Harjoto, Jo, and Kim (2015)

Harjoto, Maretno, Hoje Jo, and Yongtae Kim. “Is institutional ownership related to corporate social responsibility? The non-linear relation and its implication for stock return volatility.” Working paper (Pepperdine University and Santa Clara University), May 2015.

From the authors' abstract:  "This study examines the relation between corporate social responsibility (CSR) and institutional investor ownership, and the impact of this relation on stock return volatility. We find that institutional ownership does not strictly increase or decrease in CSR; rather, institutional ownership is a concave function of CSR. This evidence suggests that institutional investors do not see CSR as strictly value enhancing activities. Institutional investors adjust their percentage of ownership when CSR activities go beyond the perceived optimal level."

Link:  https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2664439