IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/finlet/v36y2020ics1544612319304003.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

ESG fund scores in UK SRI and conventional pension funds: Are the ESG concerns of the SRI niche affecting the conventional mainstream?

Author

Listed:
  • Alda, Mercedes

Abstract

This paper analyses the increasing practice of considering environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors by conventional pension funds. We study whether the SRI (Social Responsible Investing) concerns are affecting traditional management. In an initial sample of 22 SRI and 221 conventional UK domestic equity pension funds from 2016 to 2018, we apply the nearest-neighbour matching to account for fund-characteristic differences, selecting 20 matched conventional funds. We then analyse the influence of fund characteristics on ESG fund scores, and the ESG-score impact on performance and flows with linear models. Our results show that the ESG scores of conventional and SRI funds are influenced by some common characteristics (age/turnover and expenses negatively/positively influence ESG scores), which are consistent with SRI features. Additionally, a higher ESG screening intensity provides greater return and larger flows. Nonetheless, SRI funds do not lose their identity, positively influencing into ESG scores to a greater extent and outperforming.

Suggested Citation

  • Alda, Mercedes, 2020. "ESG fund scores in UK SRI and conventional pension funds: Are the ESG concerns of the SRI niche affecting the conventional mainstream?," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 36(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:finlet:v:36:y:2020:i:c:s1544612319304003
    DOI: 10.1016/j.frl.2019.101313
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1544612319304003
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.frl.2019.101313?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. Christophe Revelli & Jean-Laurent Viviani, 2015. "Financial performance of socially responsible investing (SRI): what have we learned? A meta-analysis," Post-Print halshs-01141295, HAL.
    2. Elias Erragragui & Christophe Revelli, 2015. "Should Islamic investors consider SRI criteria in their investment strategies?," Post-Print hal-02009789, HAL.
    3. Leonardo Becchetti & Rocco Ciciretti, 2006. "Corporate Social Responsibility and Stock Market Performance," CEIS Research Paper 79, Tor Vergata University, CEIS, revised 22 Mar 2006.
    4. 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.
    5. Joliet, Robert & Titova, Yulia, 2018. "Equity SRI funds vacillate between ethics and money: An analysis of the funds’ stock holding decisions," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 97(C), pages 70-86.
    6. Carhart, Mark M, 1997. "On Persistence in Mutual Fund Performance," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 52(1), pages 57-82, March.
    7. Armstrong, J. Scott & Green, Kesten C., 2013. "Effects of corporate social responsibility and irresponsibility policies," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 66(10), pages 1922-1927.
    8. Manuel Ammann & Christopher Bauer & Sebastian Fischer & Philipp Müller, 2019. "The impact of the Morningstar Sustainability Rating on mutual fund flows," European Financial Management, European Financial Management Association, vol. 25(3), pages 520-553, June.
    9. Erragraguy, Elias & Revelli, Christophe, 2015. "Should Islamic investors consider SRI criteria in their investment strategies?," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 14(C), pages 11-19.
    10. Iulie Aslaksen & Terje Synnestvedt, 2003. "Ethical investment and the incentives for corporate environmental protection and social responsibility," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 10(4), pages 212-223, December.
    11. Bilbao-Terol, Amelia & Álvarez-Otero, Susana & Bilbao-Terol, Celia & Cañal-Fernández, Verónica, 2017. "Hedonic evaluation of the SRI label of mutual funds using matching methodology," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 213-227.
    12. Rob Bauer & Jeroen Derwall & Rogér Otten, 2007. "The Ethical Mutual Fund Performance Debate: New Evidence from Canada," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 70(2), pages 111-124, January.
    13. Arnold, Patricia & Hammond, Theresa, 1994. "The role of accounting in ideological conflict: Lessons from the South African divestment movement," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 19(2), pages 111-126, February.
    14. Patricia Crifo & Nicolas Mottis, 2013. "L'ISR à la recherche de nouveaux élans ?," Revue française de gestion, Lavoisier, vol. 0(7), pages 69-77.
    15. Hasford, Jonathan & Farmer, Adam, 2016. "Responsible you, despicable me: Contrasting competitor inferences from socially responsible behavior," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 69(3), pages 1234-1241.
