What has prompted the shift toward sustainability in numerous financial areas? Can investors' mindsets be changed to embrace a long-term view? Can shareholders and activists play a greater role in encouraging financial actors to behave more responsibly? These are some of the relevant topics that are explored in this forward-looking set of essays.

Autorentext

HENRI-CLAUDE DE BETTIGNIES is the EU Chair Distinguished Professor of Global Governance and China-Europe Business Relations at CEIBS, Shanghai, China, where he has created the Euro-China Centre for Leadership and Responsibility (ECCLAR). He is also the AVIVA Chair Emeritus Professor of Leadership and Responsibility and Emeritus Professor of Asian Business at INSEAD, France. Between 1988 and 2005, with a joint appointment at Stanford University (Graduate School of Business), USA, he shared his time equally between Europe, California and the Asia Pacific region. Professor de Bettignies started the development of the Ethics initiative at INSEAD, and pioneered a new approach (AVIRA) to enlighten business leaders. Over a 16 year period the AVIRA programme brought together 900 Chairmen and CEOs from 60 countries, keen to enrich their vision and enhance their 'responsible' leadership competence. He teaches MBAs, E-MBAs and executives at CEIBS, in the areas of ethics and CSR, HR management and corporate transformation, culture and management. He directs a number of executive (public or corporate) programmes in Europe and in Asia.

FRANÇOIS LÉPINEUX is Research Fellow at INSEAD, Professor and Head of the Center for Responsible Business at ESC Rennes School of Business, Brittany, France. After graduating from HEC Paris School of Management in 1990, he has carried on various research and consulting activities, and received a PhD in Management Science at the Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers (CNAM, Paris). He is co-author of the book Sustainable Development and Corporate Governance (2003, in French) and has produced a number of other publications. His areas of interest include the relationship between business activities and the search for the common good, ethical issues in the financial services industry and stakeholder theory, the emergence of a global civil society and the shift in the social contract. François Lépineux is co-founder and past-President (2002-2005) of ADERSE (Association pour le Développement de l'Enseignement et de la Recherche sur la Responsabilité Sociale de l'Entreprise), the French academic association for the development of education and interdisciplinary research on CSR.

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Notes on the Contributors Introduction PART I: MICROFINANCE AND SOCIALLY RESPONSIBLE INVESTMENT: EVOLUTION AND IMPACT ON HUMAN RIGHTS Microfinance, Financial Inclusion and Social Responsibility; I.Guérin, M.Roesch & J-M.Servet Explaining the Take-Off of Socially Responsible Investment; P. Arena Socially Responsible Investment: Global Convergence or Local Divergence?; C.Louche The Use of Shareholder Proposals to Address Corporate Human Rights Performance; A.Kanzer PART II: ADOPTING A SUSTAINABLE PERSPECTIVE IN FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS AND MARKETS Sustainable Banking: The Banco Real Model; L.Johnson & C.Scholten Insurers' Corporate Responsibility Policies: A Response to the Industry's Bad Image?; H-C. de Bettignies, F.Lépineux & C.K.Tan The Relative Valuation of Socially Responsible Firms: An Exploratory Study; A.Fatemi, I.Fooladi & D. Wheeler Building the Case for Long-Term Investing in Stock Markets: Breaking Free from the Short-Term Measurement Dilemma; S. Lydenberg PART III: IS A PARADIGM SHIFT UNDERWAY? THREE PIONEERING REFLECTIONS Financing Agriculture in Developing Countries: Governance Models Promoting Sustainability; S. Morvant-Roux Innovative Investments for Sustainability: Solutions for the 21st Century; A. White Financialization: Limits and Ways Out; P.Dembinski & F.Vigano Conclusion: Manifesto of the Observatoir de la Finance References Index