IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/kap/jbuset/v185y2023i2d10.1007_s10551-022-05217-8.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Tinkering Toward the Good––Sustainable Investing Between Utopian Imaginaries and Actualizations

Author

Listed:
  • Sara Dahlman

    (Roskilde University)

Abstract

This article seeks to reimagine the relationship between sustainability and financial performance in sustainable investing. Employing a utopian lens, I show how sustainability is constantly negotiated in a process of imagining and actualizing sustainable investing. For this purpose, I explore a fin-tech start-up’s endeavors to democratize sustainable investing through digitalization. Empirically, this article contributes a detailed account of the organizational process of––and the complexities involved in––establishing a sustainable investment organization, to this end focusing on the relationship between sustainability and financial performance. The article further provides a novel theoretical perspective (utopianism) on sustainable investing, one offering a processual approach that uses both external and internal factors in its understanding of the practice. I conclude that a utopian mindset of possibility paves the way for an experimentational attitude and future-oriented thinking. Such a mindset could generate new approaches to the relationship between sustainability and financial performance, thus shining a light on the new and innovative solutions needed to establish financial markets oriented to the common good.

Suggested Citation

  • Sara Dahlman, 2023. "Tinkering Toward the Good––Sustainable Investing Between Utopian Imaginaries and Actualizations," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 185(2), pages 281-297, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:jbuset:v:185:y:2023:i:2:d:10.1007_s10551-022-05217-8
    DOI: 10.1007/s10551-022-05217-8
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10551-022-05217-8
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s10551-022-05217-8?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. Pástor, Ľuboš & Stambaugh, Robert F. & Taylor, Lucian A., 2021. "Sustainable investing in equilibrium," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 142(2), pages 550-571.
    2. 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.
    3. 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.
    4. 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.
    5. Stewart Jones & Sandra van der Laan & Geoff Frost & Janice Loftus, 2008. "The Investment Performance of Socially Responsible Investment Funds in Australia," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 80(2), pages 181-203, June.
    6. Tobias Hahn & Frank Figge & Jonatan Pinkse & Lutz Preuss, 2018. "A Paradox Perspective on Corporate Sustainability: Descriptive, Instrumental, and Normative Aspects," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 148(2), pages 235-248, March.
    7. Fatemi, Ali M. & Fooladi, Iraj J., 2013. "Sustainable finance: A new paradigm," Global Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 24(2), pages 101-113.
    8. Bert Scholtens, 2006. "Finance as a Driver of Corporate Social Responsibility," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 68(1), pages 19-33, September.
    9. N. Kreander & R.H. Gray & D.M. Power & C.D. Sinclair, 2005. "Evaluating the Performance of Ethical and Non-ethical Funds: A Matched Pair Analysis," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(7-8), pages 1465-1493.
    10. Bożena Ryszawska, 2016. "Sustainability transition needs sustainable finance," Copernican Journal of Finance & Accounting, Uniwersytet Mikolaja Kopernika, vol. 5(1), pages 185-194.
    11. Renneboog, Luc & Ter Horst, Jenke & Zhang, Chendi, 2008. "The price of ethics and stakeholder governance: The performance of socially responsible mutual funds," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 14(3), pages 302-322, June.
    12. Tobias Hahn & Jonatan Pinkse & Lutz Preuss & Frank Figge, 2015. "Tensions in Corporate Sustainability: Towards an Integrative Framework," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 127(2), pages 297-316, March.
    13. Alexander Kempf & Peer Osthoff, 2007. "The Effect of Socially Responsible Investing on Portfolio Performance," European Financial Management, European Financial Management Association, vol. 13(5), pages 908-922, November.
    14. Revelli, Christophe, 2017. "Socially responsible investing (SRI): From mainstream to margin?," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 39(PB), pages 711-717.
    15. Curtis Child, 2015. "Mainstreaming and its Discontents: Fair Trade, Socially Responsible Investing, and Industry Trajectories," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 130(3), pages 601-618, September.
    16. 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.
    17. Alex Nicholls, 2010. "The Institutionalization of Social Investment: The Interplay of Investment Logics and Investor Rationalities," Journal of Social Entrepreneurship, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 1(1), pages 70-100, March.
