Spoleczna odpowiedzialnosc biznesu – czy to sie oplaca? Analiza stop zwrotu indeksow zrownowazonego rozwoju wzgledem tradycyjnych indeksow gieldowych (Corporate Social Responsibility – Is It Worth It? Analysis of Rates of Return of Sustainable Development Indexes in Relation to Traditional Stock Indexes)

Increasing social pressure imposed on economic entities by various interest groups should encourage enterprises to act in the field of ethics, ecology and social respect, so as not to build a negative image of the enterprise in the eyes of society. However, according to classical financial management theory, enterprises must maximize the value of the enterprise and the assets of the shareholders. This may create a conflict of interest among different stakeholder/ shareholder groups. The emergence of sustainable indexes allowed us to check whether initiatives emphasizing social responsibility do not limit the growth rate of ownership. As part of this article, it was decided to check whether investing capital in „socially responsible” or „traditional” companies is more effective for investors. To this end, a comparison was made in terms of annual rates of return on traditional and sustainable indexes in different countries. An analysis of variance of return rates was also carried out using the ANOVA method in order to answer the question whether there are noticeable differences in the achieved rates of return. The authors, at the same time, point out that assessing investments only in terms of the expected rate of return may, for many potential investors, be an insufficient criterion for investment selection/assessment; issues such as the company’s environmental policy or the company’s fundamental analysis may also be relevant for them.