Amel-Zadeh and Serafeim (2018)

Amel-Zadeh, Amir, and George Serafeim. “Why and How Investors Use ESG Information: Evidence from a Global Survey.” Financial Analysts Journal, Fall 2018.

From the abstract: “Using survey data from a sample of senior investment professionals from mainstream (i.e. not SRI funds) investment organizations we provide insights into why and how investors use reported environmental, social and governance (ESG) information. Relevance to investment performance is the most frequent motivation for use of ESG data followed by client demand and product strategy, bringing change in companies, and then ethical considerations. Important impediments to the use of ESG information are the lack of reporting standards and as a result lack of comparability, reliability, quantifiability and timeliness.”

 Link: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2925310