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The purpose of this paper is to present a granulated governance perspective to face sustainability risks and challenges that our planet is facing. The authors argue that sustainability challenges should be addressed simultaneously at the individual, organizational, sectorial, national and supranational level. Financial institutions have a systemic impact on the economy, and on the functioning of our societies. Therefore, a culture of profit maximization and unbridled risk-taking, notwithstanding the external costs and impacts, contaminates not only the financial system and the economy, but also individual norms of responsibility. In this line of reasoning, the global financial crisis revealed the destabilizing effects on the economy, society and corporations and forms a serious impediment for sustainable business. This is a huge challenge for sustainability business and corporate governance; however, it is an illusion to think that managers can prevent scandals and moral norm deterioration without support from other social players.

This paper offers a conceptual analysis on the past financial crisis (2008-2012). It questions the focus on sustainability at the corporate level, and suggests a more comprehensive method for governance. The authors argue in favour of sustainability implementation, combining different governance levels.

The double-dip financial crisis 2008-2012 showed the failure of an unsustainable global system. It becomes clear that corporate responsibility and corporate governance are limited in their contribution to sustainable business in a sustainable economy. Hence, it is important to have a more integrated approach to address sustainability risks, with a solution at individual, sectorial, national and supranational governance levels.

This contribution advances five different levels of governance to mitigate risks for sustainable business, arguing in favour of integrated governance for sustainability risks. However, an empirical validation of these ideas still needs to be developed. Future empirical research is needed to validate the five levels of governance. Future research is also needed to better grasp the mechanisms in support of governance.

Corporate responsibility and corporate governance are necessary but not sufficient conditions to address the sustainability risks one faces. All actors in the economy recognize that governance for sustainable business in a sustainable economy is a collaborative effort for which neither legislative nor institutional or behavioural norms are developed in an integrated way. They should also recognize that integrated governance is not only imperative for the common good, but also in the direct interest of shareholders and other stakeholders.

This paper contributes to the literature on corporate responsibility and corporate governance with the identification of specific roles for regulators, sector representatives and individuals, which are complementary to the role of the companies in creating the conditions for sustainable business in a sustainable economy.

This paper aims to present the state of corporate citizenship in Brazil.

The results of a survey of Brazilian companies is used to analyze the state of corporate citizenship in Brazil. The survey was constructed using the methodology developed by Mirvis & Googins on measuring the stage of corporate citizenship, and 172 valid responses from Brazilian companies were received.

Data suggest that Brazilian companies have an advanced understanding of corporate citizenship and the strategic intention to integrate citizenship into their business. When it comes to leadership, structures, issue management, stakeholder relationships and transparency, however, their maturity in terms of citizenship stays in less advanced stages. In sum, Brazilian companies are advanced in the concept but less developed in the practice of corporate citizenship.

The sample consists of 172 valid responses from companies in Brazil acting in various sectors and thus does not allow the determination of citizenship maturity in selected sectors.

The research points to a gap regarding understanding and practice in corporate citizenship in Brazil. To foster evolution of corporate citizenship, Brazilian companies are advised to work especially on leadership engagement, organizational structures, issue management, stakeholder relationships and transparency.

This is the first study about the maturity of corporate citizenship in Brazilian companies.

This paper aims to conceptually analyse the role of speculation in society to determine whether agricultural commodity index funds, a new form of speculation, contribute to sustainable development.

The theoretical arguments justifying the value of the market economic system for generating sustainable development and the positive contribution speculators make too in this context are elaborated. It is then considered whether the arguments justifying traditional speculation hold for agricultural commodity index funds.

Traditional forms of speculation contribute positively to sustainable development; primarily due to the information they uncover on demand and supply factors which affect prices. Agricultural index funds are a danger to sustainable development, as their transactions are not based on demand and supply factors but simply represent demand for the diversification effect which commodities generate when added to an investment portfolio.

The article offers a new approach to assessing whether agricultural index funds contribute to sustainable development. Empirical research has been conducted on whether speculation via index funds has unjustifiably affected commodity prices. However, results of these investigations have been inconclusive due to stark limitations in data availability. By approaching the issue from a conceptual point of view, the article delivers theoretically sound arguments as to why agricultural commodity index funds are likely to have an unjustifiable effect on prices and, hence, are a danger to sustainable development. This has strong implications for finance practice and regulation.

