IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wly/sustdv/v31y2023i2p649-667.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The burgeoning field of sustainable investment: Past, present and future

Author

Listed:
  • Marzhan Beisenbina
  • Laura Fabregat‐Aibar
  • Maria‐Glòria Barberà‐Mariné
  • Maria‐Teresa Sorrosal‐Forradellas

Abstract

The current concern with sustainability issues pervades all scientific fields. Sustainable investment is not an exception judging by the significant increase in the literature. This work provides an extensive up‐to‐date overview of studies on sustainable investment, revealing current trends, identifying gaps and future research topics. A total of 1091 documents are reviewed and bibliometric analysis is used with two approaches: data analysis and conceptual structure of the field. Additionally, a classification into 12 categories by topic is proposed. The results show that more than 40% of the publications belong to analysis of classical investment tools with a gradual evolution towards the concept of “green” instruments. Socially Responsible Investment (SRI) strategies have changed over time from “screening” to the current “best‐in‐class”, “Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) integration” and “impact investing.” The results of the study are valuable for academics and practitioners, as they show the current state of knowledge, evolution paths and emerging topics.

Suggested Citation

  • Marzhan Beisenbina & Laura Fabregat‐Aibar & Maria‐Glòria Barberà‐Mariné & Maria‐Teresa Sorrosal‐Forradellas, 2023. "The burgeoning field of sustainable investment: Past, present and future," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 31(2), pages 649-667, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:sustdv:v:31:y:2023:i:2:p:649-667
    DOI: 10.1002/sd.2422
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1002/sd.2422
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1002/sd.2422?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
    ---><---

