European Journal of Business Science and Technology 2024, 10(1):5-24 | DOI: 10.11118/ejobsat.2024.003

The Risk Awareness of Sovereign Wealth Funds in Relation to ESG Assets: Do Biggest World Institutional Investors Act Sustainably?

Marty-Jörn Klein1, Gabriela Chmelíková1, Jozef Palkovič2
1 Mendel University in Brno, Czech Republic
2 Slovak University of Agriculture in Nitra, Slovakia

This paper investigates the dependence of the investment behavior of Sovereign Wealth Funds (SWFs) on the Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) performance of their underlying investments in public equity holdings during the period of 2007 to 2022 collectively overseeing a substantial 71% of total public equity holding investments by SWFs globally. The unique data set with ESG control variables consist of mainly self-reported Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) ESG information (ESG rating from Refinitiv/LSEG) and dynamic risk assessed ESG information purely based on external evaluation of the firms (Reputational Risk Indicator from RepRisk). The control variable which monitors the Corporate Social Irresponsibility (CSI) of target companies is novel to previous studies. Our findings suggest that SWFs still consider self-reported CSR information more than public CSI data in their investment decisions. Furthermore, a change in past ESG data of underlying public equity holdings – both CSR and CSI – does not seem to have a significant effect on the investment into underlying public equity holdings. Our conclusions could help to encourage greater ESG integration into SWF investment strategies and promote sustainable investing practices more broadly not limited to liquid assets.

Keywords: Sovereign Wealth Funds, ESG, reputation risk, Corporate Social Responsibility, Corporate Social Irresponsibility
JEL classification: D81, F64, G11, G32, M14, Q01

Received: December 10, 2023; Revised: February 18, 2024; Accepted: February 19, 2024; Published: June 30, 2024  Show citation

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Klein, M., Chmelíková, G., & Palkovič, J. (2024). The Risk Awareness of Sovereign Wealth Funds in Relation to ESG Assets: Do Biggest World Institutional Investors Act Sustainably? European Journal of Business Science and Technology, 10(1), 5-24. doi: 10.11118/ejobsat.2024.003
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