Emma Sjöström

Social Impact Bonds (SIBs) demonstrate the growing interest in innovative financing solutions that seek to address complex social challenges through cross-sector collaboration. This paper reviews experience of implementing SIBs, drawing insights from case studies and interviews to identify the lessons learned that can inform the design and implementation of future SIBs. Our analysis reveals inherent tensions between flexibility and standardization, between stakeholder expectations and outcome attainability, as well as between the context-specific nature of SIBs and the scope for creating a replicable model. A thematic analysis of qualitative data from 30 SIB case studies contributes to the empirical literature on social financing, providing actionable insights for policymakers, investors and service providers engaged in or considering SIBs as a mechanism for social change.

Climate change is a major concern for many companies, but it has not historically featured much in earnings conference calls. We find a marked increase in climate talk on these calls in recent years. We also find that climate talk is negatively related to the change in CO2 emissions (especially Scope 2) in the year after the call, particularly in firms with high overall environmental and governance ratings. Conversely, investors react particularly negatively to climate talk when it comes from a firm with low levels of ESG performance or following poor earnings performance. Finally, a firm employs more climate talk when it is more material, when there is greater shareholder pressure or when it is better prepared for climate-related disclosure. Overall, these results suggest that investors and other stakeholders interested in corporate climate action should be paying attention to earnings conference calls as a source of useful information about companies’ broader stance on climate-related issues.

One of the most important forums for companies to disclose financial information to the market is the quarterly earnings call. Environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues are gaining increased traction among institutional investors but are yet to find a place in the earnings call. We launched the Action Lab project, which was a facilitated process of investor relations and sustainability functions working together to communicate ESG factors in the earnings call setting. Three publicly listed companies committed to work with us in the lead-up to the third quarter 2017 call, when they would include ESG dimensions in their presentations. Five major challenges emerged from our research. First, there is a chicken and egg situation in which companies do not convey ESG information because they think analysts are not interested, and analyst do not ask ESG-related questions because there is no ESG-related information for them to base questions on. Second, it is challenging to quantify ESG factors in ways that fit analysts’ models. Third, the earnings call is a highly ritualized event and there is a reluctance to change the format. Fourth, there is a fear on the company side that ESG issues might be perceived as greenwashing, especially in times of weaker financial performance. Finally, ESG perspectives are typically too long-term to fit the focus of a short-term earnings call, and might therefore be better suited to other forums.