CSR for Clients’ Social/Environmental Impacts?

Abstract

Financial services institutions’(FSIs’) potential influence over their network of commercial clients can arguably be used to influence global sustainability, not only on a whole‐scale basis but also immediate. This paper investigates FSIs’ understanding of the corporate social responsibility (CSR) concept, and their motivations for CSR reporting. A thematic analysis of interview transcripts with decision‐makers from two banks, one insurance institution, and two expert stakeholders uncovers an espoused understanding of CSR that is broad, but the aspect of indirect impacts is not given sufficient priority despite the potential holistic effect on society and the environment. The findings do not bode well for substantive systemic change considering FSIs’ latent potential for influencing economic, social and environmental issues through the indirect impacts of their core business products and services. This paper serves to challenge thinking about CSR and CSR reporting held by reporters from FSIs. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.

The impact of environmental, social, and governance performance on stock prices: Evidence from the banking industry

“…As we indicated in Section , studies about CSR practices in the banking industry and their implications for financial stakeholders are extremely scarce, unlike the numerous studies on the involvement of CSR activities in other stakeholders such as consumers (Chomvilailuk & Butcher, ; Mandhachitara & Poolthong, ; Matute‐Vallejo, Bravo, & Pina, ; Pérez & Rodríguez del Bosque, ; Pomering & Dolnicar, ; Thien, , among others).…”

Sustainable Development, Stakeholder Engagement and Analyst Forecasts’ Accuracy: Positive Evidence from the Spanish Setting

“…Some authors argue that CSR reporting should be understood under the framework of legitimacy theory, signal theory or within the reputation risk management process (Thorne et al , ) as well as within a cognitive perspective that also includes increased operational efficiency, branding and new market development (Hockerts, ). Especially in the aftermath of the financial crisis, voluntary non‐financial disclosures are also taken into account when making investment decisions (Cohen et al , ; Hu and Scholtens, ), as there is an increasing move to adopt social responsible investment decisions (Jansson and Biel, ; Weber et al , ; Thien, ; Kim, ) and the companies show social proximity (Joensuu et al , ). Wang and Tuttle () find that investors use CSR information to form an overall impression about management's credibility, which in turn has a positive impact on the share price or even on the company's return on equity (García‐Benau et al , ).…”

Same Same but Different: How and Why Banks Approach Sustainability

“…The literature provides several guidelines that outline how banks can pursue sustainable development [11][12][13]. Previous studies have also inquired into the extent of effort that financial service providers have devoted in this regard [14][15][16] or specific practices, such as environmental credit risk management [17,18], sustainable project finance [19], and impact investing [20,21]. However, no research has been conducted on what practices banks implement to realize sustainability.…”

“…Adding to this advantage is the awareness of motives, which is a particularly valuable source of insights because an extensive understanding of the reasons that underlie banks' engagement in sustainable practices equally sheds light on why they disregard certain practices. Considering that the banking sector is lagging behind other industries as regards sustainability outcomes [14], the cognition of motives is crucial to the development of tools that effectively encourage banks to implement substantive strategies and thus contribute to the achievement of the SDGs. This study accordingly explores the ways and means by which organizations advance the SDGs.…”