Responsible Investment and the Claim of Corporate Change

An increasing number of financial institutions have started to subscribe to Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in their investment decisions and use their funds to promote responsible corporate behavior. The financial crisis and the widespread lack of trust in the private sector have added further momentum to this quest for social legitimacy. Elisa M. Zarbafi analyzes the role of financial stakeholders as a potential driver of CSR. She focuses her theoretical analysis on socio-psychological drivers such as mental models, cause maps, values, and expectations to understand the complex nature of responsible investment and to identify the critical underlying processes that allow institutional investors to have an impact on the social responsibility of their portfolio companies.