Abstract/Summary

The subject of this thesis formed of three essays is the sources of stakeholder salience in the responsible investment (RI) movement. The unifying elements of the essays are the focus on the UN backed Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI) as a voluntary RI code whose salience we examine, and the theoretical framework ofstakeholder salience theory (Mitchell et al., 1997, Gifford, 2012) guiding the analyses. The first essay is an exploration of a confidential dataset of investor self-reporting on the adoption of the PRI. It asks the question: what are the sources of salience of the claim to sign the PRI? The application of the theoretical model in this essay and the findings from it guide the following two essays. The second essay focuses on asset owners as the drivers of responsible investment in the financial industry. It applies the stakeholder salience model to a public dataset to identify the determinants of asset owner endorsement of the principles. The third essay examines the differences between the declared and practical adoption of the principles by asset managers. It compares the sources of salience of the claims to sign and to implement the Principles for Responsible Investment, finding limited overlap. All three studies find evidence of the dynamism of stakeholder relationships, and their distinctiveness between investor types. Highlighted sources of salience include management values, societal and pragmatic legitimacy, normative and utilitarian power, coalition building and relative stakeholder size. The research project makes contributions to stakeholder theory and to the literature studying voluntary sustainability codes, as well as broadening our knowledge of responsible investment and the drivers of its development.