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The study aims to contribute towards the sustainable development of financial systems, by testing the performance of socially responsible investing alternatives in emerging BRICS countries. The study outcomes give us an insight into viability of responsible financial decisions in contrast with the conventional style of investing.

The authors examine the performance of socially responsible indices of BRICS nations vis-à-vis respective conventional market indices using various risk-adjusted measures and conditional volatility measures. We further segregate the 12-year study period to crisis and non-crisis period particular to the respective country, as well as a common global financial crisis period to analyze the impact of market conditions in BRICS nations and observe the performance using dummy regression analysis. Conditional volatility of the stochastic index series is measured using ARCH-GARCH analysis. Fama Decomposition Model helps rank the index performance through the sub-periods.

Fama Decomposition Model helps us observe that while Brazil secures a position in top rankers consistently, it is India that ranks top during crisis period. With evidence of outperformance in terms of risk-return by SRI indices of BRICS countries through the overall period as well as through different market conditions, our study contributes to the positive literature on socially responsible investing.

The study explores performance of SRI in BRICS and finds evidence of the sustainable investment to be non-penalizing to the investor, even as the performance trend remain distinct in the countries with same level of development. It has implications for the investors and asset managers to include responsible stocks, while for the companies and regulatory bodies to unite for better reporting and disclosures. Given the broad implications, future research is required to link the impact of various cultural, legislative and demographic factors on the level and performance of the socially responsible investment in BRICS nations.

The current study evaluating and comparing performances of the socially responsible investments in BRICS nations puts forth following implications for the different sectors of the society, especially in emerging countries: (1) BRICS organization – The association of five economic giants, having significant influence over global as well as regional affairs, can aim to orient the countries' efforts towards collective sustainable development by designing uniform SRI framework. (2) Investors – In the globalization era, the investor can gain from ethical cross border investments to diversification and country benefits. (3) Companies and regulatory bodies – Only voluntary or mandatory unified efforts, to provide accurate and consistent disclosures, can upscale the mediocre growth trends of sustainable investing in emerging economies. (4) Asset Managers – Call of greater role in educating, warding off inhibitions related to RI.

This is to certify that the research paper submitted by us is an outcome of our independent and original work. We have duly acknowledged all the sources from which the ideas and extracts have been taken. The project is free from any plagiarism and has not been submitted elsewhere for publication.

Socially responsible investment (SRI) is a niche and upcoming investment strategy in India. Very few researches have been conducted on SRI in the Indian context. This study identifies the SRI awareness level, attitude towards the importance of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) issues, willingness to invest in SRI avenues and obstacles in SRI investment decision-making by Indian retail investors. The second objective was among the awareness, attitude, willingness, obstacle, and demographic constructs to identify the most significant variables that impact an individual investor's SRI decision in India. .

Data for the study have been collected through a self-structured questionnaire. Descriptive statistics are used to identify the importance of variables for individual investors. This paper used the theory of planned behavior (TPB) to understand the factors impacting individual investors' SRI behavior. Binary logistics regression analysis is used to recognize the variables that affect an individual investor's SRI decision.

The descriptive statistics indicate a low level of SRI awareness; the majority of the investors agreed that ESG issues are significant in investing and showed a willingness to invest in SRI avenues. However, the investors were not willing to accept lower returns from SRI. The majority of investors found, lower returns on SRIs, no tax benefit, lack of information about SRIs, and low liquidity as important obstacles in SRI investing. Binary logistics regression results indicated that awareness about SR/ESG indices, awareness about SR/ESG funds, and willingness to invest in SRI avenues significantly impact investors' SRI decisions but demographic variables have no significant impact on SRI decision-making.

This study has implications for the ethical/SR mutual funds managers, policymakers, government, and international asset management companies. The study finds an urgent need for increasing awareness about SRI among individual investors in India. The study suggests that the issuers must provide adequate information about SRI avenues and probable risk and returns involved in these, while the regulators must make efforts to educate investors in India.

The context of the present study is original because hardly any of the earlier studies conducted in India have tried to find out the individual investors' SRI awareness level, investors' willingness towards SRI, investors' attitude towards ESG issues, and obstacles faced by investors in socially responsible investing.

