IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/ejores/v216y2012i2p487-494.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Socially Responsible Investment: A multicriteria approach to portfolio selection combining ethical and financial objectives

Author

Listed:
  • Ballestero, Enrique
  • Bravo, Mila
  • Pérez-Gladish, Blanca
  • Arenas-Parra, Mar
  • Plà-Santamaria, David

Abstract

In a context of Socially Responsible Investment (SRI), this paper deals with portfolio selection for investors interested in ethical policies. In the opportunity set there are ethical assets and other assets which are not characterized as ethical. Two goals are considered, the traditional financial goal in the classical utility theory under uncertainty and an ethical goal in the same utility framework. A new financial-ethical bi-criteria model is proposed with absolute risk aversion coefficients and targets depending on the investor’s ethical profile. This approach is relevant as an increasing number of mutual funds are becoming interested in SRI strategies. From the proposed model, an actual case on green investment is developed. Concerning this case (without generalizing to other contexts), an analysis of the numerical results shows that efficient portfolios obtained by the traditional E-V model outperform the strong green portfolios in terms of expected return and risk, but this does not significantly occur with weak green investment.

Suggested Citation

  • 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.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:ejores:v:216:y:2012:i:2:p:487-494
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ejor.2011.07.011
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0377221711006138
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.ejor.2011.07.011?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 search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Hallerbach, Winfried & Ning, Haikun & Soppe, Aloy & Spronk, Jaap, 2004. "A framework for managing a portfolio of socially responsible investments," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 153(2), pages 517-529, March.
    2. Ulf Schrader, 2006. "Ignorant advice – customer advisory service for ethical investment funds," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 15(3), pages 200-214, May.
    3. A. Charnes & W. W. Cooper, 1959. "Chance-Constrained Programming," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 6(1), pages 73-79, October.
    4. Bravo, Mila & Gonzalez, Ignacio, 2009. "Applying stochastic goal programming: A case study on water use planning," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 196(3), pages 1123-1129, August.
    5. Bauer, Rob & Koedijk, Kees & Otten, Roger, 2005. "International evidence on ethical mutual fund performance and investment style," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 29(7), pages 1751-1767, July.
    6. J. G. Kallberg & W. T. Ziemba, 1983. "Comparison of Alternative Utility Functions in Portfolio Selection Problems," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 29(11), pages 1257-1276, November.
    7. Aouni, Belaid & Ben Abdelaziz, Foued & Martel, Jean-Marc, 2005. "Decision-maker's preferences modeling in the stochastic goal programming," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 162(3), pages 610-618, May.
    8. repec:bla:ausecr:v:34:y:2001:i:2:p:170-178 is not listed on IDEAS
    9. Aaron K. Chatterji & David I. Levine & Michael W. Toffel, 2009. "How Well Do Social Ratings Actually Measure Corporate Social Responsibility?," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 18(1), pages 125-169, March.
    10. Ballestero, Enrique, 2001. "Stochastic goal programming: A mean-variance approach," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 131(3), pages 476-481, June.
    11. Robert F. Bordley & Craig W. Kirkwood, 2004. "Multiattribute Preference Analysis with Performance Targets," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 52(6), pages 823-835, December.
    12. Ben Abdelaziz, F. & Masri, H., 2005. "Stochastic programming with fuzzy linear partial information on probability distribution," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 162(3), pages 619-629, May.
    13. Konstantina Pendaraki & Michael Doumpos & Constantin Zopounidis, 2004. "Towards a goal programming methodology for constructing equity mutual fund portfolios," Journal of Asset Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 4(6), pages 415-428, April.
    14. Abdelaziz, Fouad Ben & Aouni, Belaid & Fayedh, Rimeh El, 2007. "Multi-objective stochastic programming for portfolio selection," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 177(3), pages 1811-1823, March.
    15. Muñoz, Maria M. & Ruiz, Francisco, 2009. "ISTMO: An interval reference point-based method for stochastic multiobjective programming problems," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 197(1), pages 25-35, August.
    16. Enrique Ballestero, 2005. "Mean-Semivariance Efficient Frontier: A Downside Risk Model for Portfolio Selection," Applied Mathematical Finance, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 12(1), pages 1-15.
    17. Ballestero, Enrique & Pla-Santamaria, David, 2004. "Selecting portfolios for mutual funds," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 32(5), pages 385-394, October.
    18. Thomas Koellner & Olaf Weber & Marcus Fenchel & Roland Scholz, 2005. "Principles for sustainability rating of investment funds," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 14(1), pages 54-70, January.
    19. Ralph Steuer & Yue Qi & Markus Hirschberger, 2007. "Suitable-portfolio investors, nondominated frontier sensitivity, and the effect of multiple objectives on standard portfolio selection," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 152(1), pages 297-317, July.
    20. Enrique Ballestero & David Pla-Santamaria, 2005. "Grading the performance of market indicators with utility benchmarks selected from Footsie: a 2000 case study," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 37(18), pages 2147-2160.
