This research study examines the risk-adjusted performance and portfolio risk of 60 large cap equity funds - mutual funds - under Swedish management. These funds apply environmental, social and governance criteria in their investment strategies. The empirical context concerns the COVID-19 situation and the context is divided into three periods, before, during and after the COVID-19 crisis. The ESG concept, modern portfolio and stakeholder theories are used to develop a theoretical base for the study on which the hypotheses are based which are summarized in a conceptual model. Secondary data regarding ESG and risk-adjusted returns are collected for each fund based on which the sharpe ratios and standard deviations (total or portfolio risk) for each fund are calculated. While there are associations between ESG and portfolio risk, no associations are found between ESG and sharpe ratios. As a result, this confirms the fact that ESG could be characterized as a mechanism to protect against downside risk in poor economic times but no association was established that ESG could also be used as a mechanism to determine efficiency in terms of risk-adjusted performance

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is a widely disputed and constantly evolving topic. One of the most recent methods of assessing CSR in South Africa has been through the usage of the Financial Times Stock Exchange/Johannesburg Stock Exchange (FTSE/JSE) Responsible Investment Index. The Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) Socially Responsible Investment Index (SRI Index) was founded in 2004 and was replaced by the FTSE/JSE Responsible Investment Index in 2015. The index evaluates listed firms based on their triple bottom line performance i.e., environment, society, and economy. The index includes companies that are thought to have good CSR policies. This study assesses the effects of CSR on the Corporate Financial Performance (CFP) of firms listed on the JSE that were included in the FTSE/JSE All Share Index (ALSI) as of the 31st of January 2021. This it does by analyzing the stock's financial performance over a five-year period between the 2015 and 2019 financial years. The requirements for stocks to be included in this study is that they must have had an average market capitalization between R2 billion and R100 billion between the 2015 and 2019 financial years and are not part of the real estate sector. The results of the nonparametric (Mann-Whitney) tests show that companies that are part of the FTSE/JSE Responsible Investment Index perform better on average than those that are not included in the index. This conclusion is based on a review of the total return index (TRI), return on equity ratio (ROE), price-earnings ratio (PE), and the market-to-book ratio (MB). The analysis conducted using the net profit margin (NPM) as a measure of financial performance show that there is no relationship between CSR and financial performance. The Mann-Whitney test results where the return on assets (ROA) ratio was used showed a negative relationship between CSR and financial performance.

This dissertation contains three essays on the non-pecuniary preferences pertaining to financial asset characteristics and their implications for asset pricing. The first essay considers the pricing implications of screens adopted by socially responsible investors. A model including such investors reconciles the empirically observed risk-adjusted sin-stock abnormal return with a systematic “boycott risk premium” which has a substantial financial impact that is, however, not limited to the targeted firms. The boycott effect cannot be displaced by litigation risk, a neglect effect, and liquidity considerations, or by industry momentum and concentration. The boycott risk factor is valuable in explaining cross-sectional differences in mean returns across industries and its premium varies directly with the relative wealth of socially responsible investors and with the business cycle. The second essay generalizes Fama (1996)’s concept of Multi-Factor Efficiency without being limited by additional random state variables that must affect future investment opportunities. Incorporating non-pecuniary preferences into a representative investor’s utility function generates multi-factor pricing implications. A representative investor chooses among expected returns, variances, and levels of characteristics according to their taste, which gives rise to an N-fund separation theorem with static characteristics. If a portfolio is built to maximize the exposure to the asset characteristics, the covariance between asset returns and this portfolio returns will be identical to the underlying characteristics. Such identity makes obsolete any attempts to distinguish between characteristics and risk exposures as the driving forces behind the cross-sectional variation in stock returns. The third essay develops a procedure for deriving systematic factors from characteristics, based on maximizing each factor’s exposure to a characteristic subject to a given level of factor variance. The resulting characteristic-mimicking portfolios (CMP) price mean asset returns identically as the original characteristics, irrespective of the underlying model. Accordingly, differences in the performance of mimicking factors and characteristics in explaining mean returns should be interpreted as an artifact of arbitrary procedural choices for generating mimicking factors. Factors and characteristics may be distinguished usefully only by determining if CMPs have significant explanatory power for the time series of returns. / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