This article aims to draw on the contingency theory to develop a conceptual model of compatibility between corporate environmental responsibility and business strategy that reflects heterogeneity in this relationship. Four dimensions of compatibility are explored: trade-off, ambidexterity, synergy and symbiosis.

The intended contribution is essentially conceptual. A company case study is included to contribute to the development of the four dimensions of compatibility and support the practical relevance of the model. Twelve in-depth interviews with six managers in different functions of the company were conducted. A grounded theory approach was used to identify and express the patterns of compatibility that emerge from the qualitative data and how these patterns are grounded in managers’ meaning-in-use.

The contribution of the compatibility framework is essentially made to the literature on environmental strategy management, evolved from an implicit and, at most, two-dimensional (win–win and win–lose) conceptualisation of the relationship between green and business strategy into an explicit and multi-dimensionally grounded identification of processes and strategic challenges of corporate environmental and social responsibility. The resulting model contributes to a better understanding of corporate greening as a strategic and moral concern to individuals acting on behalf of business organisations and a greater understanding of the linkages between green and business strategies and operations.

By clarifying the construct of corporate environmental sustainability and providing useful directions for theory and practice, this research claims to inform green management decision-making. While the compatibility model is not intended to explain all pathways by which firms may elicit contingencies of relevance to environmental and social responsibility, it is suggested that the model paints a more complete and contextualized picture of environmental management mechanisms in business.

This paper aims to investigate the influence of public-private partnerships (PPPs) on social and economic conditions in Kazakhstan and Russia from a public economics perspective, namely, through the lens of a market failure and PPPs’ negative externalities.

Drawing on the concept of a market failure and using the externalities perspective, the paper investigates whether partnerships are instrumental in solving market problems, which is illustrated by the evidence from ongoing PPP projects in Kazakhstan and Russia.

Results show that citizens face expansion of monopolistic trends in the service provision and decreased availability of public services. Additionally, the government support to partnerships recreates a negative externality in the form of a higher risk premium on loan interest rates that banks use to finance PPPs. The partnerships’ impact on sustainable development often appears detrimental, as they significantly intensify the struggle between sub-national governments for increased transfers from the national budget.

The government agencies must incorporate the appraisal of the PPP externalities and their effects on the society in the decision-making regarding the PPP formation.

The authors suggest that, although government is interested in PPPs’ positive externalities, in reality many negative externalities may offset the positive spillover effects. As a result, the partnerships’ contributions to economic and social sustainability remain controversial. Extending the value-for-money concept to incorporate the assessment of PPP externalities might significantly enhance the partnership conceptualisation by more comprehensive and accurate assessment of PPPs’ economic and social value.

The purpose of this paper is to identify underlying characteristics of Indian investors that influence them to achieve their non-economic investment goals.

The conceptual model posits that investors’ choice of non-economic goal (NEG) is determined by their values and beliefs which are measured through survey data collected from 342 respondents with prior experience of investing in the stock market. A structural equation model is specified to estimate the measurement model. Further, the study analyses the mediating effect of social investment efficacy on the impact of investors’ values and beliefs and their pursuit of non-economic investment goals.

Religiosity and the belief that one’s actions can bring about a change in the society are the two important determinants of Indian investors’ pursuit of non-economic investment goal.

The model ignores aspects of an investor’s financial stability that may influence the urge to pursue non-economic investment goals.

Socially responsible (SR) funds with investment filters designed to propagate religious values of Indian investors can be designed. As a result, it should be possible to channelize a part of the more than $15 billion available in different religious institutions across the country into the capital market.

Availability of SRI funds would provide investors with yet another avenue invest in companies that conform to their protected values.

This is the first study that attempts to study investor characteristics (values and beliefs) and its impact on investor’s NEG in the Indian context.

The purpose of this paper is first to give an in-depth discussion of the criticism of socially responsible investment's (SRI) alleged incompatibility with the concept of rational investment constituting an inferiority to conventional investment so as to disprove unwarranted arguments and identify potential for improvement of SRI. The second objective is to propose a framework that places SRI and conventional investment on the same level of rationality.

