IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/ecofin/v75y2025ipas1062940824002201.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Active portfolio management in the face of ESG uncertainty: An agile framework for adaptive investment strategies

Author

Listed:
  • Wen, Limin
  • Li, Junxue
  • Sheng, Jiliang
  • Zhang, Yi

Abstract

This paper establishes an active portfolio model that considers corporate Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) ratings, examining the impact of ESG information on portfolio performance. Based on the exponential utility function, the paper incorporates ESG scores and ESG risk (uncertainty factors) into active portfolio management and derives the analytical solution of the model. Theoretical findings indicate that ESG risk adjusts the optimal portfolio, helping to mitigate losses due to ESG divergence. The paper conducts empirical research using ESG ratings from three well-known rating agencies and the CSI300 index. The empirical results demonstrate that ESG preferences enhance the ESG quality of the portfolio. Consistent with theoretical predictions, reliance on a single ESG rating may lead to adverse outcomes, especially when the selected rating agency’s standards deviate from market norms. In contrast, portfolios that include ESG uncertainty exhibit higher stability and lower loss risk, showing good robustness across different stages and industries.

Suggested Citation

  • Wen, Limin & Li, Junxue & Sheng, Jiliang & Zhang, Yi, 2025. "Active portfolio management in the face of ESG uncertainty: An agile framework for adaptive investment strategies," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 75(PA).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecofin:v:75:y:2025:i:pa:s1062940824002201
    DOI: 10.1016/j.najef.2024.102295
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1062940824002201
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.najef.2024.102295?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
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Emiel Duuren & Auke Plantinga & Bert Scholtens, 2016. "ESG Integration and the Investment Management Process: Fundamental Investing Reinvented," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 138(3), pages 525-533, October.
    2. Yin, Zhujia & Deng, Rantian & Xia, Jiejin & Zhao, Lili, 2024. "Climate risk and corporate ESG performance: Evidence from China," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).
    3. Pástor, Ľuboš & Stambaugh, Robert F. & Taylor, Lucian A., 2021. "Sustainable investing in equilibrium," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 142(2), pages 550-571.
    4. Ling, Aifan & Li, Junxue & Wen, Limin & Zhang, Yi, 2023. "When trackers are aware of ESG: Do ESG ratings matter to tracking error portfolio performance?," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 125(C).
    5. Li, Hao & Guo, Hui & Hao, Xinyao & Zhang, Xuan, 2023. "The ESG rating, spillover of ESG ratings, and stock return: Evidence from Chinese listed firms," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 80(C).
    6. Gunnar Friede & Timo Busch & Alexander Bassen, 2015. "ESG and financial performance: aggregated evidence from more than 2000 empirical studies," Journal of Sustainable Finance & Investment, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 5(4), pages 210-233, October.
    7. Riccardo Santamaria & Francesco Paolone & Nicola Cucari & Luca Dezi, 2021. "Non‐financial strategy disclosure and environmental, social and governance score: Insight from a configurational approach," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(4), pages 1993-2007, May.
    8. Rajna Gibson Brandon & Philipp Krueger & Peter Steffen Schmidt, 2021. "ESG Rating Disagreement and Stock Returns," Financial Analysts Journal, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 77(4), pages 104-127, October.
    9. Paul Gompers & Joy Ishii & Andrew Metrick, 2003. "Corporate Governance and Equity Prices," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 118(1), pages 107-156.
    10. Philippe Jorion, 2003. "Portfolio Optimization with Tracking-Error Constraints," Financial Analysts Journal, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 59(5), pages 70-82, September.
    11. Beasley, J. E. & Meade, N. & Chang, T. -J., 2003. "An evolutionary heuristic for the index tracking problem," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 148(3), pages 621-643, August.
    12. Li, Xuepeng & Xu, Fengmin & Jing, Kui, 2022. "Robust enhanced indexation with ESG: An empirical study in the Chinese Stock Market," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 107(C).
