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Investing in sustainability: Delusions and potential benefits of socially responsible investing

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Abstract

Socially Responsible Investment (SRI) aims at offering investments in companies that take care of their impact on society at large. It should result, if the financial flows become sufficiently large, in a change of behaviour of companies, when those companies want to attract investors concerned by SRI.

This paper tries to sum up the matters covered by the impact of socially responsible investments on the financial flows, and their possible impact on companies. It also explores the potential and shortcomings of this approach as it is practiced today, and suggests that an emphasis on the social responsibility of professional investors is a very important element in this respect, since they can play a considerable role in bringing about the expected changes in behaviour of companies. This means those investors should not so much concentrate on the selection of stocks, but on the reporting they get from companies, and the positive influence they can have on their objectives and strategies by appropriate votes at annual general meetings of shareholders, in order to be themselves “socially responsible investors”.

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  1. Solvay Business School, Université Libre de Bruxelles. Faculté des Sciences Sociales, Politiques et Economiques, CP145/1, Avenue F.D. Roosevelt 21, 1050, Bruxelles, Belgium

    Eric De Keuleneer

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  1. Eric De Keuleneer
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Correspondence to Eric De Keuleneer.

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Keuleneer, E.D. Investing in sustainability: Delusions and potential benefits of socially responsible investing. Int Rev on Public Marketing 3, 29–48 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02893283

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