Från Ord till Handling - En kvalitativ fallstudie om hur ett fondbolag arbetar för att påverka bolag att utveckla hållbarhet i sina affärsmodeller

Sammanfattning: During the previous decades, the methods that socially responsible fund managers apply have progressed. From focusing solely on screening, fund managers have in recent years adopted engagement strategies to influence their portfolio companies to invest and engage in sustainable behavior. Although prior studies have examined different engagement theories on a stand-alone basis, the research field lacks a profound study of how fund management firms combine and apply these methods in practice. In this paper, a qualitative case study method with in-depth interviews has been conducted to study the engagement strategies and activities of a fund management company based in Stockholm. Our findings suggest that the screening process is an integrated part of the engagement strategy and that negative screening gives an incentive for the companies to improve. This relationship seems even stronger for investments in bonds than stocks. Furthermore, using agency theory, we analyse the fund managers' ability to influence companies to become sustainable. Our findings suggest that the fund's ownership power affects the opportunity to influence the portfolio company only partially, and that several additional factors are impacting the engagement's success. Lastly, our findings show that exit can be an integrated practice in shareholder engagement and the fund manager can continue to exert influence over the portfolio companies after dropping out of an investment.