The discussion is based on a literature study. The framework uses a previously published multidimensional optimization approach and embeds it into a new, integrated methodology for investment decisions in the presence of SRI objectives. The framework is empirically evaluated using historic stock market data.

The main findings show that SRI is not necessarily less rational than conventional investment; it can be implemented in an equally stringent and clearly defined methodology. The empirical results prove that investors can pursue SRI objectives without sacrificing performance.

Focus is on the German stock market; in the future, research will be expanded to cover international markets.

The results may contribute to enhance the SRI methodology.

Investors may be encouraged to consider SRI, strengthening the concept of sustainability.

In the literature, the question of SRI’s compatibility with rational investment has often been cited but seldom scrutinized. An in-depth analysis combined with a framework to exploit of the learnings has yet been missing.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the factors affecting the financial sustainability of the Indian Micro Finance Institutions (MFIs) post-Andhra Pradesh (AP) crisis

Regression analysis is used to test the significance of the independent variables on the variable of interest, i.e. the operational self-sustainability. Three-stage regression analysis, i.e. Partial F-test, residual analysis and Box–Cox-type transformations is applied to see the impact of the variables on financial sustainability of the Indian MFIs. The study is based on the data of the Indian MFIs during three fiscal years from 2010-2011 to 2012-2012 reported in the Microfinance Information Exchange (MIX).

The authors’ results indicate that in 2010-2011, the linear regression model seems to be good fit to the data, whereas in 2011-2012 and 2012-2013, the appropriateness of the linear regression models seems questionable (the error distribution seems to be skewed). It is observed that square root of the dependent variable exhibits adequate fit for 2011 and 2012. Therefore, a substantial change in the model for estimating sustainability of Indian MFIs is observed in the post-AP crisis era. It is observed that portfolio quality and capital management are important determinants for the financial sustainability of the MFIs.

This study identifies the factors affecting the sustainability of the Indian MFIs, especially after the reforms following the AP crisis in India. The study suggests that from 2012-2013, the factors such as write-off ratio, capital-to-asset ratio, ratio of financial revenue to assets and provision for loan impairment-to-asset ratio are the main factors which have significant impact on the operational self-sufficiency (OSS) of Indian MFIs. This indicates that the quality of portfolio must be improved to reduce the vulnerability of the Indian MFIs.

After the AP crisis, the performance of Indian MFIs is stabilized to a greater extent. The various performance indicators are improving.

The paper provides a detailed comparative analysis of the factors effecting financial sustainability of the Indian MFIs, before and after the regulatory reforms in 2011. A substantial change is observed after 2011-2012. Such a study on the Indian microfinance sector seems to be new (to the best of the authors’ knowledge).

This paper aims to determine the influence of governance mechanisms on sustainability and outreach of microfinance institutions (MFIs). Corporate governance has been identified as a key bottleneck in strengthening MFIs’ sustainability (financial performance) and increasing their outreach (social impact).

First, a literature study to give insight in the microfinance sector is provided. Subsequently, the data research has been performed based on the statistics of one of the funds of a Dutch independent investment manager, which is focused on responsible investments in developing countries. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses were conducted to examine the association between governance mechanisms and the respective dependent variables.

The results show that boards of a MFI with insiders (for example, employees) are a significant predictor of sustainability. Regulation impacts sustainability significantly in a negative way. Overall, the study shows that only a limited number of variables influence the sustainability and outreach of an MFI.

The limitation of the studied investment fund is that it invests in expanding and mature MFI’s. So the results of this research can only be generalized to expanding and mature MFI’s.

The governance mechanisms that are recommended in the industry guidelines and which are studied here are often not relevant in respect to sustainability and outreach of MFIs. The approach to microfinance governance should be broadened by focusing more on stakeholders and the decision making process in an MFI.

Good governance is key for the microfinance institutions and even more complicated than for regular companies that do not have a double bottom line (sustainability and outreach). to be successful in the future, and for clients to reach the best end result, it is essential that the governance mechanisms that influence the bottom line are determined.

Not much research has been done with respect to the governance mechanisms, which have impact on the sustainability and outreach of MFIs.