Socially Responsible Finance and Investing: Financial Institutions, Corporations, Investors, and Activists

CHAPTER 7

Social, Environmental, and Trust Issues in Business and Finance

CHRISTOPH F. BIEHL

Ph.D. Candidate, Centre for Responsible Banking and Finance, School of Management, University of St Andrews and Academic Network Knowledge Manager, United Nations-backed Principles for Responsible Investment

ANDREAS G. F. HOEPNER

Lecturer in Banking and Finance and Deputy Director, Centre for Responsible Banking and Finance, School of Management, University of St Andrews and Academic Fellow, Principles for Responsible Investment, United Nations

JIANGHONG LIU

Ph.D. Candidate, Centre for Responsible Banking and Finance, School of Management, University of St Andrews

INTRODUCTION

Some commentators might believe as though social, environmental, and trust (SET) issues came from nowhere in the last few years to rapidly surge on the agenda of business and financial institutions. However, SET concerns in business and finance existed long before Enron, the subprime mortgage crisis, or the BP oil spill. This chapter analyzes SET development in three steps.

First, the chapter discusses SET issues and their impact on business and finance throughout history. For this purpose, a manual review of the literature finds 154 SET records, which serve as a basis for the analysis. The SET issues are found to emerge and advance over time. Initially, concerns centered around social issues with direct influence on people in the region and had an increasing impact on business and finance through unions and pension ...