The environmental, social, and governance (ESG) dimension of firms in which social responsible investment (SRI) and conventional pension funds invest: The mainstream SRI and the ESG inclusion

JOURNAL OF CLEANER PRODUCTION

卷:298

Article

Alda, Mercedes¹ 

[1] Univ Zaragoza, Fac Econ & Business, C Gran Via 2, Zaragoza 50005, Spain

关键词: Conventional funds;    ESG integration;    Mainstream SRI;    Pension funds;    Portfolio similarity;   

DOI  :  10.1016/j.jclepro.2021.126812

来源: Elsevier

【 摘 要 】

This study seeks to understand whether the mainstream SRI leads to similar investment decisions in conventional and SRI pension funds. The SRI is expanding beyond specialised SRI funds and increasingly conventional pension funds are integrating firms with certain ESG criteria, in line with legitimacy-theory premises. This phenomenon raises the questions whether SRI and conventional portfolios are converging and whether SRI funds preserve their ethical essence. Using fund holdings and ESG-stock scores, we examine the inclusion level of ESG firms by UK conventional and SRI domestic equity pension funds, taking into account the investment in controversial (socially-sensitive) firms (i.e. related to tobacco, alcohol, or gambling industries, among others). We find that conventional funds consider the firms in which SRI funds invest to integrate ESG criteria. Nonetheless, SRI funds maintain larger ESG-firm standards, preserving the ethical purpose, and larger ESG standards in SRI funds do not affect performance. Our results also show that the ESG integration into conventional funds evolves over time. (c) 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

【 授权许可】

Free