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The purpose of this study is to show how socially responsible investment (SRI) could represent a powerful tool (trust recovering in political and economic institutions) in the case of failure or stagnation of economic and financial growth. The purpose of this chapter is to evaluate the current status of SRI in the context of the recent financial and economic crises. The main objective of this analysis is to consider the different benefits and challenges that this type of investment transactions bring into the international economy, and how SRI entrance could represent a major benefit not only for investors a different approach to corporate sustainability but as an important possibility in times of global economic and political crisis.

By analysing the literature about SRI, it has been developed a discussion regarding its benefits and obstacles in today’s financial scenario. By evaluating the performance of SRI in the context of the global financial crisis and the important opportunities regarding development, we would like to present the SRI as an important tool in today’s Post 2015 development agenda.

After revising the existent literature, it has been found that there are two important discussions in the field of SRI. The first one is related with the financial performance of SRI in contrast with the conventional investment funds while the second one is related with important considerations about the SRI in the context of the global financial crisis. After considering the arguments from the different authors, we address some conclusions regarding the importance of SRI in nowadays sustainable development discussion.

Due to failure in the traditional modus operandi of financial institutions and the recent global crises, investors, corporate executives and governments are increasingly paying more attention on the social, environmental and ethical behaviour of individual managers, shareholders and institutional investors. Therefore, it is being observed a shift and maturing process in SRI from an exclusive practice of few and specialised niche investment funds with minor financial implications and limited economic importance, to mainstream adopted by a growing number of institutional investors at the international level. This shift may influence companies and managers to adopt universal values and to assume a committed and strategic CSR agenda to respond to markets and societal expectations, in order to have guilt-free and sustainable investment and sustainable financial markets.

Within the context of the Post 2015 development agenda, the role of business and the private sector has become crucial for funding the new sustainable development goals (SDGs). This chapter not only discussed the relationship between SRI as an alternative to overcome financial crises and lack of sustainability in investment, but it does also conceptually demonstrates the potential of SRI to achieve the funding of the SDGs.

The aim of this chapter is to propose a critical analysis of socially responsible investing (SRI) through debate and reconstruction. Our goal is therefore to try to understand how the definition of ethics in finance has steered SRI towards a financial approach where ethics is guided by finance.

This chapter proposes a two-point approach consisting of a meta-debate and development perspectives. Each approach is divided into three debates (ideological and philosophical, scientific and practical), which are interconnected.

The chapter concludes that the debate on mainstream SRI is necessary but should be re-discussed, as it is preventing in its current form the concept from developing and being grounded in real ethical values, sacrificing the individual ethics that should be driving investing decisions.

The chapter proposes to rethink the paradigm around SRI through a conceptual framework that re-inserts finance within ethics, where non-financial performance and impact investment should be at the centre of the scientific debates, leading to an SRI based on exclusion, the consideration of controversies and social impact measurement.

Socially responsible investment (SRI): selection of investment portfolios with regard to ethical and social criteria in addition to conventional financial considerations, is often considered to bring reduced financial performance, although empirical evidence is inconclusive. Five possible sources of divergence in the performance of socially responsible and conventional investments have been proposed in the literature, and are further examined here. Two proposed mechanisms (the ‘anticipation effect’ and the ‘positive selection effect’) describe firms in which investment is potentially made. Since such opportunities are available to all investors, these are unlikely sources of systematic divergence. Concern (the ‘diversification effect’) that SRI constraints prevent adequate portfolio diversification is shown to be ill founded. The greater proportion of smaller companies in SRI portfolios links to an ongoing debate regarding the ‘small companies effect’, in which smaller companies have at times appeared to have superior (and more recently, inferior) performance, while other studies suggest that this is merely an artefact of the methodology used. It is argued that none of the above provides a basis for expectations of inferior SRI performance. Furthermore, SRI portfolio managers gather additional company information and also increasingly engage in dialogue with companies. It is argued that this ‘information effect’ is a possible source of superior SRI performance.

Inspired by the groundbreaking novel European regulations on financial investors’ profiling (MiFID II regulation and the ESMA 2022 Guidelines), this paper aims to establish which distinctive socio-demographic traits distinguish investors who declare a generalized interest in all three environmental (E), social (S), and governance (G) pillars and investors who express interest in just one individual pillar or a combination of two pillars.

