Are social investors influential?

This article investigates the influence of socially responsible investment (SRI) on the social and environmental impact of the market and corporate behavior. It assesses SRI's influence through five means: (i) to promote SRI as a profitable alternative to conventional investment (ii) to alter the cost of capital of targeted companies, such as by divestment, and thereby to create pressure for improved corporate behavior; (iii) to advocate change within companies as shareholders or lenders, such as by filing shareholder resolutions and informal engagement with corporate management; (iv) to draft codes of conduct for systemic changes across domestic or global financial markets; and (v) to lobby for reform of public policy and official regulation pertaining to the financial economy. The article finds that in all of these means SRI has so far failed to wield exert significant influence, but its most promising means of influence is through advocating legal and policy changes.