This paper studies the performance of 60 European funds from four countries. The paper extends the UK matched pair approach for fund evaluation developed by Mallin et al. (1995) to a European setting. The findings suggest that there is no difference between ethical and non-ethical funds according to the performance measures employed. Neither type of fund displayed any ability to time the market. Finally, the results indicate that the management fee is a significant explanatory variable for the Jensen measure as Chen et al. (1992) and Grinblatt and Titman (1994) suggested. Copyright Blackwell Publishers Ltd, 2005.

AcknowledgementsWe gratefully acknowledge ACCA funding for this project and the helpful comments from participants at the EAA 2005 Conference in Gothenburg, the IPA 2006 conference in Cardiff and the BAA 2006 Conference in Portsmouth and from two anonymous reviewers. We also wish to thank the charity representatives who completed our questionnaire and who agreed to be interviewed. Putting Our Money Where Their Mouth Is: Alignment of Charitable Aims with Charity Investments -Tensions in Policy and Practice AbstractGiven the values-driven nature of the mission of most charities, it might be expected that investment behaviour would be similarly values-driven. This paper documents the ethical investment policies and practices of the largest UK charities and explores how these are aligned with the charitable aims, drawing upon accountability, behavioural and managerial perspectives as theoretical lenses. The study employs two distinct research methods: responses to a postal questionnaire and follow-up semi-structured interviews with selected charities. The evidence indicates that a significant minority of large charities do not have a written ethical investment policy. Charities with larger investments, fundraising charities and religious charities were more likely to have a written ethical policy. We suggest that there is a pressing need for improved alignment between charities' aims and their investment practices and better monitoring of investment policies.

While the literature contains a number of studies of ethical investment funds, relatively little is known about church investment processes and practices despite the significant role they have played in the development of the sector. This paper attempts to address this lacuna by studying the ethical investment programmes of two UK churches: the Methodist Church and the Church of England. The paper initially explores the relationship between the Judaeo-Christian church and the development of the ethical investment movement. This history reveals an engagement both at the institutional and individual level that challenges the assumed sacred secular divide now commonplace within the literature and the more recent guardian-advocate dichotomy. Second, the paper delineates the way in which the churches theologically conceptualise this engagement and describes how these values are proceduralised through the operation of the funds. The final section provides an immanent critique of church investments both at a performative and theological level. The aim of this concluding section is to engage with the churches in exploring the broader potential for the church in effecting social change.

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Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore how the Norwegian Government incorporated its responsibility for human rights into the investment practices of its Global Pension Fund and how human rights issues were negotiated when exclusion was considered. Design/methodology/approach Drawing on a series of interviews the authors analyse the way in which responsibility for human rights has been translated into the practices of the Norwegian Government Pension Fund Global. Findings The paper documents how a large investment fund used several mechanisms to address human rights risks. The authors demonstrate that different logics among actors sometimes impeded addressing human rights issues. The findings demonstrate that sovereign wealth funds (SWF) can be held accountable for human rights. Research limitations/implications The paper illustrates the difficulty of co-operation between actors with different logics. This can result in institutional conflict, but also in positive outcomes for human rights. Practical implications Attempts to introduce human rights into state investments may result in increased institutional complexity. The findings indicate that state investors can address human rights issues, but that the ability to do so is diminished where divestment creates political tension. Social implications Large investors can influence companies on specific human rights issues. Originality/value This is one of the first empirical investigations of the human rights practices of a SWF. The authors contribute to the literatures on accounting and human rights, SWF and institutional theory.

Purpose – Banks and corporate customers have realized that bank-corporate relationship is important but little is known about why and how banks establish and exploit relationships. No comprehensive theory has explained relationship banking and in order to get a better understanding the purpose of this paper is to investigate why and how banks and companies communicate in order to create value. Design/methodology/approach – This study adopts a qualitative methodology and a grounded theory approach was adopted. In total, 34 in-depth interviews were conducted with banks and 15 with corporate managers. Grounded theory models are developed based on interview data. Findings – It was found that the nature of bank-corporate relationship is long term. The relationship is based on trust-based personal communications between banks and corporate customers. Macro conditions including the advances in technology, financial regulation and business globalization were considered when the case banks adopted relationship banking. Some intervening conditions including customer information and knowledge, customer needs and customer confidence also influence the development of relationship banking. The interviewees perceived that the case banks gained benefits including better customer retention economy, risk management efficiency and greater effectiveness in maintaining sustainable profitability. The corporate customers gained benefits including fund availability, product availability, service quality, help in-time and business platform. Originality/value – This study derives concepts and categories from primary data and identifies relationships among these theoretical elements. This investigation provides a comprehensive picture of relationship banking and supplies some theoretical and practical implications. Moreover, a value creation and allocation theory of the bank is developed.

Access to this document was granted through an Emerald subscription provided by emeraldsrm:198285 [] For AuthorsIf you would like to write for this, or any other Emerald publication, then please use our Emerald for Authors service information about how to choose which publication to write for and submission guidelines are available for all. Please visit www.emeraldinsight.com/authors for more information. About Emerald www.emeraldinsight.comEmerald is a global publisher linking research and practice to the benefit of society. The company manages a portfolio of more than 290 journals and over 2,350 books and book series volumes, as well as providing an extensive range of online products and additional customer resources and services.Emerald is both COUNTER 4 and TRANSFER compliant. The organization is a partner of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and also works with Portico and the LOCKSS initiative for digital archive preservation. AbstractPurpose -The purpose of this paper is to explore whether, how and why ethical investment practices of charities differ between two countries with quite different ideological and institutional frameworks -Norway and the UK. Design/methodology/approach -The paper uses mixed methods and a cross-sectional field study design to explore the ethical investment practices of 300 of the largest charities by investments in the UK and Norway. Practices are theorized using the dual lens of institutional theory and social origins theory. Findings -The paper provides evidence on why charities established the practice of ethical investment. The results show that large charities were more likely to have an ethical policy; that charities with moderate public sector funding were more likely to have an ethical policy. In line with institutional theory some Norwegian charities with public sector funding mimic the policy of the Government Pension Fund, and the ethical investment policy of Norwegian charities was more influenced by donors. Institutional entrepreneurs (charity founders) had a more prominent influence in UK charities.Research limitations/implications -The paper highlights that more research is needed on sovereign wealth funds, their investment practices and how they affect charities. Practical implications -The findings of this paper highlight the potential role that the ethical investment practices of sovereign can play a soft regulatory function in changing the behaviour of other investors. Social implications -To the extent that ethical investment practices are construed as having a positive social impact, then this study shows how a government sovereign wealth fund can influence the spread of ethical investment practices. Originality/value -This paper, which sits at the nexus of the charity and corporate social responsibility (CSR) literatures, contributes by responding to calls for more research on charity practices in different countries and CSR practices in different countries. This comparison also contributes to the development of institutional theory by shedding ...