IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v17y2025i10p4401-d1654252.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Correlates of Ethical Investing and the Issue of Sustainability

Author

Listed:
  • Adrian Furnham

    (Department of Leadership and Organisational Behaviour, BI Norwegian Business School, Nydalsveien 37, 0484 Oslo, Norway)

  • Oyvind Martinsen

    (Department of Leadership and Organisational Behaviour, BI Norwegian Business School, Nydalsveien 37, 0484 Oslo, Norway)

  • Jan Ketil Arnulf

    (Department of Leadership and Organisational Behaviour, BI Norwegian Business School, Nydalsveien 37, 0484 Oslo, Norway)

Abstract

This paper was concerned with individual difference correlates of preferences for three issues associated with ethical investing. Five hundred adults completed a long, 60-item, questionnaire concerning personal details, including demographic (sex, age, education) and ideological (political and religious beliefs), as well as a three-part measure of their investment attitudes: what investments to avoid, what general issues to consider when investing and what people issues to consider when investing. The results indicated that they most wanted to avoid investments concerning weapons, animal testing and fossil fuels. The most important issues when investing were thought to be pollution, deforestation and carbon footprint, which all have at heart the sustainability philosophy. With regards to workers, they noted child labour, wages and worker rights as the most important issues. Correlations showed relatively few demographic correlates, but there were a number of religious belief and political attitude correlates of investment preferences. The strongest relationship was between political beliefs and anything associated with global warming. Implications and limitations are acknowledged, in particular with respect to having rank-order data and not knowing important information about the respondents.

