Millennials and women make responsible investments

On 11 May 2021, Hanken's research group presented the results of a survey carried out with Nordnet to map the responsibility of private investors in Finland. The survey is unique also on a global level. Having more than 5,000 respondents, the researchers gained a good idea of how responsible Finnish investors are.

"Sustainable investing is the consideration of factors related to the environment, social responsibility, and corporate governance (ESG) in investing, as well as to the connection between the risks and opportunities associated with these factors," explains Hanna Silvola, the study's leading researcher. "Sustainable investors seek good returns on their capital, but they also seek to include sustainability aspects in their investing activities by allocating their investments to investees that promote sustainability."

The results show that those who invest most responsibly are Millennials (<40 years), women, city dwellers, highly educated and Swedish speaking Finns. Those who, on the other hand, do not invest responsibly are older and investors with large portfolios.

" It will be interesting to see what happens as the assets of elderly investors eventually go to the younger generation. Will the investment portfolio become more responsible, or do they continue on the same familiar path", Silvola ponders.

Typically, existing investments are often left untouched, and instead new investments are more likely to have a sustainable profile. As many as 60% of the respondents stated that they take ESG factors into account when making investment decisions. They also estimated that the share of responsible investments in the total will increase, although there were large variations on this point.

" Regarding different sustainability aspects, environmental issues were considered most important when making investment decisions. The question of whether companies bear their tax responsibility or promote diversity among their employees was not considered as important," commented Emilia Vähämaa, assistant professor.

The study was carried out as Hanken School of Economics' scientific research project and was led by Associate Professor Hanna Silvola. The research group also included Associate Professor Emilia Vähämaa (Hanken) and Professor Bonnie Buchanan (University of Surrey, UK). Nordnet participated as a partner to reach out to the respondents.

More information:

Hanna Silvola
Associate Professor
+358 50 471 2536
hanna.silvola@hanken.fi

Emilia Vähämaa
Associate Professor
+358 40 352 1758
emilia.vahamaa@hanken.fi