On November 5, 2010 Emerging Markets ESG published the inaugural interview in its weekly expert interview series, “Five Questions about Socially Responsible Investment (SRI).” Since then, an interview with an academic, expert or practitioner is published every Friday on the Five Questions about SRI page of the Emerging Markets ESG internet portal.
As stated at the beginning of each interview, the goals of Five Questions about SRI are fourfold:
- To collect a catalogue of examples of SRI in practice in emerging markets;
- To raise awareness about SRI in emerging markets;
- To reflect on what SRI in emerging markets means to practitioners; and
- To enable SRI practitioners in emerging markets to network with peers around the world.
On January 6, 2012 Emerging Markets ESG published the 52nd interview in the series. On January 20, 2012 Emerging Markets ESG published an article entitled, “260 Insights about SRI,” which analyzed the responses to the five questions posed in the 52 interviews published during the first year of the series.
The second year of the interview series commenced on January 27, 2012 and ended on March 8, 2013. The second year of the series featured academics, experts and practitioners from: South Africa (seven); Canada (six); the United States (six); India (four); South Korea (four); the United Kingdom (four); Brazil (three); and 14 other countries: Australia, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, China, Hong Kong, Israel, Mauritius, Mexico, The Netherlands, Poland, Serbia, Spain, Switzerland and Vietnam.
15 Asian experts contributed an interview during the second year of the interview series, making Asia the largest geographic contingent, followed by North America (13), Europe (12), Africa (eight), South America (three) and Australia (one).
Emerging Markets ESG would like to thank each academic, expert and practitioner who contributed an interview during the second year of the series.
Using the above-mentioned goals of the interview series as a Leitmotiv, this article “520 Insights about SRI” analyzes the responses of interviewees to each of the five questions during the second year of the interview series. The responses to question one, about the definition of SRI, and to question two, about the distinction between mainstream investment and SRI, are analyzed individually and aggregated by gender. The responses to question three, about the challenges faced by emerging market companies in managing environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues, and to question four, about the challenges faced by investors analyzing ESG issues at investee companies in emerging markets, are analyzed individually and aggregated by geography, specifically, developed markets versus emerging markets. Question five covers a topic of particular relevance to the given academic, expert or practitioner, regarding her/his expertise, interests and geographic scope.
The article also compares the responses from the second year with those from the first year of the interview series.
As hoped, the interview series is building a database of knowledge about the views of academics, experts and practitioner about SRI. Several trends observed during the first year of the interview series were also observed during the second year. One of these trends merits attention as a general theme. Across gender, geography and institutional background, many of the contributors to the interview series highlight accountability, disclosure and transparency about ESG issues as challenges across emerging markets per se.
Please contact Emerging Markets ESG to request a copy of the article “520 Insights about SRI.”
To download a complete list of interviews published during the first year of the series, please click on the link below:
Emerging Markets ESG – Five Questions about SRI – List of Interviews – January 2012 – March 2013.