Save Money, Save the World! Motivational and Structural Underpinnings of Ethical Finance in Switzerland

The ethical capital market has gained prominence as investors, policymakers, and corporations increasingly recognize the importance of integrating environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors into financial decision-making. This paper presents a systematic literature review on the ethical capital market using the PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) approach. The study aims to identify key themes, trends, and research gaps in the existing literature by analyzing scholarly articles published in leading academic journals between 2010 and 2024. The review process involved systematically identifying relevant literature from databases such as Scopus, Web of Science, and Google Scholar. After applying inclusion and exclusion criteria, selected studies were categorized into five key thematic areas: (1) growth of ethical investing, (2) ESG criteria and investment performance, (3) regulatory frameworks and policies, (4) ethical dilemmas and challenges, and (5) emerging trends in ethical finance. The findings indicate that ethical investing has gained traction due to increasing investor awareness, regulatory interventions, and technological advancements. However, challenges such as greenwashing, inconsistent ESG rating methodologies, and the lack of standardized regulatory frameworks persist. This study highlights significant research gaps, particularly in the areas of AI-driven ethical investing, cross-country comparative studies, and standardized ESG measurement frameworks. The paper concludes with recommendations for policymakers, investors, and researchers to enhance ethical financial practices and foster a more transparent and sustainable capital market. Future research should focus on integrating technological innovations to improve the credibility and efficiency of ethical investment strategies.

Ya Bloody Cappie!

This chapter provides an overview of ethical funds, including the history, asset screening strategies, markets of ethical funds, and motives to invest in ethical funds. It identifies seven ethical fund styles that follow different asset screening strategies and tailor to specific moral and social beliefs of investors. These are ethically balanced fund, negative ethical fund, sustainability-themed fund, environmentally themed investing fund, social-themed fund, ESG integration (Plus) fund and responsible ownership fund. This chapter reviews literature relating to various aspects of ethical funds. Mixed evidence is gathered regarding the comparative performance between ethical and conventional funds. The performance of ethical funds also varies across different styles. However, empirical evidence on risk exposure of ethical funds is scant. Therefore, this chapter calls for further research relating to the risk exposure of ethical funds to enrich our understanding and enlighten investors of this important aspect of investment.

Our study analyses connections between the economic and cultural capital of the families of international students, their study choices, and postgraduation returns. Thus far, research on brain drain has focused either on actual returns or on the intentions of students to return. Literature exploring the selectivity of international student mobility interpreted the middle class background of the students as a distinction strategy in a situation of expanding tertiary education in the source country. However, the connection between the cultural and economic capital of the student's family and postgraduation returns has not yet been analysed. Our results, based on a survey of parents of internationally mobile students from Slovakia, confirm the previously reported selectivity of international student mobility. Internationally mobile students come more often from families with a higher level of cultural capital. Moreover, students from families with high cultural capital have a higher probability of studying in more prestigious study destinations. The study destination is, however, not influenced by the economic capital of the family. We use structural equation modelling to describe the connection observed between cultural and economic capital and postgraduation returns. Although a high level of cultural capital increases the odds of nonreturn, a high level of economic capital increases the chance of postgraduation return. We suggest that such a “cultural capital drain” could have positive consequences on vertical labour market mobility in the source country. We discuss the connection between international student mobility and labour migration in the case of international students from low income families.

The effect of grandparents’ economic, cultural, and social capital on grandchildren's educational success

Investigating stratification within higher education through examining the status of students in different academic majors in terms of cultural, social and economic capital

Family background and cultural lifestyles: Multigenerational associations

On Pierre Bourdieu<i>Reproduction in Education, Society and Culture.</i>Pierre Bourdieu , Jean-Claude Passeron , Richard Nice<i>Outline of a Theory of Practice.</i>Pierre Bourdieu , Richard Nice

The United Kingdom is at the forefront of a global movement to establish a social-investment market. At the heart of social investment we find finance – and financialisation. Specifically, we find: a financial market (the social-investment market); a series of financial institutions (Big Society Capital, for example); a financial instrument (the social-impact bond); and a financial practice (social investing). Focusing on the UK, given its pioneering role, this paper first provides a brief history of social investment, tracing its development from the politics of the ‘Third Way’ to the social-impact bond. It then maps the terrain of the social-investment market, explaining the main institutions and actors, and the social-impact bond. Finally, it proposes a framework for analysing the disciplinary logics of finance, which it uses to understand the promise or threat (depending on one’s perspective) of social investment and the social-investment market.

