The Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance https://corpgov.law.harvard.edu The leading online blog in the fields of corporate governance and financial regulation. Sun, 26 Apr 2026 11:30:51 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.5.8 https://corpgov.law.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/cropped-photography-4-e1706898544564-1-32x32.png Survey Analysis: ESG Investing Pre- and Post-Pandemic – The Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance https://corpgov.law.harvard.edu 32 32 Survey Analysis: ESG Investing Pre- and Post-Pandemic https://corpgov.law.harvard.edu/2020/10/20/survey-analysis-esg-investing-pre-and-post-pandemic/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=survey-analysis-esg-investing-pre-and-post-pandemic https://corpgov.law.harvard.edu/2020/10/20/survey-analysis-esg-investing-pre-and-post-pandemic/#comments Tue, 20 Oct 2020 13:11:37 +0000 https://corpgov.law.harvard.edu/?p=134004?d=20201020122226EDT Posted by Subodh Mishra, Institutional Investor Services, Inc., on Tuesday, October 20, 2020
Editor's Note:

Subodh Mishra is Managing Director at Institutional Shareholder Services, Inc. This post is based on an ISS paper by Maura Souders, Associate at ISS ESG, the responsible investment arm of Institutional Shareholder Services. Related research from the Program on Corporate Governance includes The Illusory Promise of Stakeholder Governance by Lucian A. Bebchuk and Roberto Tallarita (discussed on the Forum here); Reconciling Fiduciary Duty and Social Conscience: The Law and Economics of ESG Investing by a Trustee by Max M. Schanzenbach and Robert H. Sitkoff (discussed on the Forum here); and Companies Should Maximize Shareholder Welfare Not Market Value by Oliver Hart and Luigi Zingales (discussed on the Forum here).

Key Takeaways

  • A considerable proportion of respondents to the survey (62.5%) report that the Social domain of the Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) spectrum is attracting more of their attention since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.
  • Governance remains the most important ESG factor in the investment analysis and stewardship activities of 86% of respondents.
  • Respondents whose ESG engagements have grown since the outbreak of the pandemic report that the primary drivers of growth include client and stakeholder demand, racial inequality and diversity, and regulatory changes.
  • A significant share of respondents (44.1%) expect future ESG ratings to place a greater weight on workplace safety, treatment of employees, diversity and inclusion, as well as supply chain labor dynamics.
  • All these changes necessitate an increased workload, and 37.5% of respondents have either already added or intend to add new staff to manage ESG-related issues, following the onset of the pandemic.

(more…)

]]> https://corpgov.law.harvard.edu/2020/10/20/survey-analysis-esg-investing-pre-and-post-pandemic/feed/ 1