Measuring Corporate Sustainability: An Analysis of the Research Practices Used by Two Belgian Asset Management Firms in the Field of Socially Responsible Investing

With growing awareness of sustainable development, financial institutions have developed investment funds that invest only in sustainable companies. Using structured face-to-face open-ended interviews, this study analyses the research practices used by two Belgian asset management firms to measure the corporate sustainability of sustainable investment funds. The main findings reveal that, though asset management firms generally follow the same six-step selection system, there are major differences in their research practices that are of importance for companies, investors, governments and the asset management industry. These differences refer to the set of attributes on which companies are evaluated, the number and types of indicators (in particular the use of sector-specific criteria), the techniques to calculate the final corporate sustainability score and the minimum score a company has to reach to be viewed as sustainable.