IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wly/buseth/v32y2023i2p713-741.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The impact at stake: Risk and return in publicly listed social impact firms

Author

Listed:
  • Emanuela Giacomini
  • Nicoletta Marinelli
  • Luca Riccetti

Abstract

This study investigates the risk and return characteristics of impact investing in the public equity market. We use a unique hand‐collected dataset of 50 US listed firms whose product (or service) addresses at least one of the global social and environmental challenges, as defined by the United Nations Social Development Goals (SDGs). We designate such firms Impact Firms, and we compare their financial performance to a matched sample of Non‐Impact Firms in the time span 2002–2019. Our results show that Impact and Non‐Impact Firms have similar level of financial performance and both volatility and systemic risk over the entire sample period. At the same time, Impact Firms show a slightly lower negative skewness of the returns over the entire sample period, but not during crisis periods. However, compared to matched Non‐Impact Firms, Impact Firms outperform during periods of market crisis, generating a valuable dampening of downside risk.

Suggested Citation

  • Emanuela Giacomini & Nicoletta Marinelli & Luca Riccetti, 2023. "The impact at stake: Risk and return in publicly listed social impact firms," Business Ethics, the Environment & Responsibility, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 32(2), pages 713-741, April.
  • Handle: RePEc:wly:buseth:v:32:y:2023:i:2:p:713-741
    DOI: 10.1111/beer.12511
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/beer.12511
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/beer.12511?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
    ---><---

    More about this item

    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:wly:buseth:v:32:y:2023:i:2:p:713-741. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/26946424 .

    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.