IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/beexfi/v43y2024ics2214635024000753.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Impact investment preferences for carbon target difficulty, progress and science-based approval

Author

Listed:
  • Gottlieb, Uliana
  • Edenbrandt, Anna Kristina

Abstract

Alongside sustainable finance regulations, the new European Sustainability Reporting Standards introduce the need to disclose carbon target difficulty and the science-based nature of targets to enable better investment decisions. However, investment preferences towards established target attributes and emerging ones like target progress are understudied, especially in impact investments, where they can signal the potential for desired emission reduction beyond previous emission levels. This study uses a discrete choice experiment in Sweden with potential impact investors towards climate change mitigation to elicit their preferences towards progress on carbon targets, target emission reduction level and science-based approval for more or less emission-intensive firms. The findings suggest that respondents favour many target characteristics independently and in interactions with other carbon information. Results of the latent class analysis further suggest preference heterogeneity towards carbon targets to stem from attitudinal-, cognitive-, knowledge- and socio-demographic characteristics of individuals.

Suggested Citation

  • Gottlieb, Uliana & Edenbrandt, Anna Kristina, 2024. "Impact investment preferences for carbon target difficulty, progress and science-based approval," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance, Elsevier, vol. 43(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:beexfi:v:43:y:2024:i:c:s2214635024000753
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jbef.2024.100960
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2214635024000753
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jbef.2024.100960?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jessica Burns & Christopher P. Wilding & Lukas Krasny & Xixuan Zhu & Madhumeeta Chadha & Yuen Bun Tam & Hari PS & Aswanth H. Mahalingam & Alexander T. J. Lee & Amani Arthur & Nafia Guljar & Emma Perki, 2023. "The proteomic landscape of soft tissue sarcomas," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-17, December.
    2. Qingliang Tang & Le Luo, 2014. "Carbon Management Systems and Carbon Mitigation," Australian Accounting Review, CPA Australia, vol. 24(1), pages 84-98, March.
    3. Abdifatah Ahmed Haji & Paul Coram & Indrit Troshani, 2021. "Effects of integrating CSR information in financial reports on investors’ firm value estimates," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 61(2), pages 3605-3647, June.
    4. Bikki Jaggi & Alessandra Allini & Riccardo Macchioni & Annamaria Zampella, 2018. "Do investors find carbon information useful? Evidence from Italian firms," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 50(4), pages 1031-1056, May.
    5. Daniel McFadden, 1986. "The Choice Theory Approach to Market Research," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 5(4), pages 275-297.
    6. Apostolakis, George & van Dijk, Gert & Kraanen, Frido & Blomme, Robert J., 2018. "Examining socially responsible investment preferences: A discrete choice conjoint experiment," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance, Elsevier, vol. 17(C), pages 83-96.
    7. Arnold, Markus C. & Artz, Martin, 2015. "Target difficulty, target flexibility, and firm performance: Evidence from business units’ targets," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 40(C), pages 61-77.
    8. Falko Paetzold & Timo Busch & Sebastian Utz & Anne Kellers, 2022. "Between impact and returns: Private investors and the sustainable development goals," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(7), pages 3182-3197, November.
    9. Paul A. Griffin & David H. Lont & Estelle Y. Sun, 2017. "The Relevance to Investors of Greenhouse Gas Emission Disclosures," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 34(2), pages 1265-1297, June.
    10. Wang, Derek D. & Sueyoshi, Toshiyuki, 2018. "Climate change mitigation targets set by global firms: Overview and implications for renewable energy," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 386-398.
    11. S. Rekker & M. C. Ives & B. Wade & L. Webb & C. Greig, 2022. "Measuring corporate Paris Compliance using a strict science-based approach," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-11, December.
    12. Joseph A. Johnson & Jochen Theis & Adam Vitalis & Donald Young, 2020. "The Influence of Firms' Emissions Management Strategy Disclosures on Investors' Valuation Judgments†," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 37(2), pages 642-664, June.
    13. Lagerkvist, C.J. & Edenbrandt, A.K. & Tibbelin, I. & Wahlstedt, Y., 2020. "Preferences for sustainable and responsible equity funds - A choice experiment with Swedish private investors," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance, Elsevier, vol. 28(C).
    14. Anders Bjørn & H. Damon Matthews & Maida Hadziosmanovic & Nicolas Desmoitier & Amr Addas & Shannon M. Lloyd, 2023. "Increased transparency is needed for corporate science-based targets to be effective," Nature Climate Change, Nature, vol. 13(8), pages 756-759, August.
    15. Hong Il Yoo, 2020. "lclogit2: An enhanced command to fit latent class conditional logit models," Stata Journal, StataCorp LLC, vol. 20(2), pages 405-425, June.
    16. Kleffel, Philipp & Muck, Matthias, 2023. "Aggregate confusion or inner conflict? An experimental analysis of investors’ reaction to greenwashing," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 53(C).
    17. Apostolakis, George & Kraanen, Frido & van Dijk, Gert, 2016. "Examining pension beneficiaries’ willingness to pay for a socially responsible and impact investment portfolio: A case study in the Dutch healthcare sector," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance, Elsevier, vol. 11(C), pages 27-43.
    18. Robert J. Johnston & Kevin J. Boyle & Wiktor (Vic) Adamowicz & Jeff Bennett & Roy Brouwer & Trudy Ann Cameron & W. Michael Hanemann & Nick Hanley & Mandy Ryan & Riccardo Scarpa & Roger Tourangeau & Ch, 2017. "Contemporary Guidance for Stated Preference Studies," Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, University of Chicago Press, vol. 4(2), pages 319-405.