Evidence indicates that beliefs such as fortune and misfortune or how getting daily bread are typical theological fatalism in terms of Iranian religion and Islamic culture. On the one hand, although it seems that economic problems are the main factor associated with the fatalism in fatalistic nations, studies illustrate that Iranian society have suffered from mistrust, lack of social participation, knowledge and so on. Moreover, cultural crises have been embedded with their daily life nowadays. Consequently, the question is raised in the mind of the author that the fatalism might have a complicated relationship towards economic, social and cultural capital since the mistrust reduces participation and then the wheel of economic will be stopped. As a result, socio-economic and cultural capitals could have influence on the fatalism. The aim of this study is to investigate the fatalism of citizens in Isfahan according to the benefit of economic, cultural and social capitals. The theories of Marx’s alienation and Durkheim’s excessive discipline are used to study the fatalism. On the other hand, Bourdieu's perspective is used for studying the economic and cultural capitals as well as evaluating the social class and the lifestyle. The survey research has been conducted on the 300 residents of the city. A cluster sampling method is used in this study. The questionnaire is used as a data collection instrument and the Pearson Correlation Coefficient; t-test and ANOVA are used for the data analysis. Finally, it can be concluded that education, economic and cultural capitals and the lifestyle can influence on the fatalism more than other variables.

To determine the accuracy of the SF-36 summary mental and physical health scales in reflecting their underlying subscales using the traditional method of scoring based on factor coefficients derived through principle components analysis and orthogonal rotation. A representative Australian population survey containing the SF-36 was used to obtain factor coefficients from principle components analysis and orthogonal rotation for scoring the physical component summary (PCS) and the mental component summary (MCS) of the SF-36 in the traditional way. In addition two other methods were used to produce coefficients. The first method used maximum likelihood extraction and oblique rotation. The second method fit a structural equation model to the data in a confirmatory factor analysis. The coefficients derived by each of the methods were applied to the data of a second representative population survey. This survey also provided data on physical and mental health status which allowed comparison of the summary scores and underlying subscales according to various health states. Neither of the scoring methods based on the exploratory factor analyses methods (orthogonal and oblique) produced summary scale scores, by age group, that adequately reflected the underlying subscales. When coefficients derived using structural equation modeling were fit to the data in a confirmatory factor analysis the MCS and PCS accurately reflected their underlying subscale scores. They also produced MCS and PCS scores for the various health states as would be expected from the underlying subscales. The traditional methods of scoring the SF-36 summary scales produce results that would not be expected from the underlying subscales. The problem was only corrected by fitting a structural equation model to the data in a confirmatory factor analysis. The results advise caution in the use of the SF-36 summary scales and suggests that alternative methods of developing factor coefficients need to be employed in studies using the SF-36 summary scales.

Objective:To find out the relationship of collective social, economic, and cultural properties of a population on the perceived quality of life (QOL) among old age people.Materials and Methods:In a community-based cross-sectional study, we analyzed information on a representative sample of 900 old age (aged > 60 years) from 28 villages in Kollam district of Kerala. WHO-Quality of Life - BREF questionnaire was used. Ethical clearance from Institutional Ethics Committee was obtained. The mean scores for perceived QOL for domains such as physical health, psychological health, social relations, and control of environments were calculated. The three scales (social capital, cultural capital, and economic capital) were standardized using z-score transformation to make them comparable. Using multiple linear regression, we calculated the independent effect of economic capital, social capital, and cultural capital on perceived QOL among old people adjusted for age, sex, and the presence of chronic disease.Results:For overall QOL, only cultural capital contributed significantly. An increase of one unit z-score cultural capital led to three units increase in overall QOL score (β = 3.362; 95% CI: 2.645-4.078). Social capital and cultural capital contributed significantly to the physical health domain of QOL. With one z-score increase in social capital and cultural capital, QOL score of physical health domain increased by 0.2 units (β = 0. 227; 95% CI: 0.020-0.434), and 0.5 (β = 0. 596; 95% CI: 0.384-0.808) units, respectively. Psychological health domain and environmental domain were affected by all three capitals significantly. But, the social relations domain was significantly affected only by cultural capital (β = 0. 576; 95% CI: 0.373-0.779).Conclusion:Hence, the policies for old people should envision retaining our cultural and social norms along with the economic interventions for a better palliative care.

