"Investment that has been made in such a way as to avoid supporting socially undesirable activities. For example, the investor might be avoiding securities of companies that are known to practice discrimination, that operate in certain countries, or that produce specific products such as alcohol, tobacco or nuclear weapons.
Socially responsible investment might also be directed towards supporting given social objectives.
To do business with socially responsible investors, special investment funds have been created. These are often referred to as ethical funds".
(Unterm,
Socially responsible investment, visited 2010-09-21 )
" Taking the terms "ethical" and "socially responsible" to be equivalent, Cowton stated that:
"
Ethical investment may be defined as the exercise of ethical and social criteria in the selection and management of investment portfolios, generally consisting of company shares (stocks). This contrasts with standard depictions of investment decision-making in finance textbooks, which concentrate solely on financial return in the form of dividends and capital gains, and risk..." (Cowton 1994)."
(Miskovic, Davor,
The definition of Socially Responsible Investing,
ResponsibleInvesting.info, visited 2010-09-21)
