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University of Westminster researchers find no causal relationship between corporate social responsibility and financial risk, University of Westminster, 10.05.2022

New research led by Dr Julie Ayton, Senior Lecturer in Finance, has rejected any causality between corporate social performance and financial risk, contrary to what previous evidence has found. Speaking about the significance of the research findings, Dr Ayton said: “Our paper’s main contribution and originality arises from both the methodology and the data. We were able to access monthly corporate social responsibility data from Covalence SA, showing that it is possible and necessary to use monthly data for more insightful analysis of corporate social responsibility.”

Responsabilité Environnementale & Sociale des Entreprises du Territoire néo-aquitain, Université de Pau et des Pays de l’Adour, 17.06.2020

Les laboratoires du CATT et du CRAJ ont obtenu conjointement un financement de la région Nouvelle Aquitaine pour mener à bien un projet d’études des pratiques de responsabilité sociale et environnementale des entreprises (RSE) installées en territoire néo-aquitain ainsi qu’un projet de construction d’un réseau de recherche pluridisciplinaire sur ce territoire. (…) Données ESG (Environnement, Social, Gouvernance) : Pour l’étude RESET, en complément de l’analyse de l’enquête menée auprès d’entreprises de plus de 9 salariés situées en Nouvelle-Aquitaine et en Aragon sur leurs pratiques de RSE, les chercheurs s’appuient sur les données COVALENCE.

Integrating corporate social responsibility and financial performance, Amelia Bilbao-Terol, Mar Arenas-Parra, Susana Alvarez-Otero, Verónica Cañal-Fernández, University of Oviedo, Management Decision, 12 July 2018

In this paper, data for firms’ CSR performance evaluation come from Vigeo and Covalence rating agencies. They gather different and complementary information about companies in terms of ESG criteria. (…) This could be due to the different sources of information and methodologies used by these two agencies. (…) Of course, both evaluations are valuable and, therefore, an aggregation process would appear useful. (…) The authors present a hybrid TOPSIS methodology on transformed scores of both the CSR valuations and the financial ratios.

Every Little Helps? ESG News and Stock Market Reaction, Gunther Capelle-Blancard, Aurélien Petit, Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, Journal of Business Ethics, 18 September 2017

Stories about corporate social responsibility have become very frequent over the past decade, and managers can no longer ignore their impact on firm value. In this paper, we investigate the extent and the determinants of the stock market’s reaction following ordinary news related to environmental, social and governance issues—the so-called ESG factors. To that purpose, we use an original database provided by Covalence EthicalQuote. Our empirical analysis is based on about 33,000 ESG news (positive or negative), targeting one hundred listed companies over the period 2002–2010.

With Strings Attached: The Belief in The Business Case for Corporate Social Responsibility and its Grounding in Fair Market Ideology, Sebastian Hafenbrädl, Faculty of Business and Economics (HEC) University of Lausanne, Switzerland; Daniel Waeger, Amsterdam Business School, University of Amsterdam, Netherlands, 7th Annual ARCS Research Conference , Kellogg School of Management, May 13 – 15, 2015

All the information we presented to the respondents was based on real data. To operationalize social performance, we used data from Covalence EthicalQuote (www.ethicalquote.com) from 2002 to 2006 for a total of 183 companies taken from the Dow Jones Sector Titans Index , an index of the biggest companies in important industries. Covalence EthicalQuote is a rating agency based in Geneva, Switzerland, and is specialized in assessing external information about the social and environmental performance of companies.

ESG Impact on Market Performance of Firms: International Evidence, Jean-Michel Sahut, IPAG Business School, Paris, France; Hélène Pasquini-Descomps, HEG Haute Ecole de gestion de Genève, Switzerland, International Management, 2015

We propose below an original study of over 200 large US, UK, and Swiss companies, based on the availability of ESG scores and Fama-French factors. Our study on the performance of companies will compare their ESG ratings available from Covalence with their market performance adjusted for various factors during the 2007—2011 period. We measured the change in the market value of a stock using a five factor linear market model derived from Carhart’s model.

CAS Sustainable Finance

Co-managed by Covalence’s Antoine Mach, the CAS Sustainable Finance offered by Haute école de gestion de Genève received the prize for Best Pedagogical Innovation at the FIR-PRI Finance & Sustainability Awards 2019.

Designed by professionals for professionals, this programme is mainly organized through online teaching in English. Seasoned sustainable finance experts from the financial, banking, international organisations and academic domains have contributed to this CAS. A final week in Geneva is devoted to networking, live presentations, discussions and visits at expert organisations, enabling participants to dive into the rich local sustainability ecosystem.