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European Pension Funds and Sustainable Development: Trade‐Offs between Finance and Responsibility

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  • Riikka Sievänen
  • Hannu Rita
  • Bert Scholtens

Abstract

Pension funds try to account for sustainable development in their operations. This mainly translates in responsible investing. We investigate how this interacts with the financial objectives. We use a survey of more than 250 pension funds based in 15 European countries. Multinomial logistic regression is used to find out how pension funds trade off sustainable development and financial objectives. Our findings suggest that pension funds that have not included responsibility in their strategy and investments have a clear priority regarding their financial performance. Pension funds who integrate sustainable development in their strategy can bring balance between finance and responsibility. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment

Suggested Citation

  • Riikka Sievänen & Hannu Rita & Bert Scholtens, 2017. "European Pension Funds and Sustainable Development: Trade‐Offs between Finance and Responsibility," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 26(7), pages 912-926, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:bstrat:v:26:y:2017:i:7:p:912-926
    DOI: 10.1002/bse.1954
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    Cited by:

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    3. Andreas G. F. Hoepner & Lisa Schopohl, 2020. "State Pension Funds and Corporate Social Responsibility: Do Beneficiaries’ Political Values Influence Funds’ Investment Decisions?," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 165(3), pages 489-516, September.
    4. Emma García‐Meca & María Consuelo Pucheta‐Martínez, 2018. "How Institutional Investors on Boards Impact on Stakeholder Engagement and Corporate Social Responsibility Reporting," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 25(3), pages 237-249, May.
    5. Kala Saravanamuthu, 2018. "How risk information and stakeholder‐participation affect the sustainability of collaborative decisions: A case study on how the sustainability of stakeholder decisions is affected by different levels," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 27(7), pages 1067-1078, November.
    6. Suborna Barua & Micol Chiesa, 2019. "Sustainable financing practices through green bonds: What affects the funding size?," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(6), pages 1131-1147, September.

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