This research deals with socially responsible investing (SRI) in its broadest context in South Africa and includes an analysis of the risk-adjusted performance of local SRI funds. SRI refers to an investment strategy whereby investors integrate moral as well as environmental, social and governance (ESG) considerations alongside conventional financial criteria in evaluating investment opportunities. Typical SRI strategies include screening, shareholder activism and cause-based (targeted) investing. The primary objective of this research was to obtain a deeper understanding of SRI in South Africa as it represents a powerful means whereby private sector capital can be channelled into areas of national priority. Data and methodological triangulation strategies were adopted to investigate the research problem, respond to the research questions and test the research hypotheses of this study. The phenomenological component of the research consisted of an extensive literature review as well as in-depth, face-to-face interviews conducted with twelve SRI fund managers and industry experts. The positivistic dimension of this research centred on the construction of the first complete database of SRI funds in South Africa, the sourcing of quantitative primary data and the testing of eight pairs of null and alternative hypotheses. Risk-adjusted performance was evaluated by means of the Sharpe, Sortino and Upside-potential ratios during three sub-periods, namely 1 June 1992 to 31 August 1998, 1 September 1998 to 31 March 2002 and 1 April 2002 to 31 March 2006. Forty-three SRI funds have been launched in South Africa since June 1992 and it is estimated that SRIs constitute approximately 0.7 percent of the total investment capacity in the country. It was found that most local SRI funds combine a cause-based investment strategy with a positive or best-of-sector screening approach. ESG screens were found to focus on the promotion of broad-based Black Economic Empowerment and the development of social infrastructure in South Africa. The FTSE/JSE SRI Index and the Financial Sector Charter were identified as the most prominent drivers of SRI in South Africa, whereas a lack of skills and a shortage of new SRI opportunities, asset classes and funds were seen as impediments to the growth of the local SRI sector. The empirical evidence shows that: - local SRI funds underperformed relative to their respective benchmark indices during the first two sub-periods but significantly outperformed them during sub-period three (the resurgence period of SRI in South Africa); - local SRI fund performance is not significantly different from that of a matched sample of conventional (non-SRI) funds; and - local SRI funds significantly underperformed relative to the general equity market in South Africa during sub-period two (the decline period of SRI in South Africa) but performed on a par with the FTSE/JSE All Share Index during sub-periods one and two. The findings of this research therefore suggest that investors can consider SRI funds as part of a well-diversified investment strategy. It is strongly recommended that a Social Investment Forum be established in South Africa to address the educational needs of stakeholders in the local SRI sector. It is also recommended that local asset managers adopt a focused differentiation strategy to take advantage of the growing SRI sector in South Africa.

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This study is a qualitative investigation into the areas of corporate social investment and public relations. The study examines the significance of corporate social investment within the field of public relations with specific reference to selected KwaZulu Natal corporations. The study looks at the corporate social investment and public relations departments of five corporations in the KwaZulu Natal region. The corporations that were interviewed were selected based on their location, and the number of years of experience in the field. The five companies, namely, The South African Sugar Association, NBS Boland Bank, Hillside Aluminium (Alusaf), McCarthy Retail and Richards Bay Minerals received immense coverage on their corporate social investment initiatives, in the Mail and Guardian’s April 1998 issue, ‘Investing in the future, special focus on social investment.’ The report presents an in-depth literature review, which examines the history of both corporate social investment and public relations. It thereafter examines the current practices of public relations and corporate social investment from a South African perspective. The prevalent approach to corporate social investment is also addressed. Apart from the study of the five corporations, the report also comments on other dedicated corporate social investment programmes. The programmes of each of the five companies are contrasted with current and relevant documentation from the 1999 Business and Marketing Intelligence report. Graphs and tables complement this information. The findings reveal that there is little public relations involvement in corporate social investment initiatives because corporate social investment practitioners do not see the need for the involvement of public relations practitioners in all areas of their corporate social investment initiatives. The results of the interviews gives the reader a broad perspective of corporate social investment and public relations within each company. The findings suggest that the role of public relations needs to be re-examined in the new millennium.

M.Com. (Business Management) / Corporate social investment (CSI) does not have a universal definition, but corporations tend to interpret it according to the extent of their activity in community social programmes of development. It is of particular importance in South Africa given the fact that South Africa is still a developing country that struggles with high unemployment and inequality. This dissertation explores this concept of CSI in research that was conducted in the community of Letswaleng (Embalenhle), in Mpumalanga, in order to establish whether there is a relationship between the mining company that operates in the community and the community within which it operates. Mining corporations continue to assume little responsibility for the health, education or housing of the families of their black employees while operating in monopolistic conditions and making exorbitant profits. A wide variety of these mining opportunities have attracted multinational enterprises and local firms to invest in the region of Mpumalanga. The purpose of the research was to explore the relationship between the community and the mining company in terms of CSI initiatives. It was also to establish if there are any community structures to ensure that the mining company does consult with the community in making sure that they are kept informed concerning the plans of the mining house within the community. The nature of this research was exploratory, qualitative research and, for this reason, structured interviews were conducted and these were face-to-face. Corporate social investment is an issue that the government needs to take seriously by setting up audit committees to monitor the implementation of these ventures. Government structures such as the Department of Trade and Industry need to fund community structures in order for them to be more effective.

