Do business models matter?

•We analyze SRI companies’ performance in the US market using business models as a lens.•Our results show that brokers outperformed and distributors underperformed the market.•However, during the COVID-19 pandemic sub-period these effects disappeared.•Analyses using business models can help better understand SRI firms’ performance. Business models of companies are rarely analysed in the context of their financial performance, so little is known about how much they should actually matter in the decision-making processes of investors. In this study, we examine the performance of the SRI stocks portfolios in the US market, which are divided into four main business models types. Our results evidence that Brokers business model clearly outperformed the market in the whole period from February 2016 to January 2021. However, when the entire sample is divided into the pre-COVID-19 sub-sample and COVID-19 sub-sample, the outperformance and underperformance effects among the SRI firms disappeared during the COVID-19 pandemic period. G1, G11, G15, Q56, L10, M1, M14.