Does Socially Responsible Investing Make a Better Society?-A Micro Perspective through Mutual Funds and Their Investee Companies

作者全名："Wang, Wennanxiang; Hu, Ridong; Zhang, Cheng; Shen, Yang"

作者地址："[Wang, Wennanxiang; Hu, Ridong; Shen, Yang] Huaqiao Univ, Inst Quantitat Econ, Xiamen 361021, Peoples R China; [Zhang, Cheng] Chongqing Med Univ, Sch Int Educ, Chongqing 400016, Peoples R China"

通信作者："Zhang, C (通讯作者)，Chongqing Med Univ, Sch Int Educ, Chongqing 400016, Peoples R China."

来源：SUSTAINABILITY

ESI学科分类：ENVIRONMENT/ECOLOGY

WOS号：WOS:001003630800001

JCR分区：Q2

影响因子：3.3

年份：2023

卷号：15

期号：11

开始页：　

结束页：　

文献类型：Article

关键词：socially responsible investing; mutual funds; corporate social performance; shareholder activism

摘要："Socially responsible investing (SRI) aims to guide corporate behavior through investing and thus to make a better society since its debut. From a micro perspective, this study aims to empirically examine whether the propensity for SRI of mutual funds promotes the corporate social performance (CSP) of investee companies and to determine what are the mechanisms under this promotion effect and under what circumstances this promotion effect gets stronger. After our main analysis confirms the promotion effect in China, our mechanism analysis shows the following: mutual funds with a high propensity for SRI promote investee CSP, because they promote internal control and demand better disclosure of social responsibility information; the promotion effect of mutual funds as shareholders from within a company can substitute for the effects of a good external environment such as a highly marketized region or a competitive industry. Our heterogeneity analysis further shows that the promotion effect is stronger in state-owned enterprises, where corporate executives are more willing to accept suggestions related to social responsibility and in a good social trust atmosphere, which sheds light on shareholder activism in private and informal manners."

基金机构：Natural Science Foundation of Fujian Province [2022J01320]; Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities in Huaqiao University

基金资助正文：This work was financially supported by the Natural Science Foundation of Fujian Province (grant number: 2022J01320) and supported by the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities in Huaqiao University.