Corporate Social Responsibility (funded until 2021)
The working group “Corporate Social Responsibility” is dealing with the impact capital market participants have onto the CSR activities of their investments and examines the determinants for the investors to start this engagement.
Background of the Working Group
The working group “Corporate Social Responsibility” investigates the impact that institutional investors have on the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activity of their investees. Institutional investors, such as banks, insurances or mutual funds, are important actors on financial markets as capital providers and could be a major driver for companies to engage in sustainable activities. Finding the sources and advocates for sustainable investments and behaviour in corporations is crucial as more and more financial market participants are increasingly aware of the overall importance of sustainability.
Objectives of the Working Group
The working group particularly engages with the former Center for Sustainable Society Research (CSS) Key Subjects “Financial Markets” and “Policymaking and (Global) Governance”.
One key area of research focuses on institutional investors and their impact on CSR. Under which circumstances do large investors influence the CSR activities of their investments? One special interest is the view creditors have onto CSR in contrast to shareholders. Whether the general acknowledgement of sustainability related risks (especially related to climate change) in the asset allocation process of institutional investors has an impact onto the affected companies is a further research topic for our group.
Moreover, the working group deals with the relationship of economic actors, such as companies or sovereigns, and biodiversity. Biodiversity has not yet achieved the attention of market participant compared to climate change, but is quickly gaining momentum. Research in this area is of great importance as there are only few studies dealing with it. Understanding how biodiversity risk translates into financial risk or how companies report biodiversity issues can help to advance current international activities to fight biodiversity loss.