Citation: Marzuki, Ainulashikin,
Fauzias Mat Nor, Nur Ainna Ramli,
Mohamad Yazis Ali Basah, and
Muhammad Ridhwan Ab Aziz. 2023.
The Influence of ESG, SRI, Ethical,
and Impact Investing Activities on
Portfolio and Financial
Performance—Bibliometric
Analysis/Mapping and Clustering
Analysis. Journal of Risk and Financial
Management 16: 321. https://
doi.org/10.3390/jrfm16070321
Academic Editor: ¸ Stefan
Cristian Gherghina
Received: 8 June 2023
Revised: 28 June 2023
Accepted: 30 June 2023
Published: 6 July 2023
Copyright: © 2023 by the authors.
Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.
This article is an open access article
distributed under the terms and
conditions of the Creative Commons
Attribution (CC BY) license (https://
creativecommons.org/licenses/by/
4.0/).
Journal of
Risk and Financial
Management
Article
The Influence of ESG, SRI, Ethical, and Impact Investing
Activities on Portfolio and Financial Performance—
Bibliometric Analysis/Mapping and Clustering Analysis
Ainulashikin Marzuki, Fauzias Mat Nor *, Nur Ainna Ramli, Mohamad Yazis Ali Basah
and Muhammad Ridhwan Ab Aziz
Faculty of Economics and Muamalat, Universiti Sains Islam Malaysia, Nilai 71800, Malaysia;
ainulashikin@usim.edu.my (A.M.); nurainna.ramli@usim.edu.my (N.A.R.); yazis@usim.edu.my (M.Y.A.B.);
ridhwan.aziz@usim.edu.my (M.R.A.A.)
* Correspondence: fauzias@usim.edu.my
Abstract: This paper aims to examine the publication metrics of literature related to the influential
aspects of ESG (environmental, social, and governance), SRI (socially responsible investing), ethical,
and impact investing on the portfolio and financial performance literature. It also seeks to identify
major patterns and core themes in this topic and draw lessons from the past literature for future
directions. Data from the SCOPUS database were used in this study. The ‘biblioshiny’ R package,
also known as ‘bibliometrix 3.0’, was employed to conduct bibliometric analysis, utilising mapping
and clustering techniques on 260 articles, in order to distil the comprehensive knowledge and
identify emerging trends in ESG, SRI, ethical, and impact investing. The thematic map classified
the ESG, SRI, ethical, impact investing and performance relationship themes into four categories of
themes: niche themes (SRI, engagement and ESG), motor themes (corporate financial performance,
corporate social performance, ESG, ESG factors, sustainability, performance, integrated reporting,
gender diversity, and board size), emerging or declining themes (social responsibility, environmental
performance, socially responsible investment, ethical investment, and SRI), and basic or transversal
themes (financial performance, corporate social performance, ESG performance, environmental,
social, and governance). Socially responsible investing, engagement, and ESG imply a position
between niche themes and a highly developed topic/emerging or a decreasing theme, while the
impact of COVID-19 on sustainability and financial performance implies a position between a highly
developed topic/emerging or decreasing theme and a basic theme. The findings contribute to the
enhanced understanding of ESG, SRI, ethical, impact investing and performance, which are crucial
for an efficient capital market in promoting sustainability and sustainable development. The study
offers vital practical implications and future research directions.
Keywords: ESG; SRI; bibliometric analysis; publication metrics
1. Introduction
Although there are important differences, the terms environmental, social, and gov-
ernance (ESG), socially responsible investing (SRI), and impact investing are often used
interchangeably. Besides typical financial indicators, ESG considers the company’s ESG
activities (Zhou 2019). Additionally, SRI entails selecting or rejecting assets based on certain
ethical standards (Zhou 2019). The SRI concept or responsible investment (RI) has emerged
to be highly relevant among numerous investors in recent decades and gained increasing
attention within academic literature (Derwall et al. 2011; Sievänen et al. 2013). As stated
by the European Social Investment Forum (Eurosif 2016), SRI can be comprehended as a
long-term-oriented investment method that targets integrating ESG factors into decisions
concerning investments. In the economics literature, corporate social responsibility (CSR)
is another commonly used term for ESG factors (Liang and Renneboog 2020; Gillan et al.
J. Risk Financial Manag. 2023, 16, 321. https://doi.org/10.3390/jrfm16070321 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/jrfm