    16. Alexander Kempf & Peer Osthoff, 2008. "SRI Funds: Nomen est Omen," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 35(9-10), pages 1276-1294.
    17. Bauer, Rob & Otten, Roger & Rad, Alireza Tourani, 2006. "Ethical investing in Australia: Is there a financial penalty?," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 14(1), pages 33-48, January.
    18. Michael J. Cooper & Huseyin Gulen & P. Raghavendra Rau, 2005. "Changing Names with Style: Mutual Fund Name Changes and Their Effects on Fund Flows," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 60(6), pages 2825-2858, December.
    19. 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.
    20. Revelli, Christophe, 2017. "Socially responsible investing (SRI): From mainstream to margin?," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 39(PB), pages 711-717.
    21. Andreas Ziegler & Michael Schröder & Klaus Rennings, 2008. "The Effect of Environmental and Social Performance on the Stock Performance of European Corporations," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 40(4), pages 609-609, August.
    22. Gbenga Ibikunle & Tom Steffen, 2017. "European Green Mutual Fund Performance: A Comparative Analysis with their Conventional and Black Peers," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 145(2), pages 337-355, October.
    23. Lesser, Kathrin & Rößle, Felix & Walkshäusl, Christian, 2016. "Socially responsible, green, and faith-based investment strategies: Screening activity matters!," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 16(C), pages 171-178.
    24. Francesco Gangi & Carmen Trotta, 2015. "The ethical finance as a response to the financial crises: an empirical survey of European SRFs performance," Journal of Management & Governance, Springer;Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA), vol. 19(2), pages 371-394, May.
    25. Darlene Himick & Sophie Audousset-Coulier, 2016. "Responsible Investing of Pension Assets: Links between Framing and Practices for Evaluation," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 136(3), pages 539-556, July.
    26. Alexander Kempf & Peer Osthoff, 2008. "SRI Funds: Nomen est Omen," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 35(9‐10), pages 1276-1294, November.
    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. Shanaev, Savva & Ghimire, Binam, 2022. "When ESG meets AAA: The effect of ESG rating changes on stock returns," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 46(PA).
    2. Zhang, Jitao & Yang, Yongliang, 2023. "Can environmental disclosure improve price efficiency? The perspective of price delay," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 52(C).
    3. Becker, Martin G. & Martin, Fabio & Walter, Andreas, 2022. "The power of ESG transparency: The effect of the new SFDR sustainability labels on mutual funds and individual investors," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 47(PB).
    4. Cheraghali, Hamid & Igeh, Sofia Aarstad & Lin, Kuan-Heng & Molnár, Peter & Wijerathne, Iddamalgodage, 2022. "Online attention and mutual fund performance: Evidence from Norway," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 49(C).
    5. 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).
    6. Manuel Carlos Nogueira & Mara Madaleno, 2022. "Are Sustainability Indices Infected by the Volatility of Stock Indices? Analysis before and after the COVID-19 Pandemic," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(22), pages 1-13, November.
    7. Jitmaneeroj, Boonlert, 2023. "Time-varying fund manager skills of socially responsible investing (SRI) funds in developed and emerging markets," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    8. Klinkowska, Olga & Zhao, Yuan, 2023. "Fund flows and performance: New evidence from retail and institutional SRI mutual funds," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 87(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. Muñoz, Fernando & Ortiz, Cristina & Vicente, Luis, 2022. "Ethical window dressing: SRI funds are as good as their word," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 49(C).
    2. Leite, Paulo & Cortez, Maria Céu, 2014. "Style and performance of international socially responsible funds in Europe," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 30(C), pages 248-267.
    3. Sebastian Rathner, 2013. "The Influence of Primary Study Characteristics on the Performance Differential Between Socially Responsible and Conventional Investment Funds: A Meta-Analysis," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 118(2), pages 349-363, December.
    4. Dan Daugaard, 2020. "Emerging new themes in environmental, social and governance investing: a systematic literature review," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 60(2), pages 1501-1530, June.
