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Catalyzing Sustainable Investment: Revealing ESG Power in Predicting Fund Performance with Machine Learning. “Our findings substantiate the positive correlation between ESG ratings and fund performance. In fact, our investigation identifies ESG score as one of the dominant variables, ranking among the top five with the highest predictive capacity for mutual fund performance.” By Alexandre Momparler, Pedro Carmona and Francisco Climent. May 2024, Computational Economics.

More female, better corporate performance? Evidence from Chinese listed companies. “Our findings reveal that a higher number female executive board is associated with a decline in internal corporate performance. Conversely, an increase in the proportion of female executives generally correlates with an improvement in external corporate performance. Moreover, our analysis indicates no significant impact of gender diversity on financial performance.” By Zhen Zhang, School of Finance and Business, Shanghai Normal University, China; Yifan Wu, School of Economics and Management, East China Normal University, Shanghai, China; and Dongwei He, School of Finance and Business, Shanghai Normal University, Shanghai, China. 30 March 2024.

The Pandora’s box of corporate social irresponsibility: An exploratory study within a failed State context. “This paper contributes to our understanding on factors associated with corporate social irresponsibility (CSIR).” By Claudel Mombeuil (Beijing Institute of Technology, School of Management and Economics, China);  Anestis K. Fotiadis, (Zayed University, College of Communication and Media Science, United Arab Emirates); and Zhaohua Wang (Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing, China).

Competitive Pressure and ESG. “A firm’s exposure to competition is negatively associated with its ESG performance. We measure domestic competitive pressure by product market fluidity, based on product text descriptions, and find that higher fluidity – indicating higher product market threats – is associated with lower ESG scores. Fluidity matters more for financially constrained firms, capital-intensive industries, and costly activities, as well as firms with shorter-term shareholders. Increasing exposure to Chinese import competition is associated with a reduction in ESG scores. This effect of import competition is stronger for firms less exposed to domestic competition. Local climate attitudes moderate the effect of competitive pressure.” By Vesa Pursiainen, University of St. Gallen and Swiss Finance Institute; Hanwen Sun, University of Bath, School of Management; Yue Xiang, University of Bath, School of Management. September 23, 2023, Swiss Finance Institute Research Paper No. 23-69, Switzerland.

Research: Firms with Diverse Boards Achieve Higher ESG Ratings. “An analysis of 15 years of data from the S&P 1500 uncovers a crucial link: firms with diverse leadership consistently achieve higher environmental ratings from MSCI, a leading ESG data provider. This correlation suggests that the experiences and perspectives brought by diverse board members drive stronger ESG priorities, making a compelling case for stakeholders to emphasize Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) for a sustainable corporate future.”  By Ethan Moon, October 27, 2023, Harvard Business Review, USA.

Implementation of Share Buybacks and Their Impact on Corporate Governance. “While companies put forth various reasons for pursuing share buybacks, it is the argument that frames them as an attractive alternative to dividends for returning capital to shareholders that generates the most contention.” By Michael Seigne (Candor Partners Limited), and Joerg R. Osterrieder (University of Twente), October 27, 2023, Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance, USA.

The Weight of America’s Boards (2023), by JamesDruryPartners, August 16, 2023.

Do Managers Do Good with Other People’s Money? “There is mixed evidence on whether the marginal dollar spent on corporate social responsibility is due to agency problems.” By Ing-Haw Cheng, University of Toronto; Harrison Hong, Columbia University and NBER; and Kelly Shue, Yale University and NBER. The Review of Corporate Finance Studies, Volume 12, Issue 3, August 2023, Pages 443–487, https://doi.org/10.1093/rcfs/cfad008

Penn State Research Shows Results Mixed on Whether Corporate Social Efforts Help Improve Company Finances, by Penn State School of Hospitality Management, February 16, 2023, hospitality.net, USA.

The Evolution of ESG Reports and the Role of Voluntary Standards, Ethan Rouen (Harvard Business School), Kunal Sachdeva (Rice University), Aaron Yoon (Northwestern University), September 23, 2022, USA.

Do the Age and Gender of Chairperson Affect Firms’ Environmental Protection Investment? By Libin Han, Dongbei University of Finance and Economics, China, and Chong Peng, Nanjing Audit University, China, November 2022.

Female directors improve corporate social responsibility, University of Sydney, September 8, 2022, Australia.

Does Integrated Reporting Affect Real Activities Manipulation? By Yuji Shirabe, Toyo University, Japan, and Makoto Nakano, Hitotsubashi University, Tokyo, Japan. Sustainability, September, 2022.

