Impact case or impact washing? An analysis of investors’ strategies to influence corporate behavior

Diener, Joel

doi:10.1108/sampj-02-2022-0088

Cited by 6 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 88 publications

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“…As previously noted, creating a positive influence on such as a firm's employees and business activities is a key motivation for SRI. The need to establish whether the right boxes are ticked prompts Diener (2022) to further explore the respective merits of these strategies.…”

Section: Some Strategic Options For Investorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

How investors can drive corporate sustainability efforts

2023

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Purpose This paper aims to review the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoint practical implications from cutting-edge research and case studies. Design/methodology/approach This briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds their own impartial comments and places the articles in context. Findings Achieving a positive impact has become the goal of socially responsible investment (SRI) today. Although various approaches are available, investors become better positioned to achieve environmental, social and economic aims through an emphasis on shareholder engagement whereby strategies can be deployed to pressure firms into conducting activities in a more ethical manner. Originality/value The briefing saves busy executives, strategists and researchers hours of reading time by selecting only the very best, most pertinent information and presenting it in a condensed and easy-to-digest format.

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Section: Some Strategic Options For Investorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

How investors can drive corporate sustainability efforts

2023

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“…Regarding the second dimension we identify, ESG-related developments , the paper by Diener (2023) outlines key advancements in responsible investing in his paper on “Impact case or impact washing? An analysis of investors’ strategies to influence corporate behavior”.…”

Section: Summary Of the Papers Appearing In The Special Issuementioning

confidence: 99%

“…As shareholders, they can have an active role in supporting business to transition to more sustainable practices and companies are thus likely to experience more pressure to change (Viviers and Steenkamp, 2023). As exposed in one of the papers, there is already a shift in the financial community towards allocating capital to impact on the real economy (Diener, 2023).…”

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confidence: 99%

Guest editorial: Driving impact through responsible investing and finance

Matser,

Fontrodona,

Van Wassenhove

2023

SAMPJ

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BackgroundIn recent times, we have seen significant developments in responsible investing. Firstly, the uptake of environmental, social and governance (ESG) criteria in finance and business in general has seen unprecedented acceleration (Fink, 2021). Once considered a "niche" strategy, ESG adoption is now widespread and mainstream (Edmans, 2022). A total of 4,902 investors managing $121.3tn had signed the Principles for Responsible Investment by the first quarter of 2022.The growth of responsible investing was influenced by the 2030 Agenda and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and, in particular, the Paris Agreement that led to commitments to align financial flows with the goal of limiting global warming to 1.5°C. In the EU context, the European Green Deal (European Commission, 2019) and the EU Sustainable Finance Taxonomy (European Parliament and the Council of the European Union, 2020), building on the previous EU Action Plan on Sustainable Finance (European Commission, 2018), have promoted an ambitious package of measures.Over the past year, the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic further exposed the dire need for investments supporting a resilient economy and society. Public recovery programmes such as the Recovery Plan of Europe (Council of the European Union, 2020a, 2020b) or the American Rescue Plan (Tankersley and Crowley, 2021) have been impressive; however, the scale of the investment challenge calls for the financial sector to step up, take responsibility and reorient investments to incentivize sustainable business practices, low-carbon and circular solutions and societal well-being.At the same time, data collection and corporate reporting transparency challenges remain, and investors still find it difficult to direct funding to companies which represent good investments in the long-termfor both shareholders and society. Areas of concern are, for example, risks of greenwashing, potential exclusion of companies at the early stage of sustainability transitions and the reporting costs for small and medium sized companies. The role of investors and their accountability has also raised social justice and equity concerns (Parsa, 2021), and calls to ensure that sustainability issues are not instrumentalized for pure financial interests, but have real-world positive impact on the safety and well-being of all.Academic evidence in the area of responsible investing is increasing, yet its dissemination and impact on real-world investing practices remains fairly limited. Advancing this agenda requires collaboration of both academics and investors, as well as policymakers. This Special Issue (SI) aims to strengthen the dialogue between practitioners and academics about theoretical and practical challenges on enhancing positive business impact on society through responsible investing through:understanding the state of the art; explaining existing practices and developments in the field; uncovering patterns and risks; and exploring multidisciplinary perspectives.

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Green, green, it’s green they say: a conceptual framework for measuring greenwashing on firm level

Dorfleitner,

Utz

2023

Rev Manag Sci

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This paper proposes a conceptual framework to determine a greenwashing indicator on firm level, based on five pillars of information that capture the key drivers of greenwashing: soft ESG data, textual self-representation, green marketing expenses, green virtue for the apparent green performance, and hard ESG data as a measure of the real green performance. The proposed framework is built on a literature review of greenwashing typology and drivers and can be applied to a broad set of firms at the same time, while most existing approaches are built on a detailed investigation of individual cases. The greenwashing indicator in our framework is based on the difference between real and apparent green performance. This approach allows the implicit calculation of the real green performance using the concept of a firm misconduct factor that helps to identify the greenwashing indicator without knowledge of the real (and often hard to measure) green performance of a firm.

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Impact case or impact washing? An analysis of investors’ strategies to influence corporate behavior

Cited by 6 publications

References 88 publications

How investors can drive corporate sustainability efforts

How investors can drive corporate sustainability efforts

Guest editorial: Driving impact through responsible investing and finance

Green, green, it’s green they say: a conceptual framework for measuring greenwashing on firm level

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