    5. Derwall, Jeroen & Koedijk, Kees & Ter Horst, Jenke, 2011. "A tale of values-driven and profit-seeking social investors," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 35(8), pages 2137-2147, August.
    6. Francisco José López-Arceiz & Ana José Bellostas-Pérezgrueso & José Mariano Moneva, 2018. "Evaluation of the Cultural Environment’s Impact on the Performance of the Socially Responsible Investment Funds," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 150(1), pages 259-278, June.
    7. Junjie Wu & George Lodorfos & Aftab Dean & Georgios Gioulmpaxiotis, 2017. "The Market Performance of Socially Responsible Investment during Periods of the Economic Cycle – Illustrated Using the Case of FTSE," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 38(2), pages 238-251, March.
    8. Fernando Muñoz, 2020. "How do the size and independence of the board of trustees affect the financial and sustainable performance of socially responsible mutual funds?," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 27(4), pages 1834-1850, July.
    9. Amparo Soler‐Domínguez & Juan Carlos Matallín‐Sáez & Diego Víctor de Mingo‐López & Emili Tortosa‐Ausina, 2021. "Looking for sustainable development: Socially responsible mutual funds and the low‐carbon economy," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(4), pages 1751-1766, May.
    10. Boermans, Martijn A. & Galema, Rients, 2019. "Are pension funds actively decarbonizing their portfolios?," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 161(C), pages 50-60.
    11. Sangki Lee & Insu Kim & Chung-hun Hong, 2019. "Who Values Corporate Social Responsibility in the Korean Stock Market?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(21), pages 1-14, October.
    12. Andrew Ainsworth & Adam Corbett & Steve Satchell, 2018. "Psychic dividends of socially responsible investment portfolios," Journal of Asset Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 19(3), pages 179-190, May.
    13. Laura Fabregat-Aibar & M. Glòria Barberà-Mariné & Antonio Terceño & Laia Pié, 2019. "A Bibliometric and Visualization Analysis of Socially Responsible Funds," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(9), pages 1-17, May.
    14. Thomas Walker & Kerstin Lopatta & Thomas Kaspereit, 2014. "Corporate sustainability in asset pricing models and mutual funds performance measurement," Financial Markets and Portfolio Management, Springer;Swiss Society for Financial Market Research, vol. 28(4), pages 363-407, November.
    15. Costanza Torricelli & Beatrice Bertelli, 2022. "ESG screening strategies and portfolio performance: how do they fare in periods of financial distress?," Centro Studi di Banca e Finanza (CEFIN) (Center for Studies in Banking and Finance) 0087, Universita di Modena e Reggio Emilia, Dipartimento di Economia "Marco Biagi".
    16. José Luis Miralles-Quirós & María Mar Miralles-Quirós & José Manuel Nogueira, 2020. "Sustainable Development Goals and Investment Strategies: The Profitability of Using Five-Factor Fama-French Alphas," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(5), pages 1-16, February.
    17. Lars Hornuf & Gül Yüksel, 2022. "The Performance of Socially Responsible Investments: A Meta-Analysis," CESifo Working Paper Series 9724, CESifo.
    18. Luis Ferruz & Fernando Muñoz & María Vargas, 2012. "Managerial Abilities: Evidence from Religious Mutual Fund Managers," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 105(4), pages 503-517, February.
    19. Christine Helliar & Barbara Petracci & Nongnuch Tantisantiwong, 2022. "Comparing SRI funds to conventional funds using a PCA methodology," Journal of Asset Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 23(7), pages 581-595, December.
    20. Łukasz Dopierała & Magdalena Mosionek-Schweda & Daria Ilczuk, 2020. "Does the Asset Allocation Policy Affect the Performance of Climate-Themed Funds? Empirical Evidence from the Scandinavian Mutual Funds Market," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(2), pages 1-23, January.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Conventional fund; ESG; Financial factor; Pension fund; SRI;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • A13 - General Economics and Teaching - - General Economics - - - Relation of Economics to Social Values
    • G11 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Portfolio Choice; Investment Decisions
    • G23 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Non-bank Financial Institutions; Financial Instruments; Institutional Investors

    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:finlet:v:36:y:2020:i:c:s1544612319304003. 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/frl .

    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.