Depth of outreach in microfinance is conceptualised as the degree to which a microfinance institution serves (very) poor clients. However, this concept is commonly approximated in academic research by 'average loan size'. This rough proxy has previously also been used by policy makers such as...

While the relationship between outreach and financial performance (CFP) of microfinance institutions (MFIs) is increasingly well researched, next to nothing is known about the relationship between broader measure of corporate social responsibility (CSR) of MFIs and their CFP. In light of the...

In their pioneering work, Hong & Kacperczyk [HK] (2009) document a significant outperformance of so- called sin stocks: publicly traded companies involved in producing alcohol, tobacco and gaming. Drawing on theories of neglected stocks and segmented markets, the authors suggest this...

We pursue the first large scale investigation of a strongly growing mutual fund type: Islamic funds. Based on an unexplored, survivorship bias adjusted dataset, we analyse the financial performance and investment style of 265 Islamic equity funds from twenty countries. As Islamic funds often...

We contribute to the responsible investment literature by pursuing the first morphologic analysis of the responsible investment process. Morphologic analysis decomposes a process in its relevant variables and defines the thinkable properties of these variables. By generating new combinations of...

We develop Influential Literature Analysis (ILA) as a four step approach, which improves upon existing methods to synthesise research areas. The first step rates the candidate studies for a research synthesis according to their influence and selects the most influential ones to be synthesised....

In this paper, we compare and contrast financial data science with econometrics and conclude that the former is inevitably interdisciplinary due to the numerous skill-sets needed within a competitive research team. The latter, in contrast, is firmly rooted in economics. Both areas are highly...

Less than 100 firms worldwide are recognised by Bloomberg to report accurate greenhouse gas emissions. Yet, tens of thousands of people are talking and tweeting about climate change every day. How can this attention be converted into accurate action? We propose that sustainable data science...

This study explores the underlying drivers of US public pension funds' tendency to tilt their portfolios towards companies with stronger corporate social responsibility (CSR). Studying the equity holdings of large, internally-managed US state pension funds, we find evidence that the political...

Corporations often draw criticism and face demands from non-governmental organisations (NGOs); some typical examples of controversial issues concerned by NGOs include climate change, pollution, fracking, GMOs in food, animal welfare, supply chain issues and labour standards. The most pressing...