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PrintThe Promise of Socially Responsible Investing
The Promise of Socially Responsible Investing was a conference in November 2008, focusing on bringing together leading academics, policy makers and practitioners from around the world to debate and lay out a vision for generating new and practically applicable knowledge regarding the business case for a broader societal value of Socially Responsible Investment (SRI).
The conference took place on November 14 and 15 of 2008 at Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey.
The conference was jointly hosted by the Bendheim Center for Finance at Princeton University and the then Danish Ministry for Economics and Business Affairs (now the Ministry of Business and Growth).
The mission was to initiate a research agenda that would improve the methodological basis for including ESG factors into the investment analysis and decision making of both institutional investors and companies in general.
Video summary of the conference
About Socially Responsible Investing
Socially Responsible Investing (SRI) is becoming an increasingly important part of the investment and corporate landscape.
SRI aims to maximize returns on investment by integrating social, environmental and ethical considerations into the strategic investment models of investors. SRI is a central part of the widespread debate on “Corporate Social Responsibility” (CSR) and, in particular, on whether there is a business case for CSR in terms of a positive relationship between corporate responsibility and firm economic performance.
Motivated by a variety of factors including concerns regarding climate change and sustainability, SRI is becoming an increasingly important part of the investment and corporate landscape. Nonetheless, there is little consensus as to the value of SRI. Can SRI lead firms to change their corporate behavior? Will SRI (e.g. through active ownership by institutional investors) lead to higher returns on investment?
By bringing together a small diverse group of 25-30 participants with different perspectives on these issues, the goal of this conference was to establish a flow of ideas across different disciplines. We wanted to bring together not only practitioners in this field but also those who might bring a fresh perspective to old issues.
Background for the conference
The roundtable conference was initiated by Professor Harrison Hong from Princeton University. He participated as keynote speaker at a conference on SRI arranged by CenSa – Danish Government Centre for Corporate Social Responsibility, of the Danish Commerce and Companies Agency in May 2007. A few months after the conference in Copenhagen Professor Hong contacted CenSa with the proposal of co-sponsoring a roundtable conference on SRI at Princeton University. The idea was that a combination of the professor’s contact with the leading academic world and CenSa’s connections to the political and corporate world would be an excellent partnership for organising a conference with a special focus on bringing together academics and practitioners.
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