Carrot and Stick? The Role of Financial Market Intermediaries in Corporate Social Performance
研究了金融市场中介（如责任投资指数）如何通过排除威胁、信号传递和参与机制激励企业提升社会绩效，对关注可持续投资的学者和从业者有参考价值。
This article examines the role of intermediaries in financial markets in fostering corporate sustainability. Responsible investment (RI) indices have been primarily identified as intermediaries that provide information regarding corporate social performance (CSP) for investors and other stakeholders. The authors argue that the role of these intermediaries is not confined solely to information provision, but they may also incentivize high levels of CSP through mechanisms such as exclusion threats, signaling, and engagement. The authors rely on unique access to the archives of the FTSE4Good Index to examine the effects of these mechanisms on CSP. The study shows that companies facing exclusion threats and signaling are more likely to comply with the intermediary’s criteria, and medium levels of engagement leads to higher levels of CSP. The authors contribute to the study of sustainability in financial markets by explicating the mechanisms that intermediaries and other financial actors could employ to foster greater corporate sustainability.