<p>Several organisations have called for clarifications on sustainable investment. The aim of this study is to map and compare the ethical criteria used by Socially Responsible Investment (SRI) funds in their assessment of companies. My attention is also to seek for clarifications on the definition on SRI. A theoretical framework has been used to identify core issues of socially responsible investment. The areas of interest are charitable giving, environmental technologies, negative and positive screening and shareholder activism. The empirical material consisted of qualitative interviews with 4 fund managers from 5 investment management firms in addition to written documents on the funds’ ethical criteria. The conclusions are that all of the funds use negative criteria in their assessment of companies, with similarities in what may be considered as unethical activity and differences in the extent. Most of the funds also seek to identify better-managed companies through an assessment of how companies comply with international agreements. Differences occur in the choices of international agreements as well as the minimum criteria for investing. Most of the investment management firms engage in shareholder activism with the aim to influence the companies’ corporate behaviour, thus with different levels of engagement. Some have dialogue with whom they invest in, some favour the idea of communicate with companies they do not invest in as well. Furthermore, the results of this study show that investments in environmental technologies are rare since these companies are too small. When it comes to charitable giving, donations to charity may be seen as SRI or may not be seen as SRI depending on if the concept refers to investment criteria.</p>

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to describe the perception of value and risk in CSR as well as analyzing how financial institutions influence responsible behavior in business in order to create sustainable economic growth. Methodology: The study has a qualitative research method used by an abductive process. Data has been collected through semi-structured interviews with respondents from three venture capital companies and three banks. The sample of respondents was done through a convenience sample with respect to access and expertise in the research area. Conclusion: The most important meanings of the research results have shown that CSR holds an intrinsic value concerning contributing value as its conceptual meaning in terms of sustainable development. CSR can also be regarded as a dimension of risk management to reduce the risk of negative externalities on corporate activities. Investors and financiers contribute to sustainable companies through active ownership and improvements in the CSR dimensions. Finally, research results demonstrated that the responsible behavior of companies contributing to profitability, which in turn is part of sustainable development.

During the last few decades, "regular people" have become increasingly involved with investing in the stock market. One way of doing this, which has become more and more popular, is to invest in mutual funds. The mutual fund industry has, due to its explosive growth, been described as a success story of the 20th century. These days, sources report that over 70% of the Swedish population actively invests in mutual funds. This thesis is an investigation into consumer decision making regarding one specific type of mutual fund: Socially Responsible Investment (SRI). SRI profiled mutual funds are different from "regular" mutual funds in that they incorporate social, ethical, and environmental (SEE) criteria. In this manner, SRI profiled mutual funds could be said to have two separate dimensions. The regular financial dimension has the purpose of generating a high level of financial return while managing risk. The socially responsible dimension, on the other hand, focuses on incorporating SEE issues into the investment process. However, consumers that desire to choose mutual funds that will both perform well financially and have a good socially responsible dimension face a more difficult decision than consumers who choose to invest in "regular" mutual funds. As each of the dimensions come with its own set of challenges which the consumer must overcome, choosing an appropriate combination of these is a difficult task. In this manner, consumers of SRI profiled mutual funds have to navigate through a complex decision making environment to arrive at a good choice. Based in this notion of decision making in complex environments, this thesis investigates how consumers combine their "traditional" financial objectives with their "additional" SEE consideration and examines the impact of personal factors related to these two areas on consumer investment in SRI profiled mutual funds. Four separate essays on these topics, each investigating a specific stage in the Engel-Kollat-Blackwell (1968) consumer decision making process, are presented. Moreover, in order to understand how complexity impacts consumer decision making in the area, the results of each study are analyzed against a conceptual framework focusing on the complexity of the market. The results show that consumers of SRI profiled mutual funds care about both financial and SEE issues. However, how consumers combine these in their decision making differs. Factors, such as the stage of the purchase decision making process, personal abilities, preferences, and perceptions are found to impact consumer decision making.  Against this background, this thesis generates an increased understanding of consumer decision making in complex decision making environments in general and of SRI profiled mutual funds in particular.

