An overview of ESG investing

Hans Lööf, Maziar Sahamkhadam and Andreas Stephan

Chapter 1 in Handbook of ESG Investing, 2026, pp 1-14 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: This chapter provides an overview of Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) investing – from its origins in socially responsible investing to its development into a more systematic, data-driven approach. It outlines its main theoretical foundations, including stakeholder theory, corporate social responsibility, and modern portfolio theory. This chapter also highlights the influence of institutional investors, regulations, and disclosure standards on ESG practices. Finally, it provides an outlook on emerging trends, such as the role of artificial intelligence, machine learning, and big data, which are expected to shape ESG investment and its impact.

Keywords: ESG investing; Sustainable finance; Stakeholder theory; Portfolio performance; Corporate social responsibility; Impact investing (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
ISBN: 9781035322770
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.elgaronline.com/doi/10.4337/9781035322787.00005 (application/pdf)
Our link check indicates that this URL is bad, the error code is: 403 Forbidden

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:elg:eechap:22853_1

Ordering information: This item can be ordered from
http://www.e-elgar.com

Access Statistics for this chapter

More chapters in Chapters from Edward Elgar Publishing
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Jack Sweeney ().