Sustainable investing and ownership structure in international shipping companies

Haiying Jia and Paulo Azevedo

Maritime Policy & Management, 2025, vol. 52, issue 5, 691-708

Abstract: Sustainable investing has been gaining momentum in recent years. This paper investigates the relationship between ownership structure, sustainability performance, and financial performance using a structural equation modelling (SEM) approach in the shipping sector by utilizing 56 listed shipping companies’ financial and Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) ratings information. The results provide evidence that institutional ownership is positively associated with ESG scores, particularly from firms listed in the U.S. suggesting these investors’ consciousness in ESG investments in shipping stocks. Conversely, family ownership is negatively related to ESG ratings, while public ownership is more financially performance-driven, but not ESG-conscious. Additionally, firms with larger market capitalization tend to achieve higher ESG scores. However, this study finds no statistically significant relation between sustainability and financial performance. This research enhances the understanding of the investment behavior in the international shipping sector and has implications for investment strategy, investor relationship and policy development.

Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/03088839.2024.2402790 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:marpmg:v:52:y:2025:i:5:p:691-708

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/TMPM20

DOI: 10.1080/03088839.2024.2402790

Access Statistics for this article

Maritime Policy & Management is currently edited by Dr Kevin Li and Heather Leggate McLaughlin

More articles in Maritime Policy & Management from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().