Based on a unique dataset of 190 real-world retail investors, this paper aims to create a profile of three types of investor: those whose interest lies in just the environmental pillar, those interested in a combination of the environmental and social pillars, and those interested in all three E, S, and G pillars jointly. Moreover, we try to ascertain whether it is possible to observe statistically significant differences between the different types of investors.

The results obtained indicate that it is possible to profile investors who are environmentally-oriented and investors who are ESG-oriented. Notably, levels of financial literacy do not influence investor ESG attitudes.

The results obtained may have multifaceted implications for financial advisors, the banking and financial institution industry, and marketing strategists, as well as for further research.

The originality of this paper derives from the responses used in the analysis, which were collected from a sample of real-world retail investors who completed a mandatory MiFID-questionnaire, validated by the Italian Securities and Markets Supervisory Authority. Our paper thus represents a bridge between a theoretical approach and real-world practice.

The present study aims to determine and benchmark the performance of socially responsible companies (SRCs) in India based on the financial, value-added and combined performance indicators by addressing the climate change problems at the grass-root level.

The present study has used the traditional financial, value-added and combined performance indicators to evaluate and rank the performance of 14 SRCs under the Bombay stock exchange (BSE)-Greenex sustainability index. The technique for order performance by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS) and fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (FAHP) algorithms calculate performance scores and assign weights to the indicators from 2015 to 2019. Further, the Altman Z-score methodology has been applied to understand the SRCs propensity toward bankruptcy behavior. The parametric t-test is also performed on the outcomes of TOPSIS scores under different categories of indicators to check the statistical significance.

The performance scores of the TOPSIS algorithm indicate that the financial indicators of SRCs govern the firm performance significantly over the value-added indicators (VAIs). Further, parametric t-test results validate the outcomes of the performance scores by exhibiting that there is no significant difference between the traditional financial and VAIs at a 5% significance level. However, a few SRCs overall performance rankings have improved significantly after including VAIs. Moreover, the Altman Z-score results also reveal that most of the SRCs evaluated in the study are stable, showcasing consistent performance and absent from bankruptcy behavior.

The study has practical implications as follows: (1) to facilitate a clear understanding of investors and portfolio managers in selecting appropriate companies under socially responsible investing (SRI); (2) to provide portfolio diversification insights for domestic and international investors besides advocating the necessity of investing in better performing sustainable companies to safeguard their investments against the future uncertainty and (3) the study results would benefit the regulatory bodies to frame appropriate sustainability policy interventions at the organization level.

In the context of ambiguous inferences on the performance of SRI, no prior study has been conducted to assess the performance of SRCs in the Indian version of sustainability index BSE-Greenex.

CSR is seen as a constant source of debate in the research of company laws and has attracted wide attention from scholars. It is at the forefront of strategic outlook of contemporary organisations of all kinds. It is associated with the conduct of corporations and whether corporations owe a duty to stakeholders other than shareholders has been debated at various times. The CSR concept itself is not a new one and the social responsibilities of business in a market society has been discussed for decades, long before globalisation became a catchword. However, globalisation has been seen as a new phenomenon that affects our everyday life and the business life. New social networks with mutual dependences are created, thus leading to emerging new responsibilities. Community, work and capital are losing their home and locus and we are confronted with different cultures and life styles, whereas society is pluralised and common traditions, cultural values and social certainties emerge into a melting pot of various values and life styles.

Our hypothesis about the failure of SRI as the new mainstream a series of profound misunderstandings about CSR and SRI among the various stakeholders, that is ‘responsible’ companies that are practitioners of CSR, academic theorists, asset management companies, SRI finance professionals, rating agencies and non-financial analysts.

This chapter presents a ‘bottom-up’ approach that reintroduces the long-term horizon in investment decisions and focus on the adaptability and innovation capacities of the firms (and States) in front of the unprecedented challenges of the century.

The severity of the repeated financial crises and the challenges associated with global sustainability call urgently for responsible finance. Despite praise from institutional investors, SRI is far from the norm and has met very limited success with private investors and retail networks.