Development and all issues that pertain to it, has been a hot topic since the turn of the century. Governments have set up programs and agendas that they would like to follow to implement development in areas such as social, education, health and environment. Traditionally developing of communities has always been a government’s mandate. Corporate society established that to live in harmony with its neighbours, it was better to plough back into the community. That said it was paramount to see how the both development and CSI/R can be intertwined reasons behind this qualitative research were to establish if the Kenya Pipeline Company CSI initiatives can be used to promote development. The research methodology used was interviews, distribution of questionnaire and document review. These methods were settled on since they allowed the researcher to gain more knowledge and a greater understanding of the data collected and in it’s the natural setting. Kenya Pipeline Company’s CSI/R policy is not quite in place and development could be pegged to the ethnic group or geographical region that the Managing Director comes from. Stakeholders do not quite contribute and are seldom involved in the decision making process. The first benefactors are the communities that fall by the way- leave of the pipeline moving out. A conclusive policy document needs to be put in place to curb the powers given to a single individual and to be able to involve the various stakeholders so as to ensure sustainable development initiatives.

The issue leading to this study is the purported lack of short-term consideration of climate change materiality on investment portfolios. The on-going research argument deliberates the roles and motives of institutional investors in considering environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues, including climate change, in investment decisions. The purpose of this study was therefore to explore the underlying motives of South African institutional investors for the incorporation of climate change in their short-term investment decision-making. The study was conducted through a qualitative, exploratory enquiry, whereby seven semi-structured interviews were conducted with institutions in the South African asset management industry. Participants’ views were analysed and indicated the following themes: The state of climate change awareness and the incorporation of ESG and climate change in investment decision-making; tactical valuation of assets using ESG/climate change screening and methods of monitoring ESG/climate change practices; and motives, incentives and constraints of responsible investment (RI) practices to incorporate climate change. These are supported by business conditions that enable consideration of climate change in investment analysis. Industry practitioners can lead by implementing RI to include climate change in order to attract potential clients to their portfolios. / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2014. / zkgibs2015 / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / Unrestricted

Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Education in the Department of Educational Planning and Administration at the University of Zululand, 2003. / The study investigates the extent to which communication is used as a management tool for Corporate Social Investment (CSI) programmes. To this end, the following objectives were formulated; To (a) determine if communication between funding business organisations and communities facilitate the realisation of mutually beneficial goals, (b) determine if communication between funding business organisations and communities is regular, (c) determine if communication between funding business organisations and communities is empowering to communities, (d) determine if corporate social investment managers find a difference in communication efficiency between corporate social investment programmes in education and training on the one hand and other forms of CSI programmes on the other hand. In order to investigate the aims of the study two instruments were used viz, a closed-ended questionnaire and an interview schedule. There were two samples for the study which were corporate social investment practitioners (Public Relations Managers, Community Affairs Managers, Corporate Communications Managers or any other person designated to perform such a role) and the community members who are recipients of CSI funding. The close-ended questionnaire was administered to corporate social investment practitioners and the interview schedule was used, to solicit data from recipients of funding. For the analysis of data a chi-square one sample test was used for the first four research objectives. After the analysis and interpretation of data was done, the study came to the following conclusions (a) Communication within CSI programmes facilitates the realisation of mutually beneficial goals between funding business organisations and the community (b) Communication between funding business organisations and communities is regular because there are scheduled dates for meetings and both parties observe these scheduled meetings (c) Communication between funding business organisations and communities is empowering to communities, and (d) There was a difference in communication efficiency between education and training programmes on the one hand and other sectors on the other hand.

A research article submitted to the Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, University of Witwatersrand, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Business Administration Johannesburg, 2018 / MT 2019

At the beginning of the 21st century the public interest in environmental and social sustainability, and corporate governance grew exponentially fuelled by recurring ecological and financial crises. The market demand for cleaner production and corporate transparency created opportunities for sustainability entrepreneurs in a variety of industries, including financial markets and investment management. An increasing number of financial institutions across the world now offer ethical or socially responsible products to meet the environmental, social and governance (ESG) aspirations of their clients. In the US, according to the Social Investment Forum (SIF), responsible investment (RI) assets reached US$ 2,29 trillion in 2007 (Mitchell, 2008). The European Sustainable Investment Forum (EuroSIF) estimated that total European SRI assets reached EUR 5 trillion in 2009 (Wheelan, 2010). In June 2011 the International Finance Corporation (IFC) reported that at the end of 2010 professional sustainable investment under management in South Africa approximately equalled US$ 122,6 billion (IFC, 2011:44). The statistics describing the rapid growth in the ESG-type investments are, however, complicated by the variety of names and definitions used to describe this emerging type of investment and a general market uncertainty about what constitutes the practice of RI. The purpose of this case study is to better understand responsible investment principles and practice as seen through the eyes of a South African private equity fund, which specializes in clean technology.

M.Com. (Financial Management) / Over the last three decades, socially responsible investing (SRI) has emerged as one of the foremost issues faced by individuals and institutions in their daily activities. While the roots of responsible investing date back to the 18th century, the recent focus on responsible investing has been impactful. There has been growth in understanding the impact of investors’ decisions on long-term sustainability of business and society. In South Africa, the recent amendment of Regulation 28 of Pension Funds Act of 1956 and the introduction of the Code for Responsible Investing in South Africa (CRISA) are some of the latest developments in support of SRI. This minor dissertation evaluates the performance of SRI funds relative to traditional funds from January 2006 to June 2011. Specifically, the focus is on four main measures. Firstly, SRI funds relative to SRI funds’ own mandated benchmark; secondly, SRI funds relative to proxy market benchmark indices; thirdly, SRI funds relative to a matched sample of traditional unit trust funds; and lastly, SRI indices relative to traditional market indices. Twenty-seven funds were analysed in the study. The first finding was that SRI funds outperform their respective benchmarks on an unadjusted basis. Secondly, SRI funds showed slightly better risk-adjusted performance compared to proxy benchmark indices. Thirdly, SRI funds underperformed against a matched sample of traditional peers. Lastly, the FTSE/JSE SRI Equity Index underperformed against the general market equity index, but outperformed both the bonds and money market indices.