SRI Analysis and Asset Management: Independent or Convergent? A Field Study on the French Market

Abstract

This article analyzes how the actual and expected future activities of French Socially Responsible Investment (SRI) analysts may reveal a convergence process between SRI decisions and traditional financial investment decisions, that is a form of “mainstreaming” of SRI processes, by asking the SRI analysts themselves how their work has evolved and how they perceive their positioning in the asset management sector. We present the results of a field survey on the composition and activities of French SRI analysts’ teams of large institutional investors and asset managers in France in 2009. We show that the convergence towards the mainstream financial analysts seems to be clearly engaged. However, the SRI domain is still emerging and remains very fragmented leading to a wide heterogeneity of practices and positioning in the respective organizations. This is interpreted as a clear sign of a transition phase.Field survey; French Asset; Management industry; Mainstreaming; Socially Responsible Investments (SRI)