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Sustainable Finance and Capital Market
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Sustainable Finance and Capital Market

A special issue of Journal of Risk and Financial Management (ISSN 1911-8074). This special issue belongs to the section "Sustainability and Finance".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 October 2026 | Viewed by 2555

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Stella Suljić Nikolaj

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Rijeka, 51000 Rijeka, Croatia
Interests: sustainable finance; financial stability; regulation and supervision
Dr. Bojana Olgić Draženović

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Rijeka, 51000 Rijeka, Croatia
Interests: financial management; economics; business

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

We are witnessing numerous environmental problems that face the modern world, and climate change is one of the greatest challenges. Due to the negative effects on the environment and society, as well as the systemic risks to the financial system, awareness of environmental protection and sustainable economic development in line with ESG criteria has become a global goal. The syntagma of sustainable development was formulated in 1968 by the economist Barbara Ward, and the need for its implementation was highlighted at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992. This indicates the long-term actuality of the mentioned topic and the interest of scientists, governments, regulatory authorities, financial systems, investors, companies, and the general public. The financial markets have adapted to the sustainable development paradigm by issuing sustainable financial instruments since 2007, of which green bonds are the most common. Investment processes as financial instruments are aligned with ESG criteria, which are crucial for the realization of successful financial projects and the analysis of corporate performance.

This Special Issue aims to highlight the challenges facing financial markets in a dynamic contemporary environment. It emphasizes the importance and necessity of applying sustainable development, circular economy, socially responsible business, and ESG investing.

Dr. Stella Suljić Nikolaj
Dr. Bojana Olgić Draženović
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Journal of Risk and Financial Management is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • ESG
  • sustainable financial instruments
  • regulation
  • social responsibility

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

35 pages, 2173 KB  
Article
UTAUT Antecedents Shaping Institutional Investors’ Intentions to Utilize ESG Information
by Jae Young Jang and So Ra Park
J. Risk Financial Manag. 2026, 19(4), 286; https://doi.org/10.3390/jrfm19040286 - 15 Apr 2026
Viewed by 808
Abstract
This study examines how institutional investors adopt and utilize Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) information by integrating the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT). Using the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) with expert-based pairwise comparisons from 20 senior investment professionals at [...] Read more.
This study examines how institutional investors adopt and utilize Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) information by integrating the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT). Using the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) with expert-based pairwise comparisons from 20 senior investment professionals at major South Korean financial institutions, we identify and weight key determinants influencing ESG information use among South Korean institutional investors. The results show that performance expectancy emerged as the most influential determinant (33.7%), followed by facilitating conditions (24.6%), social influence (22.8%), and effort expectancy (18.9%). At the sub-criterion level, usefulness for investment decision-making (11.2%), institutional encouragement (10.2%), and utilization of ESG information as a fiduciary duty (9.4%) recorded the highest global weights, whereas psychological comfort in utilizing ESG information (2.0%) and practical guidelines and training programs (3.7%) exhibited the lowest. These findings suggest that ESG adoption has evolved beyond early legitimacy-seeking behavior toward substantive and performance-driven integration, consistent with UTAUT predictions that performance expectancy and facilitating conditions gain salience in mature adoption phases, while effort expectancy and social influence diminish. This weight distribution indicates that ESG has been internalized as core analytical infrastructure informing investment decision-making and risk management, rather than functioning as a peripheral compliance tool. By empirically mapping ESG adoption determinants into a hierarchical structure, this study contributes to the literature on ESG diffusion, institutional investor behavior, and adoption theory, offering practical implications for regulators and financial institutions seeking to deepen substantive ESG integration. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Finance and Capital Market)
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14 pages, 1152 KB  
Article
Financial Swing for Well-Being: Jazz Economy and Modelling the Social Return of Sustainable Capital Markets
by Sonja Brlečić Valčić, Anita Peša and Dijana Čičin-Šain
J. Risk Financial Manag. 2025, 18(10), 568; https://doi.org/10.3390/jrfm18100568 - 7 Oct 2025
Viewed by 910
Abstract
This paper examines how shifts in sustainable capital markets influence societal well-being through the lens of a “Jazz Economy”, highlighting improvisation and adaptability in financial systems while grounding the analysis in empirical modelling. A panel of EUROSTAT indicators for 27 EU member states [...] Read more.
This paper examines how shifts in sustainable capital markets influence societal well-being through the lens of a “Jazz Economy”, highlighting improvisation and adaptability in financial systems while grounding the analysis in empirical modelling. A panel of EUROSTAT indicators for 27 EU member states (2019–2022) was analyzed, including green bond issuance, market capitalization, environmental taxation, social spending, life expectancy, and subjective life satisfaction. Hierarchical clustering grouped these indicators into coherent patterns of “financial swings”, which were then linked to a composite quality-of-life index through an Adaptive Neuro-Fuzzy Inference System (ANFIS), with results benchmarked against linear regression and random forests. The inclusion of time lags between fiscal, financial, and social indicators strengthens the causal interpretation of the results, moving beyond simple correlations. Findings show that higher public environmental protection spending combined with a strong net international investment position consistently predicts greater life satisfaction, whereas income and longevity alone do not guarantee improvements in subjective well-being, reflecting nonlinear interactions among fiscal, financial, and social variables. Robustness checks, including the exclusion of pandemic years, confirm the stability of outcomes. The study concludes that cohesive fiscal–financial strategies, integrating environmental policy and macro-financial resilience, are essential for enhancing quality of life and that sustainable finance can deliver tangible social benefits beyond metaphorical framing. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Finance and Capital Market)
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