Audit process, private information, and insider trading, by Salman Arif, John D. Kepler, Joseph Schroeder & Daniel Taylor, July 2022, Review of Accounting Studies, USA. “Collectively, our findings provide novel evidence that insiders appear to exploit private information about the audit process––a process ostensibly designed to protect shareholders––for opportunistic gain.”

Firm Energy and Carbon Performance: Does Sustainable Investment Matter? By Muhammad Atif, Macquarie University; Samsul Alam; and Md.Shahidul Islam. Posted: 1 Jan 2022.

Married CEOs and corporate social responsibility, by Shantaram P. Hegdea (University of Connecticut), and Dev R. Mishra (University of Saskatchewan), Journal of Corporate Finance, October 2019, USA.

Toward an Understanding of Corporate Social Responsibility: Theory and Field Experimental Evidence, by Daniel Hedblom (University of Chicago), Brent Hickman (Washington University in St. Louis), and John A. List (University of Chicago), NBER Working Paper No. w26222, September 2019, USA.

Do Institutional Investors Drive Corporate Social Responsibility? International Evidence. By I. J. Alexander Dyck (University of Toronto), Karl V. Lins (University of Utah), Lukas Roth (University of Alberta), and Hannes F. Wagner Bocconi (Bocconi University), Journal of Financial Economics, January 2018, USA.

Higher Highs and Lower Lows: The Role of Corporate Social Responsibility in CEO Dismissal, by Tim Hubbard (Notre Dame′s Mendoza College of Business), Dane Christensen(University of Oregon), and Scott Graffin (University of Georgia). Strategic Management Journal, November 2017, USA.

Corporate Governance & Rise of Integrating Corporate Social Responsibility Criteria in Executive Compensation, by Dylan Minor (Northwestern University), Bryan Hong (University of Western Ontario), and Caroline Flammer (Boston University), October 2017.

Corporate Disclosure of Human Capital Metrics, by Aaron Bernstein and Larry Beeferman, Harvard Law School, October 2017, USA.

Peer Effects of Corporate Social Responsibility, by Jie Cao, Chinese University of Hong Kong; Hao Liang, Singapore Management University; Lee Kong, Chian School of Business; and Xintong Zhan, Erasmus University Rotterdam. 28th Australasian Finance and Banking Conference Paper, July 5, 2017.

How Media Coverage of Corporate Social Irresponsibility Increases Financial Risk, by Julian F. Kölbel (ETH Zurich/MIT), Timo Busch (University of Hamburg), and Leonhardt M. Jancso (ETH Zurich), Strategic Management Journal, March 23, 2017, USA.

The Evolution of Corporate Social Responsibility Assurance – A Longitudinal South African Study, by Barry Ackers, Social and Environmental Accountability Journal, February 25, 2017, UK.

Do Institutional Investors Drive Corporate Social Responsibility? International Evidence, by I. J. Alexander Dyck, University of Toronto; Karl V. Lins, University of Utah; Lukas Roth, University of Alberta; and Hannes F. Wagner Bocconi University. December 20, 2016, Rotman School of Management, Canada.

Washing Away Your Sins? Corporate Social Responsibility, Corporate Social Irresponsibility, and Firm Performance, by Charles Kang, Tulane University; Frank Germann, University of Notre Dame; and Rajdeep Grewal, University of North Carolina. Marketing, March 2016, USA.

The Materiality of Human Capital to Corporate Financial Performance, by Aaron Bernstein and Larry Beeferman, Pensions and Capital Stewardship Project, April 2015, Harvard Law School, USA.

Good Neighbors but Bad Employers: Two Faces of Corporate Social Responsibility Programs, by Heung-Jun Jung and Dong-One Kim, March 2015, Korea University Business School, Korea.

Corporate Sustainability: First Evidence on Materiality, by Mozaffar Khan, George Serafeim, and Aaron Yoon, March 2015, all at Harvard Business School, USA.

State of Corporate Citizenship Finds Executive Support for Corporate Citizenship, December 2014, Carroll School of Management Center for Corporate Citizenship at Boston College, USA.

Speaking of Corporate Social Responsibility, by Hao Liang, Tilburg University; Christopher Marquis, Harvard University; Luc Renneboog, Tilburg University; and Sunny Li Sun, University of Missouri. March 2014, USA/Belgium.

The Intentions with Which the Road is Paved: Attitudes to Liberalism as Determinants of Greenwashing, by Thomas J Roulet, University of Oxford – Novak Druce Centre, and Samuel Touboul HEC Paris (ParisTech), School of Management, IPAG Business School. February 2014. UK/France.