This study explores the contemporary practice of Ethical and Socially Responsible Investment and concludes that it is based on an ad hoc construct of empirically derived principles, driven mainly by the commercial self-interest of large financial institutions and fund managers. It explores the relationship between investment and morality, to posit a background theory of investment ethics. The study then proposes a move away from the narrow focus of ethical investment to a broader concern for investment ethics. The study introduces the discipline of investment ethics and examines the criteria that form the basis of morality in investment decisions. The resultant theory is intended to be of practical significance in the business and investment domains and to assist potential investors to evaluate investment opportunities in the context of a consistent set of substantive normative ethical principles.

Syfte: Denna studie syftar till att kartlägga i vilken utsträckning företag på en svensk marknad arbetar med CSR och även att identifiera ett eventuellt samband mellan hållbarhetsarbetets utsträckning och lönsamhet i form av EPS och DuPont. Dessa lönsamhetsmått representerar dels ett investeringsperspektiv, dels ett internt företagsperspektiv. Metod: En kvantitativ studie har gjorts på Stockholmsbörsens Large Cap med en indelning av företagen på en hållbarhetsskala. Datan har analyseratstillsammans med lönsamhetsmåtten EPS och DuPont genomkorstabulering samt en statistisk analys. Slutsats: Denna studie finner att det finns ett engagemang för CSR inom LargeCap och det finns ett negativt samband mellan CSR-arbete och EPS.Studien finner inget samband mellan CSR-arbete och DuPont. Det finns en obalans i prioriteringen av TBL där det ekonomiska perspektivet är det främsta.