The anti-apartheid movement represented a cornerstone for socially responsible investors in the 1970s and 1980s driven by the willingness to promote lasting social change. What happened next in terms of socially responsible investing (SRI) in the free South Africa? This chapter explores the local development of SRI in South Africa post-apartheid.

An in-depth literature review combined with a content analysis 73 SRI funds’ investment mandates were undertaken to investigate the local development of SRI in South Africa over the period 1992–2012.

Mechanisms of local divergence and global convergence have both shaped the phenomenon of SRI in South Africa. SRI in South Africa represents a melting-pot of societal values anchored in a local developmental and transformative political vision, some local and global Islamic religious values, and worldwide SRI and CSR homogenisation trends.

This chapter is the first attempt to outline the mechanisms of local divergence and global convergence that have moulded SRI in a democratic South Africa.

This study aims to explain how socially responsible investing (SRI) has evolved in the past few decades and sheds light on its latest developments. It describes different forms of SRI in the financial markets, and deliberates on the rationale for the utilization of positive and negative screenings of listed businesses and public organizations.

A comprehensive literature review suggests that the providers of financial capital are increasingly allocating funds toward positive impact and sustainable investments. Therefore, this descriptive paper provides a factual summary of the proliferation of SRI products in financial markets. Afterwards, it presents the opportunities and challenges facing the stakeholders of SRI.

This research presents a historic overview on the growth of SRI products in the financial services industry. It clarifies that the market for responsible investing has recently led to an increase in a number of stakeholders, including contractors, non-governmental organizations and research firms who are involved in the scrutinization of the businesses’ environmental, social and governance (ESG) behaviors.

This discursive contribution raises awareness on the screenings of positive impact and sustainable investments. The researcher contends that today’s socially responsible investors are increasingly analyzing the businesses’ non-financial performance, including their ESG credentials. In conclusion, this paper puts forward future research avenues in this promising field of study.

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.

The objective of this chapter is twofold. It first introduces the theme of the book. There are many ways of looking at socially responsible investment (SRI). It can be viewed as a financial product where the financial performance is the outmost important aspect and cannot be compromised. Or it can be regarded as a force for change to promote and stimulate a more sustainable development. In this chapter we provide a literature review on SRI especially on the notion of the impact and how it has been addressed so far in the literature. The second objective of the chapter is to provide an overview of the volume by introducing each chapter.

This chapter reviews the literature on SRI as well as the chapters included in this volume.

If SRI is about making a change toward sustainability, we ought to study its societal and environmental impacts. Although scholar articles on SRI have gained importance in the two last decades, very little is known on its impact. Research has developed from a narrow concern with negative screening and divestment in isolated cases to a rigorous analysis of its financial performance across a range of ethical and ESG issues. While we have identified some studies that are beginning to explore the potential impact of SRI for society, this remains a crucial area to explore.

The chapter contributes to the debates on the societal impact of SRI, a debate that needs to be continued even if or just because it raises some fundamental questions that are complex and difficult but also necessary to advance SRI.

The purpose of this paper is to empirically examine the performance of socially responsible stocks portfolio vis-à-vis portfolios of general companies in the Indian stock market.

The study has used absolute rate of return as well as various risk adjusted measures like Sharpe ratio, Treynor ratio, Jensen’s α, Information ratio, Fama’s decomposition measure and dummy regression model to evaluate the performance of various portfolios.

Socially responsible stocks portfolios are found to have lower relative risk despite having higher systematic risk. Further the authors find that during crisis and post-crisis period, socially responsible stocks portfolio generated significantly higher return as compared to other portfolios in the Indian stock market. Environmental, social and governance (ESG) Index and GREENEX Index provided positive net selectivity returns in all the three sub periods, especially during crisis period. GREENEX and ESG outperformed NIFTY and SENSEX even on net selectivity basis. This indicates that the compromise made with respect to diversification by investing in socially responsible stocks portfolios was well rewarded in terms of higher returns in Indian context.

The findings lend support to the case of socially responsible investing (SRI) in India and are relevant for companies, regulators, policy makers and investors at large. Mutual funds and other investment funds should launch schemes which invest in socially responsible stocks so as to provide the benefits of SRI even to small investors in India.

The study contributes to the related literature by analysing the performance of socially responsible stocks portfolios in Indian stock market which is one of the emerging markets.

