http://hdl.handle.net/10500/5694 Sun, 19 May 2013 16:41:16 GMT 2013-05-19T16:41:16Z http://hdl.handle.net/10500/4380 UN principles for responsible investment signatories and the anti-apartheid SRI movement : a thought experiment Eccles, N.S. There appears to be a growing disquiet amongst academics surrounding the ascendancy of ‘responsible’ investment that is egoist or self interested in character – “business case” responsible investment. This ascendancy has in no small measure been associated with the uptake of United Nations Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI) as a de facto standard for mainstream responsible investment. This paper contributes to this disquiet. It does this by examining how egoist ‘responsible’ investors (as endorsed by the PRI) might have behaved had they been around in the 1970’s, 1980’s and early 1990’s during days of the anti-apartheid socially responsible investment (SRI) movement. Armed with near perfect (hindsight grade) enhanced analytics, it is clear that the signals that such egoist ‘responsible’ investors would have sent to company management in terms of the apartheid issue would have been highly muddled and therefore ineffective. The net conclusion is that there is nothing inherently or inevitably ‘responsible’ about egoist investment and that the aversion to behaving ethically amongst institutional investors must be challenged and not swept under a carpet of rhetoric. Fri, 01 Jan 2010 00:00:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/10500/4380 2010-01-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/10500/4379 The origins and meanings of names describing investment practices that integrate a consideration of ESG issue in the academic literature Eccles, N.S.; Viviers, S. The aim of this paper was to reflect on the origins and meanings of names describing investment practices that integrate a consideration of environmental, social and corporate governance issues in the academic literature. A review of 190 academic papers spanning the period 1975 to mid-2009 was conducted. This exploratory study evaluated the associations and disassociations of the primary name assigned to this genre of investment with variables grouped into five domains, namely Primary Ethical Position, Investment Strategy, Publication Date, Regions Covered and Periodical Type. The study indicated that papers coded as expressing a deontological ethical position were more frequently associated with the name Ethical Investment, whereas those with an ambiguous ethical position were less frequently associated with Ethical Investment. Three investment strategies (positive screening; best-in-class; and cause-based investing) were unusually associated with the primary name Responsible Investment. A strong preference for the name Ethical Investment was noted in the United Kingdom, and contrasted starkly with an apparent aversion for this name in the United States. The name Ethical Investment is significantly more frequently used in journals dealing with ethics, business ethics and philosophy than in finance, economic and investment journals. Finally, the study yielded some weak hints that the name Responsible Investment might perhaps be linked to an egoist ethical position. On the basis of this, and because these have already been substantively linked through the Principles for Responsible Investment in the popular discourse, we follow the heuristic tradition set by Sparkes (2001), and propose that Responsible Investment be defined as ‘Investment practices that integrate a consideration of ESG issues with the primary purpose of delivering higher-risk-adjusted financial returns’. Sat, 01 Jan 2011 00:00:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/10500/4379 2011-01-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/10500/3956 Correlates of corporate accountability among South Africa's largest listed companies Eccles, N.S.; Pillay, V.; De Jongh, D. This paper explores the relationships between a publicly available measure of corporate accountability (the Accountability Rating™) and a range of other corporate variables for the largest 50 companies in South Africa. The rationale for this was to consider empirical evidence for a number of the major theoretical movements in the realm of corporate responsibility. The relationship between accountability and company financial performance was assessed for evidence to support either the stakeholder or slack resources theories. The relationships between accountability and company size and proxy institutional field variables were examined as evidence that institutional fields may represent strong drivers for corporate accountability. Finally, the relationships between accountability and executive remuneration variables were examined for evidence of agency issues. No significant relationships between accountability and financial performance variables were detected, suggesting that neither the stakeholder theory nor the slack resources theory was likely to be a crucial driver of accountability in this sample. Statistically significant relationships between accountability, on the one hand, and company size and the institutional proxies of industry sectors and multiple securities exchange listings, on the other, suggested the centrality of a company's institutional field in motivating socially responsible corporate behaviour. Findings in terms of executive remuneration were ambiguous and justify further investigation. Journal article Thu, 01 Jan 2009 00:00:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/10500/3956 2009-01-01T00:00:00Z