Skeptical but Supportive? An Experimental Study on ESG and Investment Decisions of Business School Students in Sweden and China

Sammanfattning: As more and more investors utilize Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) to support their investment decisions, there is a growing body of research on ESG investing. However, most of the current research has focused primarily on sustainable finance, i.e., the Environment component of ESG, while neglecting the other two components. There is also little research addressing investors' attitudes towards ESG itself. In this study, I designed a motivated individual-level online experiment in a business school context. The results show that students in the Swedish business school (N = 236) who are skeptical about ESG are more inclined to invest in financial products with better ESG performance. In addition, students in the Chinese business school (N = 221) are most concerned with the Governance factor in ESG. Finally, both theoretical knowledge and practical experience related to ESG are instrumental in facilitating personal investment in ESG.