IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/quaeco/v81y2021icp93-112.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Are impact and financial returns mutually exclusive? Evidence from publicly-listed impact investments

Author

Listed:
  • Bernal, Oscar
  • Hudon, Marek
  • Ledru, François-Xavier

Abstract

Interest in impact investing is on the rise. And yet, there is a relative scarcity of academic literature on the financial performance and diversification potential of impact investments. In this paper, we apply a risk factors and dynamic correlation analysis to an original dataset essentially made of European publicly-listed impact firms. Our findings point to a risk-adjusted underperformance of impact investments compared to mainstream markets, and reveal impact firms’ failure to deliver non-negative returns to investors. This contradicts the practitioner literature, and suggests that investors must sacrifice financial returns for investing in line with their values. The results also indicate that the diversification potential of listed impact investments with regard to mainstream markets slowly decreases over time, suggesting that impact investors attach only limited weight to this aspect.

Suggested Citation

  • Bernal, Oscar & Hudon, Marek & Ledru, François-Xavier, 2021. "Are impact and financial returns mutually exclusive? Evidence from publicly-listed impact investments," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 81(C), pages 93-112.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:quaeco:v:81:y:2021:i:c:p:93-112
    DOI: 10.1016/j.qref.2021.04.010
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1062976921000715
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.qref.2021.04.010?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. Hao Liang & Luc Renneboog, 2017. "On the Foundations of Corporate Social Responsibility," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 72(2), pages 853-910, April.
    2. Jean Tirole & Roland Bénabou, 2006. "Incentives and Prosocial Behavior," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 96(5), pages 1652-1678, December.
    3. 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.
    4. Francesca Barigozzi & Piero Tedeschi, 2015. "Credit Markets with Ethical Banks and Motivated Borrowers," Review of Finance, European Finance Association, vol. 19(3), pages 1281-1313.
    5. 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.
    6. Matthew Lee & Arzi Adbi & Jasjit Singh, 2020. "Categorical cognition and outcome efficiency in impact investing decisions," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 41(1), pages 86-107, January.
    7. William N. Goetzmann & Alok Kumar, 2008. "Equity Portfolio Diversification," Review of Finance, European Finance Association, vol. 12(3), pages 433-463.
    8. Dorfleitner, Gregor & Röhe, Michaela & Renier, Noémie, 2017. "The access of microfinance institutions to debt capital: An empirical investigation of microfinance investment vehicles," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 65(C), pages 1-15.
    9. Massimo Biasin & Roy Cerqueti & Emanuela Giacomini & Nicoletta Marinelli & Anna Grazia Quaranta & Luca Riccetti, 2019. "Macro Asset Allocation with Social Impact Investments," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(11), pages 1-19, June.
    10. 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.
    11. Brière, Marie & Szafarz, Ariane, 2015. "Does Commercial Microfinance Belong to the Financial Sector? Lessons from the Stock Market," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 110-125.
    12. Watts, Natasha & Scales, Ivan R., 2020. "Social impact investing, agriculture, and the financialisation of development: Insights from sub-Saharan Africa," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 130(C).
    13. Jonathan Morduch, 1999. "The Microfinance Promise," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 37(4), pages 1569-1614, December.
    14. Bollen, Nicolas P. B., 2007. "Mutual Fund Attributes and Investor Behavior," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 42(3), pages 683-708, September.
    15. 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.
    16. Robert F. Engle & Kevin Sheppard, 2001. "Theoretical and Empirical properties of Dynamic Conditional Correlation Multivariate GARCH," NBER Working Papers 8554, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    17. 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.
    18. Fama, Eugene F. & French, Kenneth R., 2015. "A five-factor asset pricing model," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 116(1), pages 1-22.
    19. Bhagwan Chowdhry & Shaun William Davies & Brian Waters, 2019. "Investing for Impact," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 32(3), pages 864-904.
    20. Joakim Sandberg & Carmen Juravle & Ted Hedesström & Ian Hamilton, 2009. "The Heterogeneity of Socially Responsible Investment," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 87(4), pages 519-533, July.
    21. Iván Barreda-Tarrazona & Juan Matallín-Sáez & Mª Balaguer-Franch, 2011. "Measuring Investors’ Socially Responsible Preferences in Mutual Funds," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 103(2), pages 305-330, October.
    22. Hong, Harrison & Kacperczyk, Marcin, 2009. "The price of sin: The effects of social norms on markets," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 93(1), pages 15-36, July.
    23. Jegadeesh, Narasimhan & Titman, Sheridan, 1993. "Returns to Buying Winners and Selling Losers: Implications for Stock Market Efficiency," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 48(1), pages 65-91, March.
    24. Viviani, Jean-Laurent & Maurel, Carole, 2019. "Performance of impact investing: A value creation approach," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 31-39.
    25. De Santis, Giorgio & Gerard, Bruno, 1997. "International Asset Pricing and Portfolio Diversification with Time-Varying Risk," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 52(5), pages 1881-1912, December.
    26. Orlitzky, Marc, 2011. "Institutional Logics in the Study of Organizations: The Social Construction of the Relationship between Corporate Social and Financial Performance," Business Ethics Quarterly, Cambridge University Press, vol. 21(3), pages 409-444, July.
    27. Carhart, Mark M, 1997. "On Persistence in Mutual Fund Performance," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 52(1), pages 57-82, March.
    28. 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.
    29. Fama, Eugene F. & French, Kenneth R., 1993. "Common risk factors in the returns on stocks and bonds," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 33(1), pages 3-56, February.
    30. Nofsinger, John & Varma, Abhishek, 2014. "Socially responsible funds and market crises," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 180-193.
    31. 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.
    32. M. Tina Dacin & Peter A. Dacin & Paul Tracey, 2011. "Social Entrepreneurship: A Critique and Future Directions," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 22(5), pages 1203-1213, October.
    33. Jean-Laurent Viviani & Carole Maurel, 2019. "Performance of impact investing: A value creation approach," Post-Print hal-01990525, HAL.
    34. Jędrzej Białkowski & Laura T. Starks, 2016. "SRI Funds: Investor Demand, Exogenous Shocks and ESG Profiles," Working Papers in Economics 16/11, University of Canterbury, Department of Economics and Finance.
    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. Nachyła, Pola & Justo, Rachida, 2024. "How do impact investors leverage non-financial strategies to create value? An impact-oriented value framework," Journal of Business Venturing Insights, Elsevier, vol. 21(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. Dumitrescu, Ariadna & Järvinen, Jesse & Zakriya, Mohammed, 2023. "Hidden Gem or Fool’s Gold: Can passive ESG ETFs outperform the benchmarks?," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 86(C).
    2. Lestari, Jenjang Sri & Frömmel, Michael, 2024. "Socially responsible investments: doing good while doing well in developed versus emerging markets?," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 69(C).
    3. Hua Fan, John & Michalski, Lachlan, 2020. "Sustainable factor investing: Where doing well meets doing good," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 230-256.
    4. José Luis Miralles-Quirós & María Mar Miralles-Quirós, 2020. "Who Knocks on the Door of Portfolio Performance Heaven: Sinner or Saint Investors?," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 8(11), pages 1-18, November.
    5. 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.
    6. 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.
    7. Nofsinger, John R. & Sulaeman, Johan & Varma, Abhishek, 2019. "Institutional investors and corporate social responsibility," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 700-725.
    8. 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".
    9. 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.
    10. Lars Hornuf & Gül Yüksel, 2022. "The Performance of Socially Responsible Investments: A Meta-Analysis," CESifo Working Paper Series 9724, CESifo.
    11. 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).
    12. Muñoz, Fernando, 2021. "Carbon-intensive industries in Socially Responsible mutual funds' portfolios," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 75(C).
    13. Jun Duanmu & Qiping Huang & Yongjia Li & Garrett A. McBrayer, 2021. "Can hedge funds benefit from corporate social responsibility investment?," The Financial Review, Eastern Finance Association, vol. 56(2), pages 251-278, May.
    14. Helen Chiappini & Gianfranco Vento & Leonardo De Palma, 2021. "The Impact of COVID-19 Lockdowns on Sustainable Indexes," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(4), pages 1-18, February.
    15. 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.
    16. 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.
    17. Fernando Muñoz & María Vargas & Ruth Vicente, 2021. "Style-changing behaviour in the socially responsible mutual fund industry: consequences on financial and sustainable performance," Sustainability Accounting, Management and Policy Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 12(5), pages 1027-1051, February.
    18. Ghoul, Sadok El & Karoui, Aymen, 2022. "Fund performance and social responsibility: New evidence using social active share and social tracking error," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 143(C).
    19. David Risi & Falko Paetzold & Anne Kellers, 2021. "Wealthy Private Investors and Socially Responsible Investing: The Influence of Reference Groups," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(22), pages 1-24, November.
    20. 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.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Impact investing; Public market; Financial performance; Portfolio diversification; Asset management; Non-financial utility;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G11 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Portfolio Choice; Investment Decisions
    • G12 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Asset Pricing; Trading Volume; Bond Interest Rates
    • M14 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Business Administration - - - Corporate Culture; Diversity; Social Responsibility

    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:quaeco:v:81:y:2021:i:c:p:93-112. 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/inca/620167 .

    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.