To truly reconcile finance and sustainability we first need to go beyond the traditional dilemma between ethics and performance which considers any non-financial criteria as a severe constraint and foster a contributive conception of sustainable prosperity, for public and private agent as well.

This study aims to empirically investigates the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on ethical and nonethical stocks in Indonesia. Ethical stocks which are characterized by moral-based companies’ activities and lower debt are expected to have better resilience during the COVID-19 crisis compared to nonethical stock.

This study observes 589 firms of ethical and nonethical stock during sample periods ranging from March 2, 2020 (first case announced) to June 30, 2021. Panel regression, with some control variables, was applied.

Testing firms in Indonesia revealed a significant difference in stock resilience, in which ethical stock has a better resilience compared to nonethical, with Islamic socially responsible investment (SRI) stock having the highest resilience, followed by Islamic stock and then SRI stock. This study documents a significant effect of some financial criteria on the stock resilience, namely, return market (RM), market capitalization (MCAP) and share turnover (TURN). Overall, after splitting the sample into different time horizons, this study consistently reveals that ethical firms have better resilience compared to nonethical stocks.

This study makes several contributions to the literature on Islamic finance, especially concerning Islamic screening with SRI factors. In practical terms, this study supports the argument that focusing on integrating environmental, social and governance criteria in sharia screening will improve the quality of Islamic firms. The “Islamic” label is not only a marketing label but also a quality certification.

This study can be used as a reference for developing Islamic finance more focused on sustainability issues including socioeconomic and human development by improving the quality of screening of Islamic firms. Therefore, this study suggests that the establishment of Islamic SRI index is very crucial and significant to promote ethical-based investment.

The purpose of this paper is to shed light on the changing pattern and characteristics of international financial flows in the emerging entrepreneurial ecosystems of Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), provide a novel taxonomy to classify and analyze them, and discuss how such investments contribute to competence building and sustainable development.

In an exploratory study, the authors analyze the characteristics of international venture capital investors and the start-ups receiving funding in Kenya and map their interaction. The authors proceed by developing a novel taxonomy, classifying investors according to their main rationales (for-profit-for-impact), and start-ups according to the locus of needs and markets addressed by the start-up (local-global) and the locus of the start-ups capacity and knowledge (local-global).

The authors observe a new type of mainly western investors who support innovative ideas in SSA by identifying and investing in domestically developed technical innovations with the potential to address global market needs. The authors find such innovations to be mainly developed at the intersect of global and local knowledge.

The authors shed light on the – up to now – under-researched emerging phenomenon of international high-tech investments in SSA, and develop a novel taxonomy of technology investments in low-income countries, guiding further research on the conditions, impact, practical, and policy implications of this new form of finance flows.

Rethinking development along the lines of corporate social responsibility (CSR) is a new and exciting area of research and development practice. Newly emerging forms of global governance are now relying on private actors (business, non governmental organizations (NGOs)) rather than states. Therefore, CSR policy and programmes are necessary steps in securing responsible corporate behaviour in support of development. The objectives of this paper are to identify the areas of interventions for CSR activities and examine the rationale behind the CSR activities in Mauritius. It aims to analyse the relation between business and poverty reduction and also the successes and failures of CSR initiatives and how the programmes are delivering to the company's business objectives. In short, how is CSR redefining development?

Both primary and secondary data have been collected for this study. Qualitative methods of data collection were privileged to address complex issues such as the relationship between CSR and development. In‐depth interviews were carried out and seen as an appropriate research technique in order to explore and capture the perspectives of the stakeholders, namely private sector and the NGOs on CSR. Secondary sources in the form of company publications, annual reports, press cuttings, web sites of companies and survey reports were consulted.

Although CSR initiatives go quite a long way back in Mauritius, it is still believed that CSR is not embedded in its corporate culture. However, in some cases, CSR is merely being used as window‐dressing, for the gallery as a sideshow since it is a trendy issue and that everyone is doing it alongside with the wide media coverage. For CSR to become the national development tool, it is important that coordinated and concerted efforts be undertaken at the private sector level, in the civil society and at government level in achieving equitable, inclusive and sustainable development.

This work contributes to the scarce literature on CSR in Mauritius as well as in the African continent, investigating the relationship between CSR and development in the Mauritian context. It also provides an extensive and critical literature review on CSR and CSR activities in Mauritius.