A systematic literature review of socially responsible investment and environmental social governance metrics

Luluk Widyawati

doi:10.1002/bse.2393

A systematic literature review of socially responsible investment and environmental social governance metrics

Luluk Widyawati

Department of Accounting

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

224 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Socially responsible investment (SRI) encompasses both ethical and financial paradigms. This systematic literature review explores three key research themes within the SRI literature, identifying a significant disconnect between themes and a fixation on the financial (as opposed to ethical) paradigm. One of the foundations of SRI is environmental, social, and governance (ESG) metrics. This review confirms the importance of ESG metrics in the SRI field, as they play two crucial roles, namely, as a proxy for sustainability performance and an enabler of the SRI market. However, there are two main issues related to ESG metrics that undermine their reliability: a lack of transparency and a lack of convergence.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	619-637
Number of pages	19
Journal	Business Strategy and the Environment
Volume	29
Issue number	2
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1002/bse.2393
Publication status	Published - 1 Feb 2020

Keywords

ESG
literature review
responsible investment
sustainability
sustainable development

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10.1002/bse.2393

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abstract = "Socially responsible investment (SRI) encompasses both ethical and financial paradigms. This systematic literature review explores three key research themes within the SRI literature, identifying a significant disconnect between themes and a fixation on the financial (as opposed to ethical) paradigm. One of the foundations of SRI is environmental, social, and governance (ESG) metrics. This review confirms the importance of ESG metrics in the SRI field, as they play two crucial roles, namely, as a proxy for sustainability performance and an enabler of the SRI market. However, there are two main issues related to ESG metrics that undermine their reliability: a lack of transparency and a lack of convergence.",

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note = "Funding Information: The earlier version of this review paper has been presented at the 2017 European Business Ethics Network (EBEN) Annual Conference. The author would like to thank the anonymous reviewers of the conference for the valuable feedback. The author would also like to thank Professor Tom Smith and Professor Martina Linnenluecke for their continuous support as advisory team of the author's PhD program. The author receives financial support for the PhD from Indonesia Endowment Fund for Education Scholarship (LPDP RI) under a doctoral degree scholarship. This paper is part of the author's PhD thesis. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2019 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment",

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KW - sustainable development

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A systematic literature review of socially responsible investment and environmental social governance metrics

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Keywords

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