Is ESG mutual fund quality in the eye of the beholder? An experimental study of investor responses to ESG fund strategies
通过两个实验（样本量261和437），研究了ESG共同基金的不同策略（排除、纳入、参与）如何影响投资者对基金可持续质量、财务质量和整体质量的感知，发现纳入策略更受青睐，且整体质量感知由财务质量而非可持续质量中介。
Abstract ESG‐profiled mutual funds (funds incorporating some form of Environmental, Social, or Governance‐related concern) is an increasingly prominent part of the financial services industry. While this category of funds may look homogenous on the surface, the fact is that there is there is considerable variation in how funds choose to account for ESG concern in the investment portfolio. In this paper, we ask whether these strategic choices surrounding the implementation of ESG affect retail investors' perception of sustainable quality, financial quality, and/or perceived overall quality of the ESG‐fund. Through two experiments ( n = 261; n = 437), we find that choice of ESG‐strategy (exclusion, inclusion, or engagement) impacts perceived mutual fund quality, with a marked preference for the inclusion strategy. Surprisingly, however, we find that the impact on overall fund quality is mediated by perceived financial quality, not perceived sustainable quality. In a similar fashion, we also find that implementing the strategy through in‐house sustainability experts, as opposed to relying on external sustainability expertise, positively affect perceived quality, through perceived financial quality. In all, these results highlight that the manner in which ESG‐factors are integrated in the investment portfolio can affect perceived quality of mutual funds, as investors consciously or unconsciously assign different financial expectations to the strategies.