Introduction: This chapter is intended to link the embracing strategy of ‘socially responsible investment’ with the apparent cause of economic destruction ‘financial crimes’. Today’s financial world is not always associated with ethics and morality, but it does not mean rising investments cause rising financial crimes. Socially responsible investing (SRI) has been rising, and many of today’s investors are interested in tracking ethically sound companies. Investors find a great way to invest around many investment opportunities, while socially responsible investors work with little social cause. This increasing literacy over SRI notably helps to reduce investments in unethical grounds which in turn reduces financial crimes.

Design/methodology: This work is premised on desk research. Conceptual and documentary methods were used in the study. The tertiary data source has been used in the study to develop a template describing the working of SRI in fixing financial crimes.

Findings: Findings of this study detail: a breakdown of industries that comes under SRI, channels of financial crimes, impact of SRI on financial crimes, and design an action plan for more effective environmental, social, and governance (ESG)-based investments to fix problems of financial crimes in the Indian economy.

Practical implications: The model of SRI has unfolded these days. While the purpose of these funds differs, they generally swear off the weapons industry and avoid ‘sin stocks’. In-depth analysis of this study area enables building quality investment strategy among investors and thereby helps to combat financial crimes.

This study aims to test the serial mediation effect of attitude toward socially responsible investing (SRI) and social investing efficacy (SIE) on the relationship of knowledge about SRI with the intention to invest in SRI along with moderating effect of religiosity.

The study uses a quantitative analysis approach, wherein the data has been collected from 569 north Indian retail investors. Partial least square (PLS)-structural equation modeling has been applied in this study using the latest version of SmartPLS (v. 3.2.8) software to examine the complex model of serial and moderated mediation.

Attitude toward SRI and SIE significantly and serially mediate the relationship between knowledge about SRI and intention to invest in SRI. Also, the interaction effect of religiosity with knowledge about SRI is significant only for SIE and not for attitude toward SRI.

The study is cross-sectional in nature conducted only on the north Indian investors. Besides knowledge, there can be many other personal or social aspects that might affect SRI intention that have not been taken into the study.

The results suggested that the companies, financial advisors and governmental bodies can improvise upon social and environmental performance reporting so that investment in SRI can be promulgated.

The paper concludes that religious-minded people are more open to the idea of investing in SRI. India, being is a religious-minded country, the results of this study suggest that there is good potential for the development of SRI in India.

Empirical evidence regarding the relationship of SRI intention with its determinants is limited in Asian countries. Prior literature mainly provides evidence from developed countries where social and governance systems are comparatively stronger. The study provides evidence for the bright future of SRI in India, where investor’s beliefs are dominated by their religious values.

This study analyses the role of individuals' objective financial knowledge in shaping preferences for ethical intermediaries and sustainable investments in Italy. Another goal of this study is to assess the impact of individuals' misperceptions about their own financial knowledge and to test for gender-related differences in attitudes towards socially responsible investing (SRI).

Using nationally representative microdata from the Bank of Italy’s “Italian Literacy and Financial Competence Survey” (IACOFI), the authors use probit models, extended to account for potential endogeneity issues, to assess the causal effects of financial knowledge and confidence on stated preferences for SRI. Empirical models also allow to explicitly assess the moderating role of gender on the effects of financial knowledge and confidence on attitudes towards sustainable investing.

Results indicate that individuals' preferences for sustainable finance significantly increase with financial knowledge, suggesting that inadequate financial competencies represent a barrier to participation in SRI. At the same time, lack of confidence in one’s own financial knowledge significantly hampers attitudes towards sustainable investments. Furthermore, the authors show that women have a greater preference for sustainable finance than men and point out that financial knowledge and confidence exert heterogenous effects on attitudes towards SRI.

This study provides several contributions to the literature on SRI. First, the authors give evidence of the causal effect of financial knowledge on preferences for both ethical financial intermediaries and sustainable investments. Moreover, this is the first study to investigate the role of financial underconfidence bias in shaping individuals' SRI attitudes. Finally, extending previous research, the authors assess differences in SRI preferences between women and men and provide novel evidence on gender-related heterogeneity in the effects of financial knowledge and underconfidence.