IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/pal/assmgt/v23y2022i7d10.1057_s41260-022-00264-2.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Comparing SRI funds to conventional funds using a PCA methodology

Author

Listed:
  • Christine Helliar

    (University of South Australia)

  • Barbara Petracci

    (University of South Australia)

  • Nongnuch Tantisantiwong

    (University of South Australia)

Abstract

In this paper, we investigate characteristic differences between Socially Responsible Investment (SRI) funds and conventional funds across 35 different categories, including previously unexplored areas, such as fund manager skills and investment strategies. Further, we examine SRI and conventional funds globally rather than from just one country (e.g., US) or one region (e.g., Europe), covering funds listed in 22 different countries. We also adopt a new Principal Component Analysis (PCA) methodology for matching SRI funds against their conventional counterparts that significantly increases the sample size from previous studies, reducing selection bias and possibly explaining contradictory findings in the prior literature. Contributing to the literature, our findings show that: (i) SRI funds have more diversified portfolios than conventional funds; (ii) SRI funds have lower cash holdings while investing more in US equities; and (iii) SRI fund managers charge a smaller fee and are more successful in managing their portfolios. This is reassuring for investors who invest in SRI funds and for the future health and sustainability of the planet.

Suggested Citation

  • Christine Helliar & Barbara Petracci & Nongnuch Tantisantiwong, 2022. "Comparing SRI funds to conventional funds using a PCA methodology," Journal of Asset Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 23(7), pages 581-595, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:pal:assmgt:v:23:y:2022:i:7:d:10.1057_s41260-022-00264-2
    DOI: 10.1057/s41260-022-00264-2
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1057/s41260-022-00264-2
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1057/s41260-022-00264-2?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. Rob Bauer & Nadja Guenster & Rogér Otten, 2004. "Empirical evidence on corporate governance in Europe: The effect on stock returns, firm value and performance," Journal of Asset Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 5(2), pages 91-104, August.
    2. 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, September.
    3. James J. Heckman & Hidehiko Ichimura & Petra E. Todd, 1997. "Matching As An Econometric Evaluation Estimator: Evidence from Evaluating a Job Training Programme," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 64(4), pages 605-654.
    4. repec:bla:jfinan:v:55:y:2000:i:4:p:1655-1703 is not listed on IDEAS
    5. Andreas G.F. Hoepner & Hussain G. Rammal & Michael Rezec, 2011. "Islamic mutual funds’ financial performance and international investment style: evidence from 20 countries," The European Journal of Finance, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 17(9-10), pages 829-850, November.
    6. Abhakorn, Pongrapeeporn & Tantisantiwong, Nongnuch, 2012. "A reexamination of capital controls’ effectiveness: Recent experience of Thailand," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 23(1), pages 26-38.
    7. Russ Wermers, 2000. "Mutual Fund Performance: An Empirical Decomposition into Stock‐Picking Talent, Style, Transactions Costs, and Expenses," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 55(4), pages 1655-1695, August.
    8. Sebastian Rathner, 2013. "The Influence of Primary Study Characteristics on the Performance Differential Between Socially Responsible and Conventional Investment Funds: A Meta-Analysis," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 118(2), pages 349-363, December.
    9. Ahn, Seoungpil & Walker, Mark D., 2007. "Corporate governance and the spinoff decision," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 13(1), pages 76-93, March.
    10. Maria Céu Cortez & Florinda Silva & Nelson Areal, 2012. "Socially Responsible Investing In The Global Market: The Performance Of Us And European Funds," International Journal of Finance & Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 17(3), pages 254-271, July.
    11. repec:dau:papers:123456789/7349 is not listed on IDEAS
    12. Fernando Muñoz & Maria Vargas & Isabel Marco, 2014. "Environmental Mutual Funds: Financial Performance and Managerial Abilities," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 124(4), pages 551-569, November.
    13. Tufano, Peter & Sevick, Matthew, 1997. "Board structure and fee-setting in the U.S. mutual fund industry," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 46(3), pages 321-355, December.
    14. Leite, Paulo & Cortez, Maria Céu, 2014. "Style and performance of international socially responsible funds in Europe," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 30(C), pages 248-267.
    15. David P. Brown & Youchang Wu, 2016. "Mutual Fund Flows and Cross-Fund Learning within Families," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 71(1), pages 383-424, February.
    16. Chung-Hua Shen & Yuan Chang, 2009. "Ambition Versus Conscience, Does Corporate Social Responsibility Pay off? The Application of Matching Methods," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 88(1), pages 133-153, April.
    17. 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.
    18. 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.
    19. Vikas Agarwal & Kevin A. Mullally & Yuehua Tang & Baozhong Yang, 2015. "Mandatory Portfolio Disclosure, Stock Liquidity, and Mutual Fund Performance," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 70(6), pages 2733-2776, December.
    20. Javier Gil-Bazo & Pablo Ruiz-Verdú & André Santos, 2010. "The Performance of Socially Responsible Mutual Funds: The Role of Fees and Management Companies," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 94(2), pages 243-263, June.
    21. Fifield, S G M & Power, D M & Sinclair, C D, 2002. "Macroeconomic Factors and Share Returns: An Analysis Using Emerging Market Data," International Journal of Finance & Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 7(1), pages 51-62, January.
    22. Alexander Kempf & Peer Osthoff, 2008. "SRI Funds: Nomen est Omen," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 35(9-10), pages 1276-1294.
    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. Michael J. Cooper & Huseyin Gulen & P. Raghavendra Rau, 2005. "Changing Names with Style: Mutual Fund Name Changes and Their Effects on Fund Flows," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 60(6), pages 2825-2858, December.
    25. Nofsinger, John & Varma, Abhishek, 2014. "Socially responsible funds and market crises," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 180-193.
    26. Jacquelyn Humphrey & Darren Lee, 2011. "Australian Socially Responsible Funds: Performance, Risk and Screening Intensity," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 102(4), pages 519-535, September.
    27. 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.
    28. Cici, Gjergji & Gibson, Scott & Moussawi, Rabih, 2010. "Mutual fund performance when parent firms simultaneously manage hedge funds," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 19(2), pages 169-187, April.
    29. Elizabeth Ooi & Paul Lajbcygier, 2013. "Virtue Remains After Removing Sin: Finding Skill Amongst Socially Responsible Investment Managers," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 113(2), pages 199-224, March.
    30. Karen Benson & Marion Hutchinson & Ashwin Sriram, 2011. "Governance in the Australian Superannuation Industry," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 99(2), pages 183-200, March.
    31. Zakri Y. Bello, 2005. "Socially Responsible Investing And Portfolio Diversification," Journal of Financial Research, Southern Finance Association;Southwestern Finance Association, vol. 28(1), pages 41-57, March.
    32. Karen Benson & Timothy Brailsford & Jacquelyn Humphrey, 2006. "Do Socially Responsible Fund Managers Really Invest Differently?," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 65(4), pages 337-357, June.
    33. Alexander Kempf & Peer Osthoff, 2008. "SRI Funds: Nomen est Omen," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 35(9‐10), pages 1276-1294, November.
    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. Christiansen, Charlotte & Jansson, Thomas & Kallestrup-Lamb, Malene & Noren, Vicke, 2023. "Households' investments in socially responsible mutual funds," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 87(C), pages 46-67.

    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. Urquhart, Andrew & Zhang, Hanxiong, 2019. "The performance of technical trading rules in Socially Responsible Investments," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 397-411.
    2. Sebastian Rathner, 2013. "The Influence of Primary Study Characteristics on the Performance Differential Between Socially Responsible and Conventional Investment Funds: A Meta-Analysis," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 118(2), pages 349-363, December.
    3. 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.
    4. Leite, Paulo & Cortez, Maria Céu, 2014. "Style and performance of international socially responsible funds in Europe," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 30(C), pages 248-267.
    5. 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.
    6. Leite, Paulo & Cortez, Maria Céu, 2015. "Performance of European socially responsible funds during market crises: Evidence from France," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 40(C), pages 132-141.
    7. repec:dau:papers:123456789/7347 is not listed on IDEAS
    8. Blankenberg, Ann-Kathrin & Gottschalk, Jonas F. A., 2018. "Is socially responsible investing (SRI) in stocks a competitive capital investment? A comparative analysis based on the performance of sustainable stocks," University of Göttingen Working Papers in Economics 349, University of Goettingen, Department of Economics.
    9. 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.
    10. Anett Wins & Bernhard Zwergel, 2016. "Comparing those who do, might and will not invest in sustainable funds: a survey among German retail fund investors," Business Research, Springer;German Academic Association for Business Research, vol. 9(1), pages 51-99, April.
    11. 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.
    12. Fauzias Mat Nor & Amir Shaharuddin & Ainulashikin Marzuki & Nur Ainna Ramli, 2019. "Revised Malaysian Shariah Screening: Its Impact on Islamic Capital Market," Research in World Economy, Research in World Economy, Sciedu Press, vol. 10(1), pages 17-30, June.
    13. 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.
    14. Gerasimos G. Rompotis, 2022. "The ESG ETFs in the UK," Journal of Asset Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 23(2), pages 114-129, March.
    15. Henke, Hans-Martin, 2016. "The effect of social screening on bond mutual fund performance," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 69-84.
    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. Martinez Meyers, Susana & Ferrero-Ferrero, Idoya & Muñoz-Torres, María Jesus, 2024. "ARE sustainable funds doing the talk and the walk? An ESG score analysis of fund portfolio holdings," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 93(PA), pages 1526-1541.
    18. Lars Hornuf & Gül Yüksel, 2022. "The Performance of Socially Responsible Investments: A Meta-Analysis," CESifo Working Paper Series 9724, CESifo.
    19. 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.
    20. 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.
    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.

    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:pal:assmgt:v:23:y:2022:i:7:d:10.1057_s41260-022-00264-2. 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.palgrave-journals.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.