Sustainability and responsible corporate management have moved to the centre of entrepreneurial action. This is caused both by customers who have become more and more aware of the need to consume responsibly and by investors' interest in supporting sustainable businesses via their investment decisions.
Unfortunately, sustainability is often narrowly subsumed under the heading of "greening the economy". To deliver a sound business case, however, a sustainable corporate strategy needs to consider both environmental, social and governance aspects. At the same time, simply striving for "more" sustainability on each of these dimensions is not necessarily a good strategy for all businesses. Rather, a thorough assessment of the materiality of individual sustainability components is a necessary first step for both management and investors in their decision making. In our different research projects, we try to shed light on these different issues. We particularly focus on the question how a sustainable strategy can be effectively and efficiently implemented through a company's processes and structures. Examples include the integration of sustainability key performance indicators in management compensation systems or in bank loans.
The Sustainable Governance Lab aspires to furthering the sustainable development by providing robust and insightful academic evidence of the role and effects of corporate sustainability. We currently work on the following projects:
Auzepy, A., C. Bannier and F. Martin, 2022, Are sustainability-linked loans designed to effectively incentivize corporate
sustainability? A framework for review
Bannier, C., Y. Bofinger and B. Rock, 2022, The risk-return tradeoff: Are sustainable investors compensated adequately?
Auzepy A., C. Bannier and F. Martin, 2022, Walk the Talk: Shareholders' Soft Engagement on Annual General Meetings
Auzepy, A., C. Bannier, Y. Bofinger and B. Rock, 2022, Carbon footprints and equity risk assessments, https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4031824
Auzepy, A. and C. Bannier, 2022, Sustainability-Linked Loans: Effektive Unterstützung der Nachhaltigkeitstransformation durch Kreditfinanzierung, ESGZ, S. 40-45.
Bannier, C. and J. Reinschmidt, 2022, Vorstandsvergütung in DAX- und MDAX-Unternehmen, Die Wirtschaftsprüfung, Jahrgang 75, S. 639-645
Bannier, C., Y. Bofinger and B. Rock, 2022, Doing Safe by Doing Good: Non-Financial Reporting and the Risk Effects of Corporate Social Responsibility, European Accounting Review, forthcoming, https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3378469
Bannier, C., Y. Bofinger and B. Rock, 2022, Zooming in on CSR: Which aspects of CSR are relevant for companies’ equity risk?, Corporate Finance, forthcoming
Bofinger, Y., K. Heyden, B. Rock and C. Bannier, 2021, The sustainability trap: Active fund managers between ESG investing and fund overpricing, Finance Research Letters, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.frl.2021.102160
Bannier, C., Y. Bofinger and B. Rock, 2021, Corporate Social Responsibility and Credit Risk, Finance Research Letters https://doi.org/10.1016/j.frl.2021.102052 (link to Working Paper: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3686025)
Bannier, C., Y. Bofinger and B. Rock, 2021, Doing safe by doing good: Non-financial reporting and the risk effects of corporate social responsibility, Working Paper, Justus-Liebig-University Gießen (link: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3378469)
Bannier, C., A. Bauer, Y. Bofinger and C. Ewelt-Knauer, 2021, Corporate ethics programs: Reducing risks or wasting money? Insights from the perspective of investors, Working Paper, Justus-Liebig-University Gießen ( (link: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3382084)
Bannier, C. and D. Blaseg, 2019, Summarization in Financial Disclosures: Determinants and Effects of Prospectus Summaries, Working Paper, ESADE Business School (link: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3502154)
Bannier, C., T. Pauls and A. Walter, 2019, The Annual General Meeting Revisited - The Role of the CEO Speech, Working Paper, Justus-Liebig-University Giessen (link: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2869785)
Bechtoldt, M., C. Bannier und B. Rock, 2019, The Glass Cliff Myth – Evidence from Germany and the UK, Leadership Quarterly, 30(3), 273-297.
Bannier, C. und J. Redenius-Hövermann, 2020, Effekte guter Corporate Governance - Die Rolle unternehmerischer Transparenz, Zeitschrift für Corporate Governance, 06/2020, 246-252.
Bannier, C. und H. Schmidt, 2020, Nachhaltigkeitselemente in den Vergütungsstrukturen der DAX30-Unternehmen, Zeitschrift für das gesamte Kreditwesen, im Erscheinen
(Online) Hauptversammlungssaison 2020: Nachlese und Ausblick, 2020 (with