    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. Wu, Meng-Wen & Shen, Chung-Hua, 2013. "Corporate social responsibility in the banking industry: Motives and financial performance," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 37(9), pages 3529-3547.
    3. repec:eme:aaaj00:aaaj-04-2015-2044 is not listed on IDEAS
    4. Gunther Capelle-Blancard & Aurélien Petit, 2019. "Every Little Helps? ESG News and Stock Market Reaction," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 157(2), pages 543-565, June.
    5. Monasterolo, Irene & de Angelis, Luca, 2020. "Blind to carbon risk? An analysis of stock market reaction to the Paris Agreement," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 170(C).
    6. 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.
    7. Heinkel, Robert & Kraus, Alan & Zechner, Josef, 2001. "The Effect of Green Investment on Corporate Behavior," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 36(4), pages 431-449, December.
    8. Arno Riedl & Paul Smeets, 2017. "Why Do Investors Hold Socially Responsible Mutual Funds?," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 72(6), pages 2505-2550, December.
    9. Snyder, Hannah, 2019. "Literature review as a research methodology: An overview and guidelines," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 104(C), pages 333-339.
    10. Yujun Cui & Sean Geobey & Olaf Weber & Haiying Lin, 2018. "The Impact of Green Lending on Credit Risk in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(6), pages 1-16, June.
    11. Renneboog, Luc & Ter Horst, Jenke & Zhang, Chendi, 2011. "Is ethical money financially smart? Nonfinancial attributes and money flows of socially responsible investment funds," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 20(4), pages 562-588, October.
    12. Ioanna Boulouta, 2013. "Hidden Connections: The Link Between Board Gender Diversity and Corporate Social Performance," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 113(2), pages 185-197, March.
    13. M.J. Cobo & A.G. López-Herrera & E. Herrera-Viedma & F. Herrera, 2011. "Science mapping software tools: Review, analysis, and cooperative study among tools," Journal of the Association for Information Science & Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 62(7), pages 1382-1402, July.
    14. 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.
    15. Dominique Diouf & Olivier Boiral, 2017. "The quality of sustainability reports and impression management," Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 30(3), pages 643-667, March.
    16. Pieter Jan Trinks & Bert Scholtens, 2017. "The Opportunity Cost of Negative Screening in Socially Responsible Investing," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 140(2), pages 193-208, January.
    17. Alan Gregory & John Matatko & Robert Luther, 1997. "Ethical Unit Trust Financial Performance: Small Company Effects and Fund Size Effects," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 24(5), pages 705-725, June.
    18. 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.
    19. 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.
    20. E. C. M. Noyons & H. F. Moed & A. F. J. Raan, 1999. "Integrating research performance analysis and science mapping," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 46(3), pages 591-604, November.
    21. Martin, Patrick R. & Moser, Donald V., 2016. "Managers’ green investment disclosures and investors’ reaction," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 61(1), pages 239-254.
    22. M.J. Cobo & A.G. López‐Herrera & E. Herrera‐Viedma & F. Herrera, 2011. "Science mapping software tools: Review, analysis, and cooperative study among tools," Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 62(7), pages 1382-1402, July.
    23. 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.
    24. 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.
    25. 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.
    26. Maretno Harjoto & Hoje Jo & Yongtae Kim, 2017. "Is Institutional Ownership Related to Corporate Social Responsibility? The Nonlinear Relation and Its Implication for Stock Return Volatility," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 146(1), pages 77-109, November.
    27. Hafezali Iqbal Hussain & Janusz Grabara & Mohd Shahril Ahmad Razimi & Saeed Pahlevan Sharif, 2019. "Sustainability of Leverage Levels in Response to Shocks in Equity Prices: Islamic Finance as a Socially Responsible Investment," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(12), pages 1-16, June.
    28. 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.
    29. Taghizadeh-Hesary, Farhad & Yoshino, Naoyuki, 2019. "The way to induce private participation in green finance and investment," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 31(C), pages 98-103.
    30. Febi, Wulandari & Schäfer, Dorothea & Stephan, Andreas & Sun, Chen, 2018. "The impact of liquidity risk on the yield spread of green bonds," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 27(C), pages 53-59.
    31. 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.
    32. 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.
    33. Borghesi, Richard & Houston, Joel F. & Naranjo, Andy, 2014. "Corporate socially responsible investments: CEO altruism, reputation, and shareholder interests," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 26(C), pages 164-181.
    34. Flammer, Caroline, 2021. "Corporate green bonds," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 142(2), pages 499-516.
    35. 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.
    36. repec:eme:aaaj00:09513570410567791 is not listed on IDEAS
    37. Patricia Crifo & Elena Escrig-Olmedo & Nicolas Mottis, 2019. "Corporate Governance as a Key Driver of Corporate Sustainability in France: The Role of Board Members and Investor Relations," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 159(4), pages 1127-1146, November.
    38. Anna Höchstädter & Barbara Scheck, 2015. "What’s in a Name: An Analysis of Impact Investing Understandings by Academics and Practitioners," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 132(2), pages 449-475, December.
    39. United Nations UN, 2015. "Transforming our World: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development," Working Papers id:7559, eSocialSciences.
    40. Edmans, Alex, 2011. "Does the stock market fully value intangibles? Employee satisfaction and equity prices," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 101(3), pages 621-640, September.
    41. repec:dau:papers:123456789/7349 is not listed on IDEAS
    42. Sudheer Chava, 2014. "Environmental Externalities and Cost of Capital," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 60(9), pages 2223-2247, September.
    43. 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.
    44. Alan Gregory & John Matatko & Robert Luther, 1997. "Ethical Unit Trust Financial Performance: Small Company Effects and Fund Size Effects," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 24(5), pages 705-725.
    45. Gunther Capelle-Blancard & S. Monjon, 2012. "Trends in the literature on socially responsible investment: Looking for the keys under the lamppost," Université Paris1 Panthéon-Sorbonne (Post-Print and Working Papers) hal-00733402, HAL.
    46. 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.
    47. Felipe Arias Fogliano de Souza Cunha & Erick Meira de Oliveira & Renato J. Orsato & Marcelo Cabus Klotzle & Fernando Luiz Cyrino Oliveira & Rodrigo Goyannes Gusmão Caiado, 2020. "Can sustainable investments outperform traditional benchmarks? Evidence from global stock markets," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(2), pages 682-697, February.
    48. Mingers, John & Leydesdorff, Loet, 2015. "A review of theory and practice in scientometrics," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 246(1), pages 1-19.
    49. Goss, Allen & Roberts, Gordon S., 2011. "The impact of corporate social responsibility on the cost of bank loans," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 35(7), pages 1794-1810, July.
    50. Zhang, Dayong & Zhang, Zhiwei & Managi, Shunsuke, 2019. "A bibliometric analysis on green finance: Current status, development, and future directions," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 29(C), pages 425-430.
    51. Gaurav Talan & Gagan Deep Sharma, 2019. "Doing Well by Doing Good: A Systematic Review and Research Agenda for Sustainable Investment," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(2), pages 1-16, January.
    52. Christian Stutz, 2021. "History in corporate social responsibility: Reviewing and setting an agenda," Business History, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 63(2), pages 175-204, February.
    53. Rim Makni & Claude Francoeur & François Bellavance, 2009. "Causality Between Corporate Social Performance and Financial Performance: Evidence from Canadian Firms," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 89(3), pages 409-422, October.
    54. Carol A. Adams, 2004. "The ethical, social and environmental reporting‐performance portrayal gap," Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 17(5), pages 731-757, December.
    55. Chris Mallin & Andy Mullineux & Clas Wihlborg, 2005. "The Financial Sector and Corporate Governance: the UK case," Corporate Governance: An International Review, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 13(4), pages 532-541, July.
    56. 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. Alan Kai Ming Au & Yi-Fan Yang & Huan Wang & Rui-Hong Chen & Leven J. Zheng, 2023. "Mapping the Landscape of ESG Strategies: A Bibliometric Review and Recommendations for Future Research," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(24), pages 1-26, December.
    2. Naef, Alain, 2023. "Fossil-washing? The fossil fuel investment of ESG funds," SocArXiv 45xyv, Center for Open Science.

