Many mutual funds declare themselves as socially responsible investment (SRI) funds. However, it is unclear whether this rhetoric is simply window-dressing to attract capital inflows or reflects genuine concern. We show that companies with better environmental, social, and governance (ESG) performance are more attractive to SRI mutual funds. More importantly, SRI mutual funds positively affect their investee firms' ESG performance after controlling for firm characteristics, possible endogeneity issues, and omitted variables. Furthermore, ownership structure, board members' international experience, and social media attention are important channels through which SRI mutual funds influence their investee firms' ESG performance.

许多共同基金宣称自己是社会责任投资 (SRI) 基金。然而，尚不清楚这种言论是否只是为了吸引资本流入而做的门面，还是反映了真正的担忧。我们表明，具有更好环境、社会和治理 (ESG) 绩效的公司对 SRI 共同基金更具吸引力。更重要的是，SRI 共同基金在控制了公司特征、可能的内生性问题和遗漏变量后，对其投资公司的 ESG 绩效产生了积极影响。此外，所有权结构、董事会成员的国际经验和社交媒体关注度是 SRI 共同基金影响其投资公司 ESG 绩效的重要渠道。