    18. Lagoarde-Segot, Thomas & Paranque, Bernard, 2018. "Finance and sustainability: From ideology to utopia," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 80-92.
    19. Elias Bengtsson, 2008. "A History of Scandinavian Socially Responsible Investing," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 82(4), pages 969-983, November.
    20. 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.
    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. Kempf, Alexander & Osthoff, Peer, 2007. "The effect of socially responsible investing on portfolio performance," CFR Working Papers 06-10, University of Cologne, Centre for Financial Research (CFR).
    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. Vincenzo D'Apice & Giovanni Ferri & Mariantonietta Intonti, 2021. "Sustainable disclosure versus ESG intensity: Is there a cross effect between holding and SRI funds?," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 28(5), pages 1496-1510, September.
    2. repec:ipg:wpaper:2014-599 is not listed on IDEAS
    3. Wei Rong Ang & Greg N Gregoriou & Hooi Hooi Lean, 2014. "Market-timing skills of socially responsible investment fund managers: The case of North America versus Europe," Journal of Asset Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 15(6), pages 366-377, December.
    4. Muñoz, Fernando, 2016. "Cash flow timing skills of socially responsible mutual fund investors," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 110-124.
    5. Alda, Mercedes & Vicente, Ruth, 2020. "Behavioural analysis of socially responsible investment managers: specialists versus non-specialists," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 54(C).
    6. repec:dau:papers:123456789/7347 is not listed on IDEAS
    7. 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.
    8. Alda, Mercedes, 2017. "The abilities of managers in UK pension funds. Are socially responsible managers superior?," Cuadernos de Gestión, Universidad del País Vasco - Instituto de Economía Aplicada a la Empresa (IEAE).
    9. Federica Ielasi & Monica Rossolini, 2019. "Responsible or Thematic? The True Nature of Sustainability-Themed Mutual Funds," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(12), pages 1-17, June.
    10. Jonathan Peillex & Sabri Boubaker & Breeda Comyns, 2021. "Does It Pay to Invest in Japanese Women? Evidence from the MSCI Japan Empowering Women Index," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 170(3), pages 595-613, May.
    11. Cortez, Maria Céu & Andrade, Nuno & Silva, Florinda, 2022. "The environmental and financial performance of green energy investments: European evidence," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 197(C).
    12. Ciciretti, Rocco & Dalò, Ambrogio & Dam, Lammertjan, 2023. "The contributions of betas versus characteristics to the ESG premium," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 71(C), pages 104-124.
    13. Andreas G. F. Hoepner & Lisa Schopohl, 2020. "State Pension Funds and Corporate Social Responsibility: Do Beneficiaries’ Political Values Influence Funds’ Investment Decisions?," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 165(3), pages 489-516, September.
    14. 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.
    15. Nicholas Apergis & Vassilios Babalos & Christina Christou & Rangan Gupta, 2019. "Are there Really Long-Run Diversification Benefits from Sustainable Investments?," International Journal of Business and Economics, School of Management Development, Feng Chia University, Taichung, Taiwan, vol. 18(2), pages 141-163, September.
    16. Belghitar, Yacine & Clark, Ephraim & Deshmukh, Nitin, 2014. "Does it pay to be ethical? Evidence from the FTSE4Good," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 54-62.
    17. 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.
    18. Y Ito & S Managi & A Matsuda, 2013. "Performances of socially responsible investment and environmentally friendly funds," Journal of the Operational Research Society, Palgrave Macmillan;The OR Society, vol. 64(11), pages 1583-1594, November.
    19. Al Ayoubi, Khalil & Enjolras, Geoffroy, 2022. "Does disinvestment from fossil fuels reduce the financial performance of responsible sovereign wealth funds?," Journal of Multinational Financial Management, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    20. Jedynak Tomasz, 2017. "Is it Worth Being Good? – The Efficiency and Risk of Socially Responsible Investing in Light of Various Empirical Studies," Financial Internet Quarterly (formerly e-Finanse), Sciendo, vol. 13(3), pages 1-14, September.
    21. Xing Chen & Bert Scholtens, 2018. "The urge to act: A comparison of active and passive socially responsible investment funds in the United States," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 25(6), pages 1154-1173, November.
    22. Lapanan, Nicha, 2018. "The investment behavior of socially responsible individual investors," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 214-226.

    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:kap:jbuset:v:185:y:2023:i:2:d:10.1007_s10551-022-05217-8. 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: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.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.