Special Issue "Sustainable and Responsible Investing"

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Economic and Business Aspects of Sustainability".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 15 January 2022.

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Leonardo Becchetti
E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Economics and Finance Faculty of Economics; Tor Vergata University of Rome, Roma, Italy
Interests: corporate social responsibility; ethical and sustainable finance; microfinance; behavioral economics; wellbeing
Special Issues and Collections in MDPI journals
Prof. Dr. Rocco Ciciretti
E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Economics and Finance, and CEIS; Tor Vergata University of Rome, Roma, Italy
Interests: analysts’ forecasts; event study; corporate finance; corporate social responsibility; social responsible investment; investment funds; household and banking
Special Issues and Collections in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Socially and environmentally responsible investing is becoming the benchmark in financial markets for several reasons. First, due to the emergence of climate change and global warming, and the lack of a global benevolent planner enforcing a system of emission caps across sovereign countries, corporations are increasingly asked by the public opinion and, consequently, investors to take responsibility for internalizing the environmental externalities of their activities. Second, recent research has identified exposure to ESG (environment, social, governance) risk as an independent risk factor to which financial assets are exposed. Conflicts with stakeholders, civil society, and expectations of future more severe regulation contribute to increase the importance of this risk factor. Within this frame, this Special Issue aims to deal with frontier research paths related to: i) progress in indicators measuring CSR and exposure to ESG factors and their effect on financial variables and performance; ii) the role of media coverage and communication versus expert-based evaluation in ESG risk and CSR measures; iii) the development of the market for green bonds; iv) responsible investing and the circular economy revolution; v) the (voluntary and regulatory) evolution of non-financial reporting and its consequences for CSR and financial asset dynamics.

Prof. Dr. Leonardo Becchetti
Prof. Dr. Rocco Ciciretti
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 papers will be 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 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

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. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly 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 1900 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

  • responsible investing
  • green bonds
  • circular economy and finance
  • non-financial reporting
  • ESG risk factor
  • CSR indicators and media coverage

Published Papers (3 papers)

Order results
Result details
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:

Research

Article
Mapping and Clustering Analysis on Environmental, Social and Governance Field a Bibliometric Analysis Using Scopus
Sustainability 2021, 13(13), 7304; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13137304 - 29 Jun 2021
Viewed by 499
Abstract
Academic interest in ESG has grown significantly in recent years. Nevertheless, bibliometric and visualization research on this topic is still insufficient. This study aims to conduct publication metrics on the literature connected with ESG and attempt to give a research agenda for future [...] Read more.
Academic interest in ESG has grown significantly in recent years. Nevertheless, bibliometric and visualization research on this topic is still insufficient. This study aims to conduct publication metrics on the literature connected with ESG and attempt to give a research agenda for future research. In this study, we used data from the Scopus database. Various bibliometric techniques, such as bibliographic coupling and co-occurrence analysis, were combined with assorted themes to present an overview. To the best of our knowledge, there is no study that analyses the bibliographic data on ESG fields; this study is a unique contribution to the literature. This study also provides an overview of the trends and trajectories with a visual and schematic frame for the research of this topic. This may help researchers understand the current trends and future research directions, and enable future authors to conduct their studies more effectively. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable and Responsible Investing)
Show Figures

Figure 1

Article
Companies’ Sustainable Growth, Accounting Quality, and Investments Performances. The Case of the Romanian Capital Market
Sustainability 2020, 12(22), 9748; https://doi.org/10.3390/su12229748 - 23 Nov 2020
Viewed by 668
Abstract
The paper analyzes the influence of sustainable growth (SGR) as a reflection of the manner of strategic business organization, particularly in the quality of reported financial information (magnitude of discretionary accruals—DAC) as an expression of the ethical attitude adopted [...] Read more.
The paper analyzes the influence of sustainable growth (SGR) as a reflection of the manner of strategic business organization, particularly in the quality of reported financial information (magnitude of discretionary accruals—DAC) as an expression of the ethical attitude adopted by companies in the entity–investor relationship, on the investors’ decisions, substantiated in the performance level of the shares held. Using models consecrated in the literature, the results reflect a significant influence, both in the case of separate testing of the two factors (SGR and DAC), and in the case of the conjugated action thereof, on investment performance. The relations were also tested by introducing certain control variables into the analysis, such as: the intangible ratio, quick ratio, company size, as well as the SGR sensitivity function of the level of information quality. In the case of financial information quality, specific indicators from the two consecrated value relevance testing models by Ohlson (1995) and Easton and Harris (1991) were used as control variables. The obtained results are robust, preserving the sense and intensity of the influences. However, in the case of testing for the influence of information quality on share price, it was noticed an insignificant relation, associated with the situation in which, to execute some speculative transactions, investors particularly interpreted conjunctural factors. The study contributes to the development of the specialty literature by highlighting the role of internal growth and information quality as determinant factors in the investors’ analyses, while also offering a potentially practical tool for assessing the opportunity of making placements in the capital of companies. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable and Responsible Investing)
Article
Sensitivity Analysis as a Tool in Environmental Policy for Sustainability: The Case of Waste Recycling Projects in the Republic of Serbia
Sustainability 2020, 12(19), 7995; https://doi.org/10.3390/su12197995 - 27 Sep 2020
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 943
Abstract
Modern consumer society uses an increasing number of products to meet its needs, which become waste after use, thus posing a serious problem that threatens sustainable development. Investment in waste recycling, due to a high level of non-financial benefits, is considered sustainable, especially [...] Read more.
Modern consumer society uses an increasing number of products to meet its needs, which become waste after use, thus posing a serious problem that threatens sustainable development. Investment in waste recycling, due to a high level of non-financial benefits, is considered sustainable, especially in the End-of-life Vehicles (ELV) and Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) recycling areas. The research objective of this paper is to test the sensitivity of the model for sustainable management of recycling projects by applying a cost-benefit analysis (CBA) to investment projects of car and refrigerator recycling in the Republic of Serbia. By testing the key risk factors of the above investment projects within the sensitivity analysis, the main aim is to determine the critical value of these variables in terms of the financial and social acceptability of these investment alternatives. The results obtained indicate that state subsidies have the greatest influence on defining the model of sustainable investment, especially in the field of e-waste recycling. The impact of other factors, the price of secondary raw materials and the social cost of CO2 emissions, is significantly smaller, but should certainly be taken into account when defining the optimal model of sustainable investment. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable and Responsible Investing)
Back to TopTop