Despite the rapid increase in the number of scientists all over the world in recent years, very few scientists can achieve to be part of elite scientist’s category. Although there are many studies focusing on elite scientists, these studies generally do not focus on their childhood and parental background. In this study, which attempts to fill this gap, we focus on the cultural and economic capital of the families of elite scientists in Turkey and their parental support in childhood to analyze the roles of these variables in their being elite scientists. First, we assess the impact of cultural capital (institutional, objectified, and embodied), economic capital, parental support, and perceived academic success in basic education on the probability of becoming an elite scientist. Second, we analyze the differences among elite scientists to shed light on the gender gap in academia. We collected the data from 1,966 scientists working at 87 universities in Turkey through an online survey. Some of our main findings are as follows: (a) cultural capital, parental support, and academic success in basic education all have a strong positive effect on becoming an elite scientist; (b) objectified cultural capital has the highest impact in that an increase in this capital increases the probability of becoming elite scientists by 19%; (c) economic capital has no significant effect on elite scientists. Elite scholars have certain common characteristics, but significantly they are different from their average peers in terms of cultural capital and parental support and (d) elite female scientists have higher of cultural capital, economic capital, parental support, and academic success than elite male scientists. This finding supports the existence of the academic inequality and suggests that female scientists need higher cultural capital, economic capital, parental support, and perceived academic success to become elite scientists than their male counterparts.

The research gravitates around ethical, sustainable banking activity in an attempt to measure its responsible impact, which is proxy by the efficiency of their financial intermediation function. The paper focuses on ethical banks included in the membership of the European Federation of Ethical and Alternative Banks. Ethical banks are in the spotlight as they are explicitly involved in channeling financial resources towards start-ups and investment projects characterized by the social, cultural and environmental value-added, by encouraging the development of responsible, durable projects. The data envelopment analysis technique was used for computing the relative efficiency score which applies a linear programming algorithm for aggregating multiple inputs and outputs specific to banking activity. The main research stages developed within the paper consist of the following: (i) Computation of efficiency scores for each ethical bank in a timeframe of four successive years; (ii) developing the efficient frontier; (iii) performing discrimination between efficient and less efficient ethical banks and making a ranking. Therefore, the results emphasize ethical banks’ comparative performance, in terms of efficiency, and allow the identification of resembling peers whose monitoring may help the bank in achieving a further efficiency status. Overall, the results show that a single ethical bank constantly fulfills its mission to be socially responsible and exhibits a persistent efficiency status while the remaining ones face heterogeneity in terms of efficient business conduct.

Psychological capital (PsyCap) is a multidimensional concept entailing hope, self-efficacy, optimism, and resilience. This paper argues that it can be considered a form of “capital” explaining social inequality. We test whether PsyCap can be integrated into the Bourdieusian capital framework by assessing its relationship with social, economic, and cultural capital. We also identify different types of social positions based on the volume and composition of psychological, economic, cultural, and social capital. We use cross-sectional data from the European Social Survey of 2012 (N = 35,313 respondents; 29 countries). To test the associations with the Bourdieusian capital types, we calculated multilevel spearman rank correlations and performed confirmatory factor analyses (CFA). Latent Class Analysis identified different types of social positions. We found positive weak correlations between PsyCap and the indicators of cultural capital (r ≤ .14) and positive moderate correlations with the indicators of economic and social capital (r ≤ .24). The results of the CFA showed that the fit of the 4-capital model was superior to that of the 3-capital model. We identified six types of social positions: two deprived types (with overall low capital levels); two well-off types (with overall high capital levels) and two types with high psychological and social capital in combination with varying levels of cultural and economic capital. Including PsyCap in the Bourdieusian capital framework acknowledges the power of positive psychological states regarding processes of social mobility and social inequality on the one hand and calls for understanding PsyCap as a social and group-level phenomenon on the other hand. As such, integrating PsyCap into the Bourdieusian framework can help to address the longstanding issue of understanding the relationship between social and individual differences in the study of social inequalities.