    21. Renneboog, Luc & Ter Horst, Jenke & Zhang, Chendi, 2008. "Socially responsible investments: Institutional aspects, performance, and investor behavior," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 32(9), pages 1723-1742, September.
    22. Perez Gladish, B. & Jones, D.F. & Tamiz, M. & Bilbao Terol, A., 2007. "An interactive three-stage model for mutual funds portfolio selection," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 35(1), pages 75-88, February.
    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. Utz, Sebastian & Wimmer, Maximilian & Hirschberger, Markus & Steuer, Ralph E., 2014. "Tri-criterion inverse portfolio optimization with application to socially responsible mutual funds," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 234(2), pages 491-498.
    2. D. Pla-Santamaria & M. Bravo, 2013. "Portfolio optimization based on downside risk: a mean-semivariance efficient frontier from Dow Jones blue chips," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 205(1), pages 189-201, May.
    3. Mila Bravo & Dylan Jones & David Pla-Santamaria & Francisco Salas-Molina, 2022. "Encompassing statistically unquantifiable randomness in goal programming: an application to portfolio selection," Operational Research, Springer, vol. 22(5), pages 5685-5706, November.
    4. Cinzia Colapinto & Raja Jayaraman & Simone Marsiglio, 2017. "Multi-criteria decision analysis with goal programming in engineering, management and social sciences: a state-of-the art review," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 251(1), pages 7-40, April.
    5. Aouni, Belaid & Colapinto, Cinzia & La Torre, Davide, 2014. "Financial portfolio management through the goal programming model: Current state-of-the-art," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 234(2), pages 536-545.
    6. Bravo, Mila & Gonzalez, Ignacio, 2009. "Applying stochastic goal programming: A case study on water use planning," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 196(3), pages 1123-1129, August.
    7. Ana Garcia-Bernabeu & Antonio Benito & Mila Bravo & David Pla-Santamaria, 2016. "Photovoltaic power plants: a multicriteria approach to investment decisions and a case study in western Spain," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 245(1), pages 163-175, October.
    8. Mónica García-Melón & Blanca Pérez-Gladish & Tomás Gómez-Navarro & Paz Mendez-Rodriguez, 2016. "Assessing mutual funds’ corporate social responsibility: a multistakeholder-AHP based methodology," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 244(2), pages 475-503, September.
    9. Hatem Masri, 2017. "A multiple stochastic goal programming approach for the agent portfolio selection problem," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 251(1), pages 179-192, April.
    10. Bilbao-Terol, Amelia & Arenas-Parra, Mar & Cañal-Fernández, Verónica, 2016. "A model based on Copula Theory for sustainable and social responsible investments," Revista de Contabilidad - Spanish Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 19(1), pages 55-76.
    11. Dorfleitner, Gregor & Utz, Sebastian, 2012. "Safety first portfolio choice based on financial and sustainability returns," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 221(1), pages 155-164.
    12. Calvo, Clara & Ivorra, Carlos & Liern, Vicente, 2015. "Finding socially responsible portfolios close to conventional ones," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 40(C), pages 52-63.
    13. Hirschberger, Markus & Steuer, Ralph E. & Utz, Sebastian & Wimmer, Maximilian, 2012. "Is socially responsible investing just screening? Evidence from mutual funds," SFB 649 Discussion Papers 2012-025, Humboldt University Berlin, Collaborative Research Center 649: Economic Risk.
    14. García-Bernabeu, A. & Pla-Santamaria, D. & Bravo, M. & Pérez-Gladish, B., 2015. "La protección medioambiental como criterio en la selección de inversiones socialmente responsables: una aproximación multicriterio," Economia Agraria y Recursos Naturales, Spanish Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 15(01).
    15. Constantin Zopounidis & Michael Doumpos, 2013. "Multicriteria decision systems for financial problems," TOP: An Official Journal of the Spanish Society of Statistics and Operations Research, Springer;Sociedad de Estadística e Investigación Operativa, vol. 21(2), pages 241-261, July.
    16. Bilbao-Terol, Amelia & Arenas-Parra, Mar & Cañal-Fernández, Verónica & Antomil-Ibias, José, 2014. "Using TOPSIS for assessing the sustainability of government bond funds," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 1-17.
    17. Amelia Bilbao-Terol & Mar Arenas-Parra & Verónica Cañal-Fernández & Celia Bilbao-Terol, 2016. "Multi-criteria decision making for choosing socially responsible investment within a behavioral portfolio theory framework: a new way of investing into a crisis environment," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 247(2), pages 549-580, December.
    18. Fernando García & Jairo González-Bueno & Javier Oliver & Nicola Riley, 2019. "Selecting Socially Responsible Portfolios: A Fuzzy Multicriteria Approach," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(9), pages 1-14, April.
    19. repec:hum:wpaper:sfb649dp2012-025 is not listed on IDEAS
    20. Luluk Widyawati, 2020. "A systematic literature review of socially responsible investment and environmental social governance metrics," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(2), pages 619-637, February.
    21. Abdelaziz, Fouad Ben, 2012. "Solution approaches for the multiobjective stochastic programming," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 216(1), pages 1-16.

    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:ejores:v:216:y:2012:i:2:p:487-494. 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/eor .

    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.