Envisioning Socially Responsible Investing

Within the past five years, socially responsible investing (SRI) along with the related discipline of corporate social responsibility (CSR) have attracted worldwide attention. The strong momentum behind these two movements implies that they will soon work their way into the mainstream of the financial and corporate worlds. Much needs to happen, however, before they are fully integrated. This paper envisions major SRI and CSR initiatives that may well take place within the next five years in three communities: the corporate community (increased attention to mission, stakeholders and disclosure), institutional investors (increased responsibility for voting, public disclosure of social investment policies and increased intra-industry dialogue on social and corporate governance issues) and the financial community, including its academic and SRI analogues (increased attention to education, training and the professionalisation of the SRI and CSR disciplines). Looking ahead to the potential outcomes of these initiatives will help in assessing their usefulness and in allocating the resources necessary to implement them.