    19. Susanne Arvidsson & John Dumay, 2022. "Corporate ESG reporting quantity, quality and performance: Where to now for environmental policy and practice?," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(3), pages 1091-1110, March.
    20. Frederik Dahlmann & Layla Branicki & Stephen Brammer, 2019. "Managing Carbon Aspirations: The Influence of Corporate Climate Change Targets on Environmental Performance," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 158(1), pages 1-24, August.
    21. Löfgren, Åsa & Nordblom, Katarina, 2024. "Reconciling sustainability preferences and behavior — The case of mutual fund investments," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance, Elsevier, vol. 41(C).
    22. Gutsche, Gunnar & Ziegler, Andreas, 2019. "Which private investors are willing to pay for sustainable investments? Empirical evidence from stated choice experiments," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 102(C), pages 193-214.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Löfgren, Åsa & Nordblom, Katarina, 2024. "Reconciling sustainability preferences and behavior — The case of mutual fund investments," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance, Elsevier, vol. 41(C).
    2. Muñoz-Muñoz, E. & Crespo-Cebada, E. & Mirón-Sanguino, A.S. & Díaz-Caro, C., 2025. "Investors personality correlates with sustainability preferences in investment – A choice experiment with Spanish investors," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 114(C).
    3. Clara Privato & Matthew P. Johnson & Timo Busch, 2024. "Raising the bar: What determines the ambition level of corporate climate targets?," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 177(9), pages 1-24, September.
    4. Siddique, Md Abubakar & Akhtaruzzaman, Md & Rashid, Afzalur & Hammami, Helmi, 2021. "Carbon disclosure, carbon performance and financial performance: International evidence," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 75(C).
    5. Lagerkvist, C.J. & Edenbrandt, A.K. & Tibbelin, I. & Wahlstedt, Y., 2020. "Preferences for sustainable and responsible equity funds - A choice experiment with Swedish private investors," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance, Elsevier, vol. 28(C).
    6. Gunnar Gutsche & Miwa Nakai & Toshi H. Arimura, 2021. "Individual Sustainable Investment in Japan," RIEEM Discussion Paper Series 2006, Research Institute for Environmental Economics and Management, Waseda University.
    7. Gutsche, Gunnar & Nakai, Miwa & Arimura, Toshi H., 2021. "Revisiting the determinants of individual sustainable investment—The case of Japan," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance, Elsevier, vol. 30(C).
    8. Shome, Samik & Hassan, M. Kabir & Verma, Sushma & Panigrahi, Tushar Ranjan, 2023. "Impact investment for sustainable development: A bibliometric analysis," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 84(C), pages 770-800.
    9. Vasundhara Saravade & Olaf Weber & Adam Vitalis, 2025. "To label or not? A choice experiment testing whether labelled green bonds matter to retail investors," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 12(1), pages 1-16, December.
    10. Lucía de Carlos Fraile & Eva Crespo-Cebada & à ngel Sabino Mirón-Sanguino & Carlos Díaz-Caro, 2023. "Heterogeneity in investment behavior in sustainable products: the case of thematic funds," Economics and Business Letters, Oviedo University Press, vol. 12(2), pages 115-120.
    11. Kleffel, Philipp & Muck, Matthias, 2024. "The confusion of taste and consumption: Evidence from a stated-choice experiment," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance, Elsevier, vol. 43(C).
    12. Khandelwal, Urvashi & Sharma, Prateek & Nagarajan, Viswanathan, 2022. "Valuation effects of emissions reduction target disclosures," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 49(C).
    13. Jiang, Yan & Luo, Le & Xu, JianFeng & Shao, XiaoRui, 2021. "The value relevance of corporate voluntary carbon disclosure: Evidence from the United States and BRIC countries," Journal of Contemporary Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 17(3).
    14. Maia, Rodrigo Gomes Távora & Garcia, Katia Cristina, 2023. "What they say, what they do and how they do it: An evaluation of the energy transition and GHG emissions of electricity companies," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 174(C).
    15. Dela Cruz, Aeson Luiz & Patel, Chris & Ying, Sammy & Pan, Peipei, 2020. "The relevance of professional skepticism to finance professionals’ Socially Responsible Investing decisions," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance, Elsevier, vol. 26(C).
    16. Dongheng Han & Zhihui Li & Xun Cui & Lin Liang, 2025. "How Can We Improve the ESG Performance of Manufacturing Enterprises?—The Carbon Resilience Perspective," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 17(6), pages 1-26, March.
    17. Olsthoorn, Mark & Schleich, Joachim & Guetlein, Marie-Charlotte & Durand, Antoine & Faure, Corinne, 2023. "Beyond energy efficiency: Do consumers care about life-cycle properties of household appliances?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 174(C).
    18. Lena Klaaßen & Christian Lohmüller & Bjarne Steffen, 2024. "Assessing corporate climate action: Corporate climate policies and company-level emission reductions," PLOS Climate, Public Library of Science, vol. 3(11), pages 1-27, November.
    19. Buchanan, Bonnie & Silvola, Hanna & Vähämaa, Emilia, 2023. "Sustainability and private investors," Bank of Finland Research Discussion Papers 14/2023, Bank of Finland.
    20. Matthew P. Johnson & Theresa S. Rötzel & Brigitte Frank, 2023. "Beyond conventional corporate responses to climate change towards deep decarbonization: a systematic literature review," Management Review Quarterly, Springer, vol. 73(2), pages 921-954, June.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:beexfi:v:43:y:2024:i:c:s2214635024000753. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.journals.elsevier.com/journal-of-behavioral-and-experimental-finance .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.