Submitted by MARCEL HENRIQUE BATAIOLA null (marbataiola@yahoo.com.br) on 2016-08-30T12:14:39Z No. of bitstreams: 1 DISSERTAÇÃO - Marcel H. Bataiola - RA 145723-5.pdf: 2089598 bytes, checksum: 84a2963de897772c85fd7a8fa40c1f90 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Ana Paula Grisoto (grisotoana@reitoria.unesp.br) on 2016-08-31T12:51:18Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 bataiola_mh_me_bauru.pdf: 2089598 bytes, checksum: 84a2963de897772c85fd7a8fa40c1f90 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-08-31T12:51:18Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 bataiola_mh_me_bauru.pdf: 2089598 bytes, checksum: 84a2963de897772c85fd7a8fa40c1f90 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-07-05 / A sustentabilidade hoje é uma pauta importante entre as políticas governamentais e programas regionais, tendo mais recentemente sido inserida no ambiente empresarial, se consolidando progressivamente no mercado de capitais. Nesse contexto, nas duas últimas décadas foram criados diversos índices de sustentabilidade empresarial com o intuito de avaliar o desempenho em sustentabilidade de empresas listadas nas bolsas de valores. Em 2005, a Bolsa de Valores, Mercadorias e Futuros de São Paulo (BM&FBOVESPA) lançou o Índice de Sustentabilidade Empresarial (ISE) o primeiro na América Latina. Esta pesquisa tem por objetivo analisar a dimensão social do ISE e identificar pontos de interface com a teoria de desenvolvimento humano de Amartya Sen, utilizando-se da abordagem das liberdades instrumentais num contexto microeconômico. Visando complementar e preencher lacunas existentes, a presente pesquisa irá se utilizar de uma abordagem qualitativa e não-financeira para analisar a dimensão social do índice de sustentabilidade empresarial da bolsa de valores brasileira. Para que esse objetivo fosse alcançado, foram utilizados os métodos de pesquisa documental no questionário da dimensão social do ISE, painel de especialistas, que contou com a participação de cinco especialistas da área de sustentabilidade de diferentes tipos de organizações, e análise de conteúdo, que foi utilizada para sistematizar as informações coletadas. Os principais resultados obtidos indicaram que: (a) é possível e coerente aplicar a abordagem da teoria das liberdades individuais num contexto microeconômico; (b) índices de sustentabilidade empresarial demonstram claramente ganhos complementares aos ganhos financeiros; (c) um melhor desempenho na dimensão social proporciona alguns ganhos intangíveis para as empresas; (d) a importância da área de sustentabilidade nas empresas, bem como sua integração com as demais áreas envolvidas; e (e) as liberdades e stakeholders mais citados foram respectivamente: (i) garantias de transparência (33,3%), e liberdades políticas (30%); (ii) empresários (100%), funcionários (83%) e governo (67%). Os resultados obtidos nesta pesquisa permitiram uma série de análises sobre o ISE BM&FBOVESPA com foco na dimensão social, abrindo caminho para pesquisas futuras. / Sustainability today is an important schedule between government policies and regional programs, and more recently has been inserted in the business environment, gradually consolidating in the capital market. In this context, in the last two decades have created various indices of corporate sustainability in order to assess the sustainability performance of companies listed on stock exchanges. In 2005, the Stock Exchange, Commodities and Futures Exchange (BM&F BOVESPA) launched the Corporate Sustainability Index (ISE) the first in Latin America. This research aims to analyze the social dimension of ISE and identify points of interface with the human development theory of Amartya Sen, using the approach of instrumental freedoms in a microeconomic context. To complement and fill gaps, this research will be used a qualitative approach and non-financial to analyze the social dimension of corporate sustainability index of the Brazilian stock exchange. For this goal to be achieved, the documentary research methods were used in the questionnaire of the social dimension of the ISE, expert panel, which included the participation of five specialists in the field of sustainability of different types of organizations, and content analysis, which it was used to organize the information collected. The main results indicate that: (a) it is possible and coherent to apply the approach of the theory of individual freedoms in a microeconomic context; (b) corporate sustainability indices clearly demonstrate further gains for financial gain; (c) a better performance in the social dimension provides some intangible gains for companies; (d) the importance of the area of sustainability in business as well as its integration with other areas involved; and (e) the freedoms and stakeholders most cited were respectively: (i) transparency guarantees (33.3%) and political freedom (30%); (ii) business (100%), employees (83%) and government (67%). The results obtained in this study allowed a series of analyzes on the ISE BM&FBOVESPA focusing on the social dimension, paving the way for future research.

Several organisations have called for clarifications on sustainable investment. The aim of this study is to map and compare the ethical criteria used by Socially Responsible Investment (SRI) funds in their assessment of companies. My attention is also to seek for clarifications on the definition on SRI. A theoretical framework has been used to identify core issues of socially responsible investment. The areas of interest are charitable giving, environmental technologies, negative and positive screening and shareholder activism. The empirical material consisted of qualitative interviews with 4 fund managers from 5 investment management firms in addition to written documents on the funds’ ethical criteria. The conclusions are that all of the funds use negative criteria in their assessment of companies, with similarities in what may be considered as unethical activity and differences in the extent. Most of the funds also seek to identify better-managed companies through an assessment of how companies comply with international agreements. Differences occur in the choices of international agreements as well as the minimum criteria for investing. Most of the investment management firms engage in shareholder activism with the aim to influence the companies’ corporate behaviour, thus with different levels of engagement. Some have dialogue with whom they invest in, some favour the idea of communicate with companies they do not invest in as well. Furthermore, the results of this study show that investments in environmental technologies are rare since these companies are too small. When it comes to charitable giving, donations to charity may be seen as SRI or may not be seen as SRI depending on if the concept refers to investment criteria.