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1. Introduction
The past decade has witnessed statistically significant uptick in ethical investments that integrates social, environmental and ethical considerations into investment decision-making (Renneboog et al., 2008). Keeping in mind the area of personal investment, socially responsible investment (SRI) has emerged as one of the important phenomenon (McLachlan and Gardner, 2004). Although the genesis of the concept came into view in the late 1960s, it has gained acceptance amongst the investors during the past decade because of its supreme importance in helping the business to work in a socially responsible manner (Rosen et al., 1991). Continuing adoration, it has emerged as a legitimate focus about investors’ choice (Beal et al., 2005).
There is no consensus on the definition of sustainable investment (Cooper and Schlegelmilch, 1993; Cummings, 2000; Lewis and Mackenzie, 2000; Sparkes, 2006), and different authors have explained it from different point of views. In the opinion of Brooks (1989, p. 32), an ethical investor always considers the ethical facet of his/her investment, applies the ethical standards while taking the investment decision and, at the same time, does not ignore the financial aspect of investment. The author further opined that these kinds of investors are considered to be more successful than the investors who do not apply the ethical criterion (McLachlan and Gardner, 2004). Peter D. Kinder and Amy Domini had also put forward their opinion in 1983 and considered green investment as the inclusion of both the ethical and social criterion in any investment strategy.
The US SIF Foundation’s 2018 report on US sustainable, responsible and impact investing trends highlights that SRI assets in USA have increased from $8.7 trillion in 2016 to $12 trillion, which depicts a sharp increase of 38 per cent in such a short span of time. The retail and high net worth individuals have also been found to follow SRI approach with $3 trillion investment in sustainable assets. The concerns for climate change/carbon, tobacco and conflict risk have been reported as top three considerations that drive asset managers’ attitude towards SRI approach. Besides this, “personal values and goals” have also been found to influence investment decision in SRI funds (US SIF, 2018). The concept of SRI focuses on issues relating to environmental, social and corporate governance...