Suggested Citation

  • Adrian Furnham & Oyvind Martinsen & Jan Ketil Arnulf, 2025. "Correlates of Ethical Investing and the Issue of Sustainability," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 17(10), pages 1-14, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:17:y:2025:i:10:p:4401-:d:1654252
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/17/10/4401/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/17/10/4401/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Thomas Berry & Joan Junkus, 2013. "Socially Responsible Investing: An Investor Perspective," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 112(4), pages 707-720, February.
    2. Samuel M. Hartzmark & Abigail B. Sussman, 2019. "Do Investors Value Sustainability? A Natural Experiment Examining Ranking and Fund Flows," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 74(6), pages 2789-2837, December.
    3. Roland Bénabou & Jean Tirole, 2010. "Individual and Corporate Social Responsibility," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 77(305), pages 1-19, January.
    4. William Martin, 2009. "Socially Responsible Investing: Is Your Fiduciary Duty at Risk?," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 90(4), pages 549-560, December.
    5. Millissa F. Y. Cheung & W. M. To, 2021. "The Effect of Consumer Perceptions of the Ethics of Retailers on Purchase Behavior and Word-of-Mouth: The Moderating Role of Ethical Beliefs," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 171(4), pages 771-788, July.
    6. Benjamin Richardson, 2009. "Keeping Ethical Investment Ethical: Regulatory Issues for Investing for Sustainability," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 87(4), pages 555-572, July.
    7. 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.
    8. 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.
    9. Rocchi, Marta & Ferrero, Ignacio & Beadle, Ron, 2021. "Can Finance Be a Virtuous Practice? A MacIntyrean Account," Business Ethics Quarterly, Cambridge University Press, vol. 31(1), pages 75-105, January.
    10. Webley, Paul & Lewis, Alan & Mackenzie, Craig, 2001. "Commitment among ethical investors: An experimental approach," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 22(1), pages 27-42, February.
    11. DesJardins, Joseph, 2016. "Is it Time to Jump off the Sustainability Bandwagon?," Business Ethics Quarterly, Cambridge University Press, vol. 26(01), pages 117-135, January.
    12. Lisa Baudot & Zhongwei Huang & Dana Wallace, 2021. "Stakeholder Perceptions of Risk in Mandatory Corporate Responsibility Disclosure," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 172(1), pages 151-174, August.
    13. Goodman, Jennifer & Arenas, Daniel, 2015. "Engaging Ethically: A Discourse Ethics Perspective on Social Shareholder Engagement," Business Ethics Quarterly, Cambridge University Press, vol. 25(2), pages 163-189, April.
    14. Ronald Hill & Thomas Ainscough & Todd Shank & Daryl Manullang, 2007. "Corporate Social Responsibility and Socially Responsible Investing: A Global Perspective," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 70(2), pages 165-174, January.
    15. Stephen Fowler & C. Hope, 2007. "A Critical Review of Sustainable Business Indices and their Impact," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 76(3), pages 243-252, December.
    16. Saheli Nath, 2021. "The Business of Virtue: Evidence from Socially Responsible Investing in Financial Markets," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 169(1), pages 181-199, February.
    17. Christian Garmann Johnsen, 2021. "Sustainability Beyond Instrumentality: Towards an Immanent Ethics of Organizational Environmentalism," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 172(1), pages 1-14, August.
    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. Alice Martini, 2021. "Socially responsible investing: from the ethical origins to the sustainable development framework of the European Union," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 23(11), pages 16874-16890, November.
    2. Alice Martini, 2019. "Socially responsible investing: from the ethical origins to the sustainable development framework of the european union," Public Finance Research Papers 36, Istituto di Economia e Finanza, DSGE, Sapienza University of Rome.
    3. Francesco Gangi & Jérôme Méric & Rémi Jardat & Lucia Michela Daniele, 2019. "Business for society," Post-Print hal-02382307, HAL.
    4. Naeem, Muhammad Abubakr & Anwer, Zaheer & Khan, Ashraf & Paltrinieri, Andrea, 2024. "Do market conditions affect interconnectedness pattern of socially responsible equities?," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 93(PA), pages 611-630.
    5. Díaz, Antonio & Esparcia, Carlos & Alonso, Daniel & Alonso, Maria-Teresa, 2024. "Portfolio management of ESG-labeled energy companies based on PTV and ESG factors," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 134(C).
    6. 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.
    7. 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.
    8. 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.
    9. Onur Kemal Tosun, 2017. "Is corporate social responsibility sufficient enough to explain the investment by socially responsible funds?," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 49(3), pages 697-726, October.
    10. Vanita Tripathi & Amanpreet Kaur, 2022. "Does Socially Responsible Investing Pay in Developing Countries? A Comparative Study Across Select Developed and Developing Markets," FIIB Business Review, , vol. 11(2), pages 189-205, June.
    11. Rui Coelho & Shital Jayantilal & Joao J. Ferreira, 2023. "The impact of social responsibility on corporate financial performance: A systematic literature review," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 30(4), pages 1535-1560, July.
    12. Benjamin Lynch & Martha O'Hagan‐Luff, 2024. "Relative corporate social performance and cost of equity capital: International evidence," International Journal of Finance & Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 29(3), pages 2882-2910, July.
    13. Ho, Ly & Bai, Min & Lu, Yue & Qin, Yafeng, 2021. "The effect of corporate sustainability performance on leverage adjustments," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 53(5).
    14. Gregor Dorfleitner & Mai Nguyen, 2016. "Which proportion of SR investments is enough? A survey-based approach," Business Research, Springer;German Academic Association for Business Research, vol. 9(1), pages 1-25, April.
    15. Maria Cristina Rossi & Dario Sansone & Costanza Torricelli & Arthur van Soest, 2018. "Household Preferences for Socially Responsible Investments," Centro Studi di Banca e Finanza (CEFIN) (Center for Studies in Banking and Finance) 18021, Universita di Modena e Reggio Emilia, Dipartimento di Economia "Marco Biagi".
    16. Richard Copp & Michael L. Kremmer & Eduardo Roca, 2010. "Should funds invest in socially responsible investments during downturns?," Accounting Research Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 23(3), pages 254-266, November.
    17. Valeria D’Amato & Rita D’Ecclesia & Susanna Levantesi, 2022. "ESG score prediction through random forest algorithm," Computational Management Science, Springer, vol. 19(2), pages 347-373, June.
    18. Rossi, Mariacristina & Sansone, Dario & van Soest, Arthur & Torricelli, Costanza, 2019. "Household preferences for socially responsible investments," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 105(C), pages 107-120.
    19. Becchetti, Leonardo & Ciciretti, Rocco & Dalò, Ambrogio, 2018. "Fishing the Corporate Social Responsibility risk factors," Journal of Financial Stability, Elsevier, vol. 37(C), pages 25-48.
    20. Dai, Liyan & Song, Chengxuan & You, Yu & Zhang, Wenqiao, 2022. "Do sovereign wealth funds value ESG engagement? Evidence from target firm's CSR performance," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 50(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    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:gam:jsusta:v:17:y:2025:i:10:p:4401-:d:1654252. 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: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    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.