Acknowledgements

Po flickered. “Thank you?” it repeated. “What is that?”

Liesl thought. “It means, You were wonderful,” she said. “It means, I couldn’t have done it without you.”

— Lauren Oliver, Liesl & Po

This book is a collective volume, meaning it could not have been produced without the valuable contributions and support of a host of individuals.

We would like to thank all the authors who have worked hard and diligently on their chapters, who have been patient and comprehensive throughout the process of producing this book, and who have been supportive and helpful at every stages of the book.

We have very special thanks for Heather Hachigian. The range of Heather’s inputs may not necessarily be always visible, but her help and support has been tremendous. She has contributed not only in writing a chapter but also in the small details of the editorial process. Her professionalism and thoroughness have been an invaluable help.

Many thanks to our institutions, Audencia School of Management, and the SSHRC-funded Responsible Investing Initiative of the Carleton Centre for Community Innovation, Carleton University and also Vlerick Management School for giving us the opportunity to write the book in the first place.

We would like to thank William Sun, the editor of the Emerald series ‘Critical Studies on Corporate Responsibility, Governance and Sustainability’. By bringing back the ‘ethics’ in SRI, by pushing the agenda on the societal impacts of SRI, we knew that our book would not be an easy trajectory and above all would deviate from the mainstream publications on SRI. Thank you for trusting us in bringing together this book. Thank you also for offering us the opportunity to further research on Socially Responsible Investment. Thank you for your support.

We would like to thank the Martyn Lawrence at Emerald Group Publishing Limited who has followed us and advised us all along the project. We also extend our thanks to the staff at Emerald for their support throughout the editing process.

We would like to thank the Principles for Responsible Investment Academic Network for their support and allowing us to hold a workshop at the 2012 PRI-CBERN Academic Conference at York University.

We would like to thank the 14 reviewers for providing critical and constructive comments on the chapters. On behalf of all the authors, we would like to thank you. Your comments have helped improving the quality of the book.

We are also grateful to many friends and colleagues who have helped us in shaping the book. Their encouragements and suggestions throughout the project have been hugely appreciated. We would like to thank some people individually for their support, insights, challenging questions, and generosity in time and ideas: James Gifford, Jim Hawley, Steve Lydenberg, the participants in our focus group workshop held on October 2013 in Toronto, Canada.

Incalculable thanks go to those whose names we’ve forgotten to mention and to the numerous people who have intentionally or unintentionally contributed to the book.

Finally a note of thanks to our families, your patience during the many hours spent on this volume enable us to undertake this work – we could not do it without your love and support.