Facilitators and Impediments for Socially Responsible Investment: A Study of Hong Kong

Through the practice of socially responsible investment (SRI), shareholders are involved in influencing corporations with regard to their social and environmental responsibilities. This paper focuses on SRI in one of the world's most prominent financial centers, Hong Kong. It explores why the role of SRI as a way of influencing corporate social responsibility in Hong Kong is limited. The study finds that many of the aspects that have facilitated SRI in North America and Europe are not in place in Hong Kong, and gives examples of such factors. It also suggests that the institutional logic that dominates Hong Kong's corporate and financial sectors has not been receptive to the logic that underlies environmental protection and social justice, and that this is an impediment to SRI to gain a foothold in Hong Kong and the Asian region more generally. Copyright (C) 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.