Corporate Social Responsibility and Firm Risk: Theory and Empirical Evidence, by Rui Albuquerque and Yrjo Koskinen of Boston University, and Art Durnev, University of Iowa, June 2013, USA.

Does Product Market Competition Foster Corporate Social Responsibility? By Caroline Flammer, August 2012, MIT Sloan School of Management, USA.

Corporate Social Responsibility and Asset Pricing in Industry Equilibrium, by Rui Albuquerque and Yrjo Koskinen of Boston University, and Art Durnev, University of Iowa, June 2012, USA.

Many companies fall short of social responsibility promises. Study authors are Alwyn Lim and Kiyoteru Tsutsui, University of Michigan. Reporting by Jared Wadley, February 8, 2012, University of Michigan News Service, USA.

Do Markets Value Corporate Social Responsibility in the United Kingdom? By Graham Buckingham, Alan Gregory, and Julie M. Whittaker, December 2011, University of Exeter, UK.

The Impact of a Corporate Culture of Sustainability on Corporate Behavior and Performance, by Robert Eccles and George Serafeim of the Harvard Business School and Ioannis Ioannou, London Business School, November 4, 2011. USA/UK.

Does Corporate Social Responsibility Affect the Cost of Capital? (2011 Moskowitz Prize winner.) By Sadok El Ghoul, Omrane Guedhami, Chuck C. Y. Kwok, and Dev R. Mishra, Journal of Banking & Finance, September 2011, USA.

Corporate Social Responsibility for Irresponsibility, by Matthew J. Kotchen and Jon Jungbien Moon, National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), July 2011, USA.

Environmental Externalities and Cost of Capital, by
Sudheer Chava, Georgia Institute of Technology – College of Management, June 2011, USA.

Do Corporations Invest Enough in Environmental Responsibility? By Yongtae Kim and Meir Statman, Journal of Business Ethics, June 2011, USA.

Hard to tell whether CSR has a positive effect on profitability or not, by Cristiana Manescu,  University of Gothenburg, December 6, 2010, Sweden.

French Corporate Social Responsibility: Which Dimension Pays More? by Abraham Lioui, Professor of Finance, EDHEC Business School and Member, EDHEC-Risk Institute, and Laetitia Drusch, Assistant, Mazars, June 2010, France.

The Economics and Politics of Corporate Social Performance, by David P. Baron, Stanford Graduate School of Business; Maretno A. Harjoto, Pepperdine University – Graziadio School of Business and Management; and Hoje Jo, Santa Clara University. April 9, 2009, USA. This study won the prestigious 2009 Moskowitz Prize for Socially Responsible Investing.

IBM, Tesco and Dell Receive Top Scores in First-Ever Ranking of Consumer & Tech Companies on Climate Change Strategies, December 11, 2008, Ceres, USA.

A European Survey on Corporate Social Responsibility, by Jan Stentoft Arlbjørn, Professor, PhD; Bent Warming-Rasmussen, Associate Professor, PhD; Dennis van Liempd, PhD student; and Ole Stegmann Mikkelsen, external lecturer—University of Southern Denmark, December 8, 2008, Denmark.

How Firms Respond to Being Rated, by Aaron K. Chatterji, Fuqua School of Business, Duke University and Michael W. Toffel, Harvard Business School, August 28, 2008, USA.

Corporate Social Responsibility through an Economic Lens, Harvard University, Kennedy School of Government, Faculty Research Working Paper Series, April 2008, USA.

Corporate social responsibility increases company value, February 11, 2008, Innovations Report. Download all or part of this Ph.D thesis by Lammertjan Dam, “Corporate social responsibility and financial markets,” University of Groningen, Netherlands.

US firms fall behind Europe in ethical standards, says Eiris, by Sean O’Grady, September 15, 2007, The Independent, UK.

How Well do Social Ratings Actually Measure Corporate Social Responsibility? By Aaron K. Chatterji, Fuqua School of Business, Duke University; David I. Levine, Haas School of Business, University of California at Berkeley; Michael W. Toffel, Harvard Business School, June 7, 2007, USA.

Social Responsibility, International Standards Association, May 2007.

Study slams ‘trivial′ corporate social responsibility reports, by Rob Edwards, Environment Editor, June 25, 2006, Sunday Herald (Scotland).

ASQ Poll Shows U.S. Companies Lag, but Executives See the Advantage of Using Corporate Social Responsibility, March 08, 2006,

Moskowitz Prize Study Links Strong Corporate Social Performance with Financial Results, by William Baue, CSRWire, October 26, 2004, USA.