impõe novos desafios à gestão dos investimentos. De acordo com os resultados desta pesquisa, os principais motivadores para adoção de fatores ASG às análises de investimento são a adoção aos Princípios do Investimento Responsável (PRI) pelas grandes instituições financeiras e Asset Management do país; seguido da percepção de aumento dos riscos financeiros e reputacionais oriundos das operações das empresas. As fontes de dados utilizadas são diversas, com destaque para os relatórios de sustentabilidade empresariais. No entanto, falta de comparabilidade, confiabilidade, histórico, formato e integração aos resultados das empresas ainda prejudicam o uso das informações por mais entidades. O presente estudo colabora com a adoção de fatores ASG por diversos segmentos do setor financeiro, bem como com a melhoria de gestão das financeiras que já os integraram. Além disso, as empresas poderão compreender melhor a importância da comunicação adequada e qualidade dos dados para os investidores, por meio dos relatórios de sustentabilidade

Un crescente numero di aziende è oggi impegnato in attività ESG. È fondamentale dunque comprendere se tali attività conducano all’ottenimento di migliori performance economiche o meno. I risultati in letteratura non sono univoci in merito. Il progetto ha l’obiettivo di dimostrare che l’attività ESG non è autonomamente in grado di produrre migliori prestazioni economiche. Solo quando aziende innovative implementano attività ESG, esiste una relazione positiva tra ESG e performance. Nell’ambito dello studio è dunque testato il ruolo moderatore che la variabile “innovazione” esercita sulla relazione fra ESG e performance economica. Lo studio tenta di contribuire alla letteratura esistente sotto tre aspetti. In primo luogo, prende in considerazione sia le attività ESG che l'innovazione. In secondo luogo, il campione utilizzato è molto più ampio di quelli di studi analoghi. Infine, include variabili innovative, che sono in grado di spiegare meglio il livello di attività ESG delle aziende. I risultati ottenuti consentono di confermare che solo per aziende innovative esiste un effetto positivo dell’attività ESG sulle performance. / A growing number of corporations are now engaged in a broad set of ESG activities. A central question is of course whether companies that enhance their ESG activities gain an advantage over companies that do not. Results in the literature are mixed. This project aims to demonstrate that ESG considered standalone is not able to provide better economic performance. Only when innovative companies implement ESG, a positive relation between ESG and performance exists. The moderating role of the R&D variable in then tested in the relationship between ESG and Corporate Financial Performance. The study attempts to bring novelty under three aspects. Firstly, it takes into consideration both ESG activities and innovation. Secondly, the sample used is larger than the ones of alike studies, in that it analyzed a larger time span, and it is cross-country. Finally, it includes innovative variables, which are better able to explain the ESG activities level of companies. Results obtained allow to confirm that a positive effect on performance by ESG activities exist only for innovative companies.

Although the prevailing viewpoint claims that corporate profitability and environmental regulation are directly at odds, there is a growing base of evidence suggesting that low-carbon companies gain a strategic advantage over dirtier competitors by lobbying for more stringent climate regulations. This paper extends previous analyses of corporate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and lobbying using toxic releases as a measure of environmental performance to assess the assertion that both clean and dirty firms disproportionately lobby on environmental policies. In my analysis, I find that the same relationship previously found using GHG emissions as a measure of corporate environmental performance holds with toxic releases when examining only the three most widely represented industries in my data—Major Chemical, Power Generation, and Energy Utilities. When combined with findings of a negative linear correlation between firms’ toxic releases and lobbying expenditures using the same sample, my results suggest that clean firms in these industries not only lobby frequently on environmental policies—they actually do so more aggressively than their dirtier competitors. While I deduce that these results are caused by clean firms lobbying for stricter environmental regulations that impose costly compliance costs on dirty competitors, it is evident that my data do not specify if firms are lobbying for or against more stringent regulations or what the implications of those lobbied policies would entail. This inability to distinguish firms’ underlying motivations for lobbying is a fundamental shortcoming of my analysis.

Increasing concern regarding environmental, social, and governance (ESG) impacts are influencing investor decisions. The growing risk of climate change impacts poses a risk to long-term sustainable economic growth and returns. Additionally, increasing societal concern over corporate ESG impacts also poses a risk to corporate efficiency and success. As a result of these increasing risks investors, both retail and institutional, are participating in ESG investment strategies. Such strategies take into account corporate ESG impacts and behaviors, however, ESG information and data is not easily available. This thesis will examine the current ESG investing landscape, more specifically what investors are demanding. For the most part, investors want reliable data that they can use in their investment strategies, however, the ESG information available is insufficient, unreliable, and incomparable as ESG reporting and disclosures are not currently mandated by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). One available solution to this obstacle is the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB), which guides corporations on how to optimally disclose on its ESG impacts. Unfortunately, this solution on its own is not enough. SEC intervention is clearly needed to enforce and regulate ESG disclosure to avoid the challenges of voluntary ESG reporting. Furthermore, the concept of materiality implies a corporate duty to report on ESG issues as there is strong evidence indicating its influence over investors' decisions. Likewise, the SEC has a duty to regulate this information. While this thesis suggests the SASB framework as a possible solution to the deficiency of ESG information, its goal is not to solve the issue, but rather merely begin the discussion.

As corporate social responsibility and socially responsible investing practices have increased substantially over the past decade, the possible financial advantages have been examined in great depth. Utilizing firms from the S&P 500 I have investigated the possible outperformance of accounting based and market based measures. I did this by examining the relationship between ESG scores, a common measure of CSR level, and the following dependent variables: return on assets, total risk, systematic risk, and idiosyncratic risk. I obtained strong evidence that an increase in CSR levels are correlated with an increased return on assets.

Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) issues are becoming more and more significant for comprehensive evaluation of companies responsible investing activities. Over the years, the growth in corporate responsibility to the society and policies towards environmental consciousness has necessitated the need for comprehensive ESG integration into investment decision-making process and the impact of such activities on company‟s financial performance. Although, studies suggest that there is an increasing trend in ESG considerations among large-cap companies and public investors, little have been written about the link with private investors. Venture capital and private equity investors have an important role in shaping current innovative companies to become future leaders in the market and therefore posses the ability to influence entrepreneurs towards sustainability by incorporating ESG issues in their investment selection processes. This study sought to find out if venture capital and private equity investors consider ESG issues in their activities and if so, do cultural and institutional contexts in which they operate have any effect on their considerations? We have used two of the most advanced venture capital and private equity industries in the world – USA and UK to analysed the response of this sector to ESG issues. Essential ESG factors have been coded using content analysis method for 122 companies from both countries relating to how they practise and integrate environmental, social and corporate governance issues into their investment decision process. Statistical multivariate analysis was conducted with SPSS to analyse data gathered. Our findings revealed that in general venture capital and private equity investors are responding to calls for ESG considerations in their activities, with almost all studied companies reporting some form of ESG issues on their corporate website. However, majority of them are just at the initial stage of mentioning with little information on how it is been used as part of investment selection criteria. Results of the study also show that, investors in environmental related products and services (Cleantech) have higher levels of ESG considerations than other investors. An indication that investor‟s who finance innovative companies that provide solutions to current environmental problems do impact more positively on society. In addition, findings also confirmed earlier studies that differences in cultural and institutional contexts between countries do affect behaviour and values of companies. Thus, a country with strong regulations and incentives towards sustainability will impact on corporate culture that will increase ESG considerations among venture capital and private equity investors. Therefore, our study concluded that there is an appreciable levels of ESG consideration among venture capital and private equity investor‟s, however investors need to increase their considerations by committing more resources to environmental solutions and social issues such as clean technologies and community philanthropy.