Responsible Investment Funds and Mature Organisational Fields: Lessons for Institutional Change and Institutional Entrepreneurship
Type
doctoral thesis
Author(s)
Abstract (De)
Management scholars have spent over four decades in answering the perennial question: Does it pay for corporations to be good (i.e. to be socially and/or environmentally responsible)? Although the predominant aim was to present a business case for corporate social performance or the natural environment, research to date has failed at reaching a consensus on whether it pays for businesses to be good.
Therefore, my three-paper Ph.D thesis commences by querying: how can corporations be motivated into becoming responsible if scholarship cannot present a business case? The answer to this question lies in their need for capital, which is often procured via investment funds.
Therefore, in two of the three constituent research papers of my thesis, I examine responsible investment funds: these being investment funds (comprising of securities, or bonds and/or equities of firms offering these in the market) created by institutional investors into which institutional and retail investors invest in by buying shares (Reilly & Brown, 2000), with the aim of investing in firms and their suppliers who are socially or environmentally responsible, produce socially or environmentally responsible products or services, or are socially or environmentally irresponsible or passive, so as to utilise this as a leverage to influence the firm's behaviour (strategies, practices, and operations) and improve the society and environment. These funds are an empirical phenomenon of growing relevance, especially for those motivated by a desire to contribute to society and environment's betterment. The third constituent research paper is a theoretical exercise in understanding mature organisational fields, an example being the financial services in which the above-mentioned investment process occurs.
Therefore, my three-paper Ph.D thesis commences by querying: how can corporations be motivated into becoming responsible if scholarship cannot present a business case? The answer to this question lies in their need for capital, which is often procured via investment funds.
Therefore, in two of the three constituent research papers of my thesis, I examine responsible investment funds: these being investment funds (comprising of securities, or bonds and/or equities of firms offering these in the market) created by institutional investors into which institutional and retail investors invest in by buying shares (Reilly & Brown, 2000), with the aim of investing in firms and their suppliers who are socially or environmentally responsible, produce socially or environmentally responsible products or services, or are socially or environmentally irresponsible or passive, so as to utilise this as a leverage to influence the firm's behaviour (strategies, practices, and operations) and improve the society and environment. These funds are an empirical phenomenon of growing relevance, especially for those motivated by a desire to contribute to society and environment's betterment. The third constituent research paper is a theoretical exercise in understanding mature organisational fields, an example being the financial services in which the above-mentioned investment process occurs.
Language
English
Keywords
institutional theory
practices
protoinstitutions
institutional change
responsible investment funds
organisational fields
financial services
institutional logics
legitimacy
financial performance
environmental performance
systematic review
practices
protoinstitutions
institutional change
responsible investment funds
organisational fields
financial services
institutional logics
legitimacy
financial performance
environmental performance
systematic review
HSG Classification
contribution to scientific community
Publisher
University of Lausanne
Publisher place
Lausanne
Subject(s)
Division(s)
Eprints ID
262092