    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. Felipe Arias Fogliano de Souza Cunha & Erick Meira & Renato J. Orsato, 2021. "Sustainable finance and investment: Review and research agenda," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(8), pages 3821-3838, December.
    2. 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.
    3. Lars Hornuf & Gül Yüksel, 2022. "The Performance of Socially Responsible Investments: A Meta-Analysis," CESifo Working Paper Series 9724, CESifo.
    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. Gillan, Stuart L. & Koch, Andrew & Starks, Laura T., 2021. "Firms and social responsibility: A review of ESG and CSR research in corporate finance," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 66(C).
    7. Pablo Durán-Santomil & Luis Otero-González & Renato Heitor Correia-Domingues & Juan Carlos Reboredo, 2019. "Does Sustainability Score Impact Mutual Fund Performance?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(10), pages 1-17, May.
    8. 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).
    9. 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.
    10. 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.
    11. Mehmet Balcilar & Riza Demirer & Rangan Gupta, 2017. "Do Sustainable Stocks Offer Diversification Benefits for Conventional Portfolios? An Empirical Analysis of Risk Spillovers and Dynamic Correlations," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(10), pages 1-18, October.
    12. 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.
    13. Janusz Brzeszczyński & Graham McIntosh, 2014. "Performance of Portfolios Composed of British SRI Stocks," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 120(3), pages 335-362, March.
    14. Guillermo Badía & Maria C. Cortez & Luis Ferruz, 2020. "Socially responsible investing worldwide: Do markets value corporate social responsibility?," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 27(6), pages 2751-2764, November.
    15. Gregor Dorfleitner & Christian Kreuzer & Christian Sparrer, 2020. "ESG controversies and controversial ESG: about silent saints and small sinners," Journal of Asset Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 21(5), pages 393-412, September.
    16. 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.
    17. Ved Dilip Beloskar & Arunima Haldar & S. V. D. Nageswara Rao, 2023. "Socially responsible investments: A retrospective review and future research agenda," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(7), pages 4841-4860, November.
    18. 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.
    19. Ya Dai & Liang Guo & Steve Liu & Hongxian Zhang, 2023. "Are socially responsible exchange‐traded funds paying off in performance?," International Review of Finance, International Review of Finance Ltd., vol. 23(1), pages 4-26, March.
    20. Jesús Manuel Palma-Ruiz & Julen Castillo-Apraiz & Raúl Gómez-Martínez, 2020. "Socially Responsible Investing as a Competitive Strategy for Trading Companies in Times of Upheaval Amid COVID-19: Evidence from Spain," IJFS, MDPI, vol. 8(3), pages 1-13, July.

    More about this item

    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:wly:sustdv:v:31:y:2023:i:2:p:649-667. 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: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1002/(ISSN)1099-1719 .

    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.