{"title":"Performance Evaluation of Socially Responsible Funds Compared to Their Benchmark Index in India: Evidence from the Covid-19 Crisis","authors":"Renu Jonwall, Seema Gupta, Shuchi Pahuja","doi":"10.1007/s10690-024-09460-z","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p>This study aimed at differentiating the qualitative characteristics (Basic and Technical) of the Indian Socially Responsible (SR) funds. The study also compared the performance of SR funds with their benchmark indexes. The novelty of the current study is analyzing the impact of the market return and the Covid-19 outbreak on the returns of SR funds. The study used content analysis, independent t-test, and multiple linear regression analysis. The content analysis results highlighted that the majority of the SR funds adopt the Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) integration approach, invest in large-cap, high-growth companies with good ESG score, and have an investment committee. The comparative analysis indicated that out of 14 SR funds, only four funds outperformed their benchmark index. The regression analysis showed that the selected four funds had a significant relationship with their respective benchmarks and a non-significant relationship with the Covid-19 outbreak. The current study contributes to SRI literature by identifying the differentiating characteristics of the Indian SR funds. It also contributes to the extant literature a comparative analysis, assessing the performance of the SR funds with their benchmark index. Further, determining the impact of the market return and the Covid-19 outbreak on the returns of SR fund is also a contributing factor of the present study. Findings are useful for individual investors, institutional investors and fund managers, as they can launch more SR funds on similar terms. Findings are useful for regulators and policymakers for framing new rules and regulations for boosting ESG adoption by the companies.</p>","PeriodicalId":54095,"journal":{"name":"Asia-Pacific Financial Markets","volume":"55 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.5000,"publicationDate":"2024-05-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Asia-Pacific Financial Markets","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s10690-024-09460-z","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"ECONOMICS","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
This study aimed at differentiating the qualitative characteristics (Basic and Technical) of the Indian Socially Responsible (SR) funds. The study also compared the performance of SR funds with their benchmark indexes. The novelty of the current study is analyzing the impact of the market return and the Covid-19 outbreak on the returns of SR funds. The study used content analysis, independent t-test, and multiple linear regression analysis. The content analysis results highlighted that the majority of the SR funds adopt the Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) integration approach, invest in large-cap, high-growth companies with good ESG score, and have an investment committee. The comparative analysis indicated that out of 14 SR funds, only four funds outperformed their benchmark index. The regression analysis showed that the selected four funds had a significant relationship with their respective benchmarks and a non-significant relationship with the Covid-19 outbreak. The current study contributes to SRI literature by identifying the differentiating characteristics of the Indian SR funds. It also contributes to the extant literature a comparative analysis, assessing the performance of the SR funds with their benchmark index. Further, determining the impact of the market return and the Covid-19 outbreak on the returns of SR fund is also a contributing factor of the present study. Findings are useful for individual investors, institutional investors and fund managers, as they can launch more SR funds on similar terms. Findings are useful for regulators and policymakers for framing new rules and regulations for boosting ESG adoption by the companies.
本研究旨在区分印度社会责任（SR）基金的质量特征（基本特征和技术特征）。研究还将社会责任基金的业绩与其基准指数进行了比较。本研究的新颖之处在于分析了市场回报和 Covid-19 爆发对社会责任基金回报的影响。研究采用了内容分析法、独立 t 检验法和多元线性回归分析法。内容分析结果表明，大多数 SR 基金采用环境、社会和治理（ESG）整合方法，投资于 ESG 得分较高的大盘高增长公司，并设有投资委员会。比较分析表明，在 14 只 SR 基金中，只有 4 只基金的表现优于基准指数。回归分析表明，所选的四只基金与各自的基准有显著关系，而与 Covid-19 爆发的关系不显著。本研究通过确定印度社会责任投资基金的差异化特征，为社会责任投资文献做出了贡献。本研究还对现有文献进行了比较分析，评估了SR基金与其基准指数的表现。此外，确定市场回报和 Covid-19 爆发对 SR 基金回报的影响也是本研究的一个贡献因素。研究结果对个人投资者、机构投资者和基金经理都很有用，因为他们可以在类似条件下推出更多的 SR 基金。研究结果对监管机构和政策制定者也有帮助，有助于他们制定新的规则和条例，促进公司采用环境、社会和公司治理。
期刊介绍：
The current remarkable growth in the Asia-Pacific financial markets is certain to continue. These markets are expected to play a further important role in the world capital markets for investment and risk management. In accordance with this development, Asia-Pacific Financial Markets (formerly Financial Engineering and the Japanese Markets), the official journal of the Japanese Association of Financial Econometrics and Engineering (JAFEE), is expected to provide an international forum for researchers and practitioners in academia, industry, and government, who engage in empirical and/or theoretical research into the financial markets. We invite submission of quality papers on all aspects of finance and financial engineering.
Here we interpret the term ''financial engineering'' broadly enough to cover such topics as financial time series, portfolio analysis, global asset allocation, trading strategy for investment, optimization methods, macro monetary economic analysis and pricing models for various financial assets including derivatives We stress that purely theoretical papers, as well as empirical studies that use Asia-Pacific market data, are welcome.
Officially cited as: Asia-Pac Financ Markets
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