The Impact of Sustainable Responsible Investment on the Environmental and Financial Performance of Listed companies (in the context of European Regulatory Framework)

Although socially responsible investment (SRI) first emerged in the United States in the 1970s, its influence is now global and booming. The most striking illustration is the increase of signatories to the United Nations Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI): The number of signatories surged from around 100 in 2006 to more than 5,000 in 2025 (Peillex & Comyns, 2020), confirming that SRI is now central to investment strategies. The landscape of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) investment has seen the emergence of new stakeholders, including data providers. However, persistent limitations regarding data transparency, accessibility, and comparability have prevented investors from adequately assessing the relevance of their investment allocations for ESG purposes. This challenge aligns with a consensus in the literature, which acknowledges the inherent difficulty in quantifying the environmental consequences of such investment decisions. Our study aims to verify the effect of SRI on the environmental and financial performance of listed companies. For our research methodology, we used an empirical analysis, focusing on funds that hold the French certification called “Label ISR”(SRI Label). We selected the largest French asset manager leading the global market, Amundi Asset Managers; our final sample of 21 certified funds resulted in 279 observations. The findings show that carbon-intensive industries suffer from a lack of environmental innovation and exhibit weaker financial performance.