Journal of Business Ethics

, Volume 118, Issue 2, pp 349–363 | Cite as

The Influence of Primary Study Characteristics on the Performance Differential Between Socially Responsible and Conventional Investment Funds: A Meta-Analysis

Article
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Abstract

Empirical studies, which analyze the performance of socially responsible investment (SRI) funds relative to conventional funds, find contradictory results. The aim of this paper is to investigate, with the help of a meta-analysis, how selected primary study characteristics influence the probability of a significant under- or outperformance of SRI funds compared with conventional funds. 25 studies with more than 500 observations are included in the meta-analysis. The results of this paper suggest that the consideration of the survivorship bias in a study increases (decreases) the probability of a significant outperformance (underperformance) of SRI funds relative to conventional funds. The focus on United States (US) SRI funds increases (decreases) the probability of a significant outperformance (underperformance) too. The time period influences the probability of a significant under- and outperformance of SRI funds as well, but based on the results of this paper, it is not possible to draw general conclusions on this variable.

Keywords

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) Ethical investment Fund performance Socially responsible investment (SRI) Sustainability 
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Notes

Acknowledgments

I want to thank Hannes Winner for his valuable suggestions throughout the process of conducting this paper and Claudia B. Woehle for her general support and feedback. Furthermore, I appreciate the very helpful comments of the two anonymous reviewers. Several (former) colleagues at the University of Salzburg helped to improve the paper significantly – namely, Harald Oberhofer, Benjamin Furlan, Andreas Pacher, Matthias Stöckl, Philipp Weigl, Klaus Nowotny and Alex Avedikjan. I am deeply grateful to Magdalena Braendle for our fruitful discussions and her suggestions for improvement.

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Copyright information

© Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2012

Authors and Affiliations

  1. 1.Department of Economics and Social SciencesUniversity of SalzburgSalzburgAustria

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