    13. Alexander, Gordon J. & Baptista, Alexandre M., 2010. "Active portfolio management with benchmarking: A frontier based on alpha," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 34(9), pages 2185-2197, September.
    14. Escobar-Anel, Marcos, 2022. "Multivariate risk aversion utility, application to ESG investments," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 63(C).
    15. Amir Amel-Zadeh & George Serafeim, 2018. "Why and How Investors Use ESG Information: Evidence from a Global Survey," Financial Analysts Journal, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 74(3), pages 87-103, July.
    16. Pedro Barroso & Jurij-Andrei Reichenecker & Marco J. Menichetti, 2022. "Hedging with an Edge: Parametric Currency Overlay," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 68(1), pages 669-689, January.
    17. Brian Clark & Chanaka Edirisinghe & Majeed Simaan, 2022. "Estimation risk and the implicit value of index-tracking," Quantitative Finance, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 22(2), pages 303-319, February.
    18. Avramov, Doron & Cheng, Si & Lioui, Abraham & Tarelli, Andrea, 2022. "Sustainable investing with ESG rating uncertainty," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 145(2), pages 642-664.
    19. Felix Kreidl & Hendrik Scholz, 2021. "Exploiting the dividend month premium: evidence from Germany," Journal of Asset Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 22(4), pages 253-266, July.
    20. Alexander, Gordon J. & Baptista, Alexandre M., 2008. "Active portfolio management with benchmarking: Adding a value-at-risk constraint," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 32(3), pages 779-820, March.
    21. Nicole Darnall & Hyunjung Ji & Kazuyuki Iwata & Toshi H. Arimura, 2022. "Do ESG reporting guidelines and verifications enhance firms' information disclosure?," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 29(5), pages 1214-1230, September.
    22. Dumrose, Maurice & Rink, Sebastian & Eckert, Julia, 2022. "Disaggregating confusion? The EU Taxonomy and its relation to ESG rating," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 48(C).
    23. Rojo-Suárez, Javier & Alonso-Conde, Ana B., 2024. "Have shifts in investor tastes led the market portfolio to capture ESG preferences?," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 91(C).
    24. Florian Berg & Julian F Kölbel & Roberto Rigobon, 2022. "Aggregate Confusion: The Divergence of ESG Ratings [Corporate social responsibility and firm risk: theory and empirical evidence]," Review of Finance, European Finance Association, vol. 26(6), pages 1315-1344.
    25. Garrett A. McBrayer, 2018. "Does persistence explain ESG disclosure decisions?," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 25(6), pages 1074-1086, November.
    26. Pedersen, Lasse Heje & Fitzgibbons, Shaun & Pomorski, Lukasz, 2021. "Responsible investing: The ESG-efficient frontier," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 142(2), pages 572-597.
    27. Napat Rujeerapaiboon & Daniel Kuhn & Wolfram Wiesemann, 2016. "Robust Growth-Optimal Portfolios," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 62(7), pages 2090-2109, July.
    28. Zhou, Yacheng & Huo, Weidong & Bo, Lan & Chen, Xiaoxian, 2023. "Impact and mechanism analysis of ESG ratings on the efficiency of green technology innovation," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 58(PD).
    29. David B. Colwell & Nadima El‐Hassan & Oh Kang Kwon, 2021. "Variance minimizing strategies for stochastic processes with applications to tracking stock indices," International Review of Finance, International Review of Finance Ltd., vol. 21(2), pages 430-446, June.
    30. Ballestero, Enrique & Bravo, Mila & Pérez-Gladish, Blanca & Arenas-Parra, Mar & Plà-Santamaria, David, 2012. "Socially Responsible Investment: A multicriteria approach to portfolio selection combining ethical and financial objectives," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 216(2), pages 487-494.
    31. Stucchi, Patrizia, 2015. "A unified approach to portfolio selection in a tracking error framework with additional constraints on risk," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 165-174.
    32. Aaron K. Chatterji & Rodolphe Durand & David I. Levine & Samuel Touboul, 2016. "Do ratings of firms converge? Implications for managers, investors and strategy researchers," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 37(8), pages 1597-1614, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Du, Puliang & Gu, Runsheng & Luo, Ling & Xie, Fei & Zhang, Chenyang, 2025. "The enhanced gain effects of ESG's non-linearity on portfolios: An asset pricing tree model perspective," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 99(C).

    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. Ling, Aifan & Li, Junxue & Wen, Limin & Zhang, Yi, 2023. "When trackers are aware of ESG: Do ESG ratings matter to tracking error portfolio performance?," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 125(C).
    2. Cheng, Louis T.W. & Cheong, Tsun Se & Wojewodzki, Michal & Chui, David, 2025. "The effect of ESG divergence on the financial performance of Hong Kong-listed firms: An artificial neural network approach," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 73(PA).
    3. Muck, Matthias & Schmidl, Thomas, 2024. "Comparing ESG score weighting approaches and stock performance differentiation," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 67(PB).
    4. Zou, Jin & Yan, Jingzhou & Deng, Guoying, 2023. "ESG rating confusion and bond spreads," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 129(C).
    5. Staněk Gyönyör, Lucie & Horváth, Matúš & Stašek, Daniel & Stachoň, Martin, 2025. "The role of ESG factor in stock clustering based on risk-return-liquidity dimensions," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).
    6. Yin, Libo & Zhu, Xiaoye & Su, Zhi & Guo, Hongliang, 2025. "Is disagreement beneficial for market efficiency? Evidence from ESG ratings," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 154(C).
    7. Ruan, Lei & Li, Jianing & Huang, Siqi, 2025. "ESG rating adjustment and capital market pricing efficiency: Evidence from China," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 98(C).
    8. Kurbus, Barbara & Rant, Vasja, 2025. "A legal origins perspective on ESG rating disagreement," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).
    9. Luo, Deqing & Shan, Xun & Yan, Jingzhou & Yan, Qianhui, 2023. "Sustainable investment under ESG volatility and ambiguity," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 128(C).
    10. Bassen, Alexander & Kordsachia, Othar & Lopatta, Kerstin & Tan, Weiqiang, 2025. "Revenue alignment with the EU taxonomy regulation in developed markets," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 170(C).
    11. Liu, Xiangqiang & Peng, Yuling & Li, Qinyang & Wu, Chu-Hua, 2025. "CEO pay structure and ESG rating disagreement," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 102(C).
    12. Wang, Haijun & Jiao, Shuaipeng & Ge, Chen & Sun, Guanglin, 2024. "Corporate ESG rating divergence and excess stock returns," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 129(C).
    13. Yang, He, 2025. "The role of common ownership in shaping ESG rating uncertainty: A collaborative governance perspective across time horizons," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 102(C).
    14. Horn, Matthias & Oehler, Andreas, 2024. "Constructing stock portfolios by sorting on ESG ratings: Does the rating provider matter?," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 96(PA).
    15. Gallucci, Carmen & Santulli, Rosalia & Lagasio, Valentina, 2022. "The conceptualization of environmental, social and governance risks in portfolio studies A systematic literature review," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).
    16. Rabab Abouarab & Tapas Mishra & Simon Wolfe, 2025. "Spotting Portfolio Greenwashing in Environmental Funds," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 197(4), pages 811-839, April.
    17. Roman Kräussl & Tobi Oladiran & Denitsa Stefanova, 2024. "A review on ESG investing: Investors’ expectations, beliefs and perceptions," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 38(2), pages 476-502, April.
    18. Aydin Aslan & Peter N. Posch, 2022. "How Do Investors Value Sustainability? A Utility-Based Preference Optimization," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(23), pages 1-15, November.
    19. Liu, Xiangqiang & Yang, Qingqing & Wei, Kai & Dai, Peng-Fei, 2024. "ESG rating disagreement and idiosyncratic return volatility: Evidence from China," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 70(PB).
    20. Wang, Jianli & Wang, Shaolin & Dong, Minghua & Wang, Hongxia, 2024. "ESG rating disagreement and stock returns: Evidence from China," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 91(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • C63 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Mathematical Methods; Programming Models; Mathematical and Simulation Modeling - - - Computational Techniques
    • D62 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Externalities
    • G11 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Portfolio Choice; Investment Decisions
    • G12 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Asset Pricing; Trading Volume; Bond Interest Rates
    • G14 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Information and Market Efficiency; Event Studies; Insider Trading
    • G23 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Non-bank Financial Institutions; Financial Instruments; Institutional Investors
    • G34 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Mergers; Acquisitions; Restructuring; Corporate Governance
    • G4 - Financial Economics - - Behavioral Finance

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:ecofin:v:75:y:2025:i:pa:s1062940824002201. 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: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/inca/620163 .

    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.