Is Socially Responsible Investment Outperforming Conventional Investment or Not? A Meta—Analysis

Abstract

This meta-analysis provides an overview of the current literature on Socially Responsible Investment (SRI). It presents the underlying motivation, history and current best practices. The in-depth analysis examines a large body of research and addresses two key issues. The first objective was to determine the relative performance of SRI vehicles compared to their conventional benchmarks. The analysis revealed a lack of consensus in previous research. Some studies argue that SRI funds perform as well as, and/or worse than conventional benchmarks, while others challenge these findings. The second objective was to analyse the impact of corporate social responsibility on the company’s financial performance. Here, the analysis covered almost four decades, from the 1980s to 2020. It examined more than 100 academic studies, with an overall sampling period that ran from 1960 to 2019. The results provide a solid platform for future work. The study provides researchers with a well-documented, structured overview of the existing literature on SRI, and identifies gaps that could be filled by future studies.