Since its inception in 2006, the United Nationsbacked Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI) have grown to over 1300 signatories representing over $45 trillion. This growth is not slowing down. In this paper, we argue that there is a set of attributes which make the PRI salient as a stakeholder and its claim to sign the six PRI important to institutional investors. We use Mitchell et al.'s (Acad Manag Rev 22:853-886, 1997) theoretical framework of stakeholder salience, as extended by Gifford (J Bus Eth 92:79-97, 2010). We use as evidence confidential data from the annual survey of signatories carried out by the PRI in a 5-year period between 2007 and 2011. The findings highlight pragmatic and organizational legitimacy, normative and utilitarian power, and management values as the attributes that contribute most to the salience of the PRI as a stakeholder. Keywords Stakeholder salience theory Á Principles for responsible investment Á PRI Á UNPRI Á Responsible investment Á Socially responsible investment Á Stakeholder theory JEL Classifications A01 Á G00 Á G1 Á G02

From a simple idea to unite asset owners in their quest for responsible investment (RI) at its launch in April 2006, the United Nations supported Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI) have grown in just one decade into an initiative with more than 1500 fee-paying signatories. Jointly, the PRI's signatories hold assets worth more than $80 trillion, making it one of the more prevalent not-for-profit organizations worldwide. Furthermore, the PRI's ambitious mission to transform the financial system at large into a more sustainable one makes it a worthwhile subject of inquiry from an institutional perspective. We undertake an empirical investigation of the adoption of the PRI by asset owners during five crucial years of the association's emergence: 2007-2011. Following a tripartite view of institutional theory proposed by Scott (Institutions and organizations. Foundations for organizational science, A Sage Publication Series, London, 1995), we explore if regulative, normative, and cultural-cognitive factors influence an asset owner's decision to subscribe to the PRI. Applying both parametric and nonparametric survival analysis, we find that asset owners are indeed significantly affected by normative, cultural-cognitive, and regulative aspects. In particular, (i) public service employee and labor union pension funds (ii) from social backgrounds more culturally aligned with values represented by the RI movement (iii) with historically more voluntary legislation on environmental, social, and governance (ESG) issues are most likely to sign the PRI. In contrast, institutional environments with a higher number of pre-existing mandatory ESG regulation decrease the likelihood of signing the PRI. Our results indicate that normative and cultural-cognitive factors were crucial contributors to the PRI's growth. With respect to the regulative environments, our results imply that some asset owners may use the PRI as a collective industry initiative to substitute for mandatory legislation. Conversely, a high level of historical mandatory legislation may constrain organizational resources that could otherwise be dedicated to voluntary initiatives such as PRI. Our findings are robust to relevant controls and econometric concerns.

Since its inception in 2006, the United Nations backed Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI) have grown to over 1,300 signatories representing over $45 trillion. This growth is not slowing down. In this paper we argue that there is a set of attributes that make the PRI salient as a stakeholder and its claim to sign the six principles for responsible investment important to institutional investors. We use Mitchell et al.'s (1997) theoretical framework of stakeholder salience, as extended by Gifford (2010). We use as evidence confidential data from the annual survey of signatories carried out by the PRI in a five year period between 2007 and 2011. The findings highlight pragmatic and organizational legitimacy, normative and utilitarian power, and management values as the attributes that contribute most to the salience of the PRI as a stakeholder.

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