bachelor thesis esg

Empirical Analysis of ESG and Financial Performance

Student thesis : Master thesis

Globally, investors and financial markets are directing increasingly more attention towards responsible investments. The term “responsible investing” is often interpreted as environmental, social and governance (ESG) concerns for investment decisions with a long-term perspective. The concept has become increasingly more relevant among consumers, government, investors and stakeholders. The increased focus is not based on empirically superior relationships between risk and return, but rather on a shift in demand for responsible investments with a more long-term perspective. Previous studies focusing on the relationship between ESG and financial performance are split into three distinctions; positive, neutral and a negative relationship. These three counterparts find theoretical arguments and statistical evidence supporting their results, and a clear conclusion regarding the relationship is yet to be made. This thesis examines the relationship that has puzzled the academia, with a thorough and critical review of existing literature on ESG investing. The empirical analysis examines portfolios with varying degrees of ESG performance, where the performance has been identified by the companies’ respective ESG and controversy score. These numbers are provided by Refinitiv, which is the successor of Asset 4, and are collected through Thomson Reuters Datastream. By application of traditional asset pricing models, namely the CAPM, Fama & French three-factor, Carhart four-factor and Fama & French five-factor model, the return on various portfolios has been controlled against known risk factors. Moreover, both ESG and controversy factors have been developed to study the relationships in greater depth. The results find evidence that implies a negative relationship between high ESG scores and excess returns. However, this result is not evident in the robustness tests, where the portfolios are divided into sub-periods and classified into different portfolio sizes. In contrary to previous findings, the analysis finds evidence that the companies with the absolute lowest ESG scores have a negative excess return. Nevertheless, the negative alpha is not substantially different from zero. There is no evidence in the analysis that can provide an answer to the question of whether or not controversies have any effect on the excess return. The results are more supportive of the literature that implies a negative correlation between increased ESG initiatives and financial performance measured by excess returns. However, the question of whether ESG is priced in by the financial market remains open for further investigation.

Documents & Links

File : application/pdf, 3.37 MB

Type : Text file

• Harvard Division of Continuing Education
• DCE Theses and Dissertations
• Communities & Collections
• By Issue Date
• FAS Department
• Quick submit
• Waiver Generator
• DASH Stories
• Accessibility
• COVID-related Research

Terms of Use

• Privacy Policy
• By Collections
• By Departments

Assessing Financial and ESG Outcomes of Sustainable Firms During the COVID-19 Crisis

Citable link to this page

Collections.

• DCE Theses and Dissertations [1189]

Contact administrator regarding this item (to report mistakes or request changes)

• Support & FAQ

Sustainable Finance: ESG performance and disclosure in the capital market context

Research output : Thesis › Doctoral Thesis › Internal

• capital market
• sustainability

Access to Document

• 10.26481/dis.20171012ch
• Full text Final published version, 2.06 MB
• Cover Final published version, 452 KB
• Propositions Final published version, 25.5 KB
• Valorisation Final published version, 106 KB

T1 - Sustainable Finance

T2 - ESG performance and disclosure in the capital market context

AU - Hauptmann, Clarissa V.

N2 - This dissertation examines the dynamics between corporate sustainability and capital market outcomes. It uncovers the role and impact of financial institutions on fostering sustainability, addresses the value-relevance of sustainability disclosures, and examines the effects of leadership diversity on capital market outcomes.The research shows that weak corporate sustainability performance results in higher bank loan costs when the lending bank has strong performance. It was also shown that companies run by female top executives have better access to bank loan capital, but that this advantage is conditional on the cultural environment. Furthermore, she shows that sustainability disclosure reduces stock price co-movements with the industry and market, reflecting valuable firm-specific information.

AB - This dissertation examines the dynamics between corporate sustainability and capital market outcomes. It uncovers the role and impact of financial institutions on fostering sustainability, addresses the value-relevance of sustainability disclosures, and examines the effects of leadership diversity on capital market outcomes.The research shows that weak corporate sustainability performance results in higher bank loan costs when the lending bank has strong performance. It was also shown that companies run by female top executives have better access to bank loan capital, but that this advantage is conditional on the cultural environment. Furthermore, she shows that sustainability disclosure reduces stock price co-movements with the industry and market, reflecting valuable firm-specific information.

KW - capital market

KW - sustainability

U2 - 10.26481/dis.20171012ch

DO - 10.26481/dis.20171012ch

M3 - Doctoral Thesis

SN - 978 94 6159 755 7

PB - Datawyse / Universitaire Pers Maastricht

CY - Maastricht

• Skip to main content
• Accessibility information

• Enlighten Enlighten

Enlighten Theses

• Latest Additions
• Browse by Year
• Browse by Subject
• Browse by College/School
• Browse by Author
• Browse by Funder
• Login (Library staff only)

In this section

Corporate Social Responsibility: the institutionalization of ESG

Anderson, Erika (2023) Corporate Social Responsibility: the institutionalization of ESG. PhD thesis, University of Glasgow.

Understanding the impact of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) on firm performance as it relates to industries reliant on technological innovation is a complex and perpetually evolving challenge. To thoroughly investigate this topic, this dissertation will adopt an economics-based structure to address three primary hypotheses. This structure allows for each hypothesis to essentially be a standalone empirical paper, unified by an overall analysis of the nature of impact that ESG has on firm performance. The first hypothesis explores the evolution of CSR to the modern quantified iteration of ESG has led to the institutionalization and standardization of the CSR concept. The second hypothesis fills gaps in existing literature testing the relationship between firm performance and ESG by finding that the relationship is significantly positive in long-term, strategic metrics (ROA and ROIC) and that there is no correlation in short-term metrics (ROE and ROS). Finally, the third hypothesis states that if a firm has a long-term strategic ESG plan, as proxied by the publication of CSR reports, then it is more resilience to damage from controversies. This is supported by the finding that pro-ESG firms consistently fared better than their counterparts in both financial and ESG performance, even in the event of a controversy. However, firms with consistent reporting are also held to a higher standard than their nonreporting peers, suggesting a higher risk and higher reward dynamic. These findings support the theory of good management, in that long-term strategic planning is both immediately economically beneficial and serves as a means of risk management and social impact mitigation. Overall, this contributes to the literature by fillings gaps in the nature of impact that ESG has on firm performance, particularly from a management perspective.

Actions (login required)

Downloads per month over past year

View more statistics

The University of Glasgow is a registered Scottish charity: Registration Number SC004401

• Information Systems and Applied Computer Sciences
• Chair of Explainable Machine Learning
•   University of bamberg
• Subject groups
• Applied Computer Science

Digital Healthcare Award for Bachelor Thesis in Berlin, April 10, 2024

Tobias Archut received the DMEA Award 2024, ©Tobias Archut

Tobias Archut from the xAI Lab Bamberg receives DMEA Newcomer Award for advancing digital healthcare through his innovative bachelor thesis

In a celebration of burgeoning talent within the digital healthcare sphere, Tobias Archut, one of xAI Lab’s promising students, clinched third place at the esteemed DMEA Newcomer Award. Hosted annually by DMEA – Europe's leading event for digital health - this accolade aims to recognize outstanding bachelor and master theses showcasing innovative ideas and transformative solutions to propel healthcare digitalization forward.

Tobias’ outstanding achievement stems from his insightful thesis titled "Addressing Continual Learning and Data Privacy Challenges with an Explainable kNN-based Image Classifier". His work epitomizes the growing necessity for interpretable, data-efficient, and privacy-conscious classification systems crucial for supporting medical workflows and clinical diagnosis. Present automatic classification systems often lack transparency and adaptability to data variations, presenting obstacles in addressing data privacy concerns.

Sharing the spotlight with Tobias in the Bachelor’s Thesis category were Simon Koller (#1 place) from the Bern University of Applied Sciences, with his work on "Analyzing Signal Data in Neurosurgery using Time Series Methods, and Pia Lehmann (#2 place) from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, whose thesis focused on "Development of a Web Application for Diagnosing Rare Diseases for Physicians using Information Retrieval from Open Medical Databases".

In the Master’s Thesis category, Julian Hugo (#1 place) from the Hasso Plattner Institute at the University of Potsdam emerged as the winner with his work on "Predicting Initial Diagnoses of Crohn’s Disease using Machine Learning". Pauline Nöldemann (#2 place) from the Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg also made a significant contribution with her thesis on "Identifying Food Intolerances using Artificial Intelligence - a Data-driven Approach", while Jennifer Miller (#3 place) of the MOLIT Institute secured the third spot with her thesis focusing on "Design and Prototype Implementation of a Decision Support System for Therapy Recommendations in Virtual Molecular Tumor Boards".

The DMEA serves as a pivotal platform for industry leaders, healthcare professionals, and policymakers to converge and exchange groundbreaking ideas. With over 18,600 participants, around 800 exhibitors, and more than 350 speakers from Germany and abroad in attendance, the event continues to foster innovation and collaboration in the dynamic realm of digital healthcare.

As Tobias and his peers revel in the glory of their achievements, their success underscores the indispensable role of young visionaries in advancing the digital transformation of healthcare.

For a more in-depth look at Tobias’ innovative work, viewers are invited to explore the following presentation on YouTube . In addition, his thesis has laid the groundwork for a comprehensive research contribution, titled “Integrating kNN with Foundation Models for Adaptable and Privacy-Aware Image Classification” that has been accepted for presentation at IEEE ISBI 2024 . To delve into this research further, we encourage you to access the preprint of the paper here (https://arxiv.org/abs/2402.12500) and explore the associated code here .

For further information about the DMEA Newcomer Award and its esteemed winners, please visit the official blog and if you are interested to gain further insights into all finalist projects, consider watching their respective pitches on YouTube .