Doing Well by Doing Good: A Comparative Analysis of ESG Standards for Responsible Investment
Sustainability, Stakeholder Governance, and Corporate Social Responsibility
ISBN: 978-1-78756-316-2, eISBN: 978-1-78756-315-5
Publication date: 10 August 2018
Abstract
Over the last several decades, the question of the import of firms’ social and environmental responsibilities has taken center stage. While once companies’ obligations to stakeholders and to sustainability were framed as normative issues, these criteria are taking on instrumental worth. Most recently, advocates of Responsible Investment have suggested that firms’ environmental, social, and governance (ESG) performance possesses critical implications for companies’ creation and capture of long-term economic value. Employing textual analysis, this chapter analyzes the accounting, rating, and reporting standards that have been developed by which companies are expected to measure, communicate, and be evaluated for their ESG performance. Drawing from literature on organizational imprinting, this chapter finds significant differences across these standards, in terms of the determination of materiality and firms’ desired stakeholder relations. The divergence present in the meaning and measure of Responsible Investment across these standards possesses important strategic implications for managers in this field who must consider the implications of each guideline for internal and external purposes.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
Acknowledgments
I am grateful to the anonymous reviewers of this chapter and for the thoughtful guidance of the editors of this issue: Sinziana Dorobantu, Ruth Aguilera, Jiao Luo and Frances Milliken.
Citation
Barman, E. (2018), "Doing Well by Doing Good: A Comparative Analysis of ESG Standards for Responsible Investment", Sustainability, Stakeholder Governance, and Corporate Social Responsibility (Advances in Strategic Management, Vol. 38), Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 289-311. https://doi.org/10.1108/S0742-332220180000038016
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2018 Emerald Publishing Limited