IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eme/jfrcpp/v19y2011i2p100-110.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Ethical and socially responsible investment funds

Author

Listed:
  • Robert Watson

Abstract

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the marketing of ethical and socially responsible investment (ESRI) funds to retail investors and to analysis the plausibility of the claims made in regard to their performance, achievements and prospects. Design/methodology/approach - The paper presents an analysis of the claims and marketing strategy adopted in the ESRI industry'sAction Guide for Financial Advisorsdocument, produced for their National Ethical Investing Week, 2010. Findings - The analysis indicates that the ESRI fund industry'sAction Guideuses a number of unethical marketing techniques to induce retail investors into investing in ESRI funds and that many of the claims made on behalf of ESRI investing are implausible. Given the past history of mis‐selling in the investment fund sector, these findings ought to be of some concern to regulators and retail investors. Originality/value - This is the first article that has linked the promotion and marketing of ESRI funds to possible mis‐selling practices.

Suggested Citation

  • Robert Watson, 2011. "Ethical and socially responsible investment funds," Journal of Financial Regulation and Compliance, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 19(2), pages 100-110, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:eme:jfrcpp:v:19:y:2011:i:2:p:100-110
    DOI: 10.1108/13581981111123825
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/13581981111123825/full/html?utm_source=repec&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=repec
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers
    File URL: https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/13581981111123825/full/pdf?utm_source=repec&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=repec
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1108/13581981111123825?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. 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.
    2. 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.
    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. Jeroen Derwall & Kees Koedijk, 2009. "Socially Responsible Fixed‐Income Funds," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 36(1‐2), pages 210-229, January.
    2. Maria Jua Bachelet & Leonardo Becchetti & Stefano Manfredonia, 2019. "The Green Bonds Premium Puzzle: The Role of Issuer Characteristics and Third-Party Verification," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(4), pages 1-22, February.
    3. 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.
    4. Stefan Ambec & Paul Lanoie, 2007. "When and Why Does It Pay To Be Green?," CIRANO Working Papers 2007s-20, CIRANO.
    5. Sebastian Lobe & Christian Walkshäusl, 2016. "Vice versus virtue investing around the world," Review of Managerial Science, Springer, vol. 10(2), pages 303-344, March.
    6. 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.
    7. 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.
    8. Lars Hornuf & Gül Yüksel, 2022. "The Performance of Socially Responsible Investments: A Meta-Analysis," CESifo Working Paper Series 9724, CESifo.
    9. 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.
    10. 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.
    11. Michael Schröder, 2007. "Is there a Difference? The Performance Characteristics of SRI Equity Indices," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 34(1‐2), pages 331-348, January.
    12. Stefan Ambec & Paul Lanoie, 2009. "Performance environnementale et économique de l'entreprise," Economie & Prévision, La Documentation Française, vol. 0(4), pages 71-94.
    13. Hassan, M. Kabir & Girard, Eric, 2010. "Faith-Based Ethical Investing: The Case Of Dow Jones Islamic Indexes," Islamic Economic Studies, The Islamic Research and Training Institute (IRTI), vol. 17, pages 1-31.
    14. Mazzuca, Maria & Panzera, Elena & Ruberto, Sabrina, 2023. "The investor's participation in social impact bonds," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 349-363.
    15. 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.
    16. 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.
    17. 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.
    18. 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.
    19. 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.
    20. 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.

    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:eme:jfrcpp:v:19:y:2011:i:2:p:100-110. 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: Emerald Support (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    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.