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What Are Investors Most Interested in about Sustainability? An Approach from the Scientific Literature

Author

Listed:
  • Juan Oliveros Fontaine

    (Facultad de Ciencias Económicas y Empresariales, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, 28223 Madrid, Spain)

  • Cristina del Campo

    (Departamento de Economía Financiera y Actuarial y Financiera, Facultad de Ciencias Económicas y Empresariales, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, 28223 Madrid, Spain)

  • Elena Urquía-Grande

    (Departamento de Administración Financiera y Contabilidad, Facultad de Ciencias Económicas y Empresariales, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, 28223 Madrid, Spain)

Abstract

In the midst of the development of international frameworks for the dissemination of information on sustainability, the European Union published the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) in order to meet user requirements on sustainability. To achieve its objectives, the Directive assigns large companies and investors a key role in the transmission of sustainability-related information, leveraging their capacity to influence. An increased separate use of the term “investor” has been noted in the sustainability-related literature regarding the overall “stakeholder” that contains it. Our research applies a methodology based on analysis of the content of the abstracts from 260 articles published prior to the approval of the CSRD, with the aim of identifying whether that separate use implied that investors’ interests are concentrated on sustainability-related aspects. The results of the research concluded that there is no statistical significance between the separate, growing use of the term “investor” and a generalised use in the lexical field related to sustainability that might characterise the influence of investors. This work encourages future research directions to examine how the enactment of the CSRD may affect the trend in investor influence on the dissemination of sustainability-related information.

Suggested Citation

  • Juan Oliveros Fontaine & Cristina del Campo & Elena Urquía-Grande, 2024. "What Are Investors Most Interested in about Sustainability? An Approach from the Scientific Literature," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(8), pages 1-23, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:16:y:2024:i:8:p:3393-:d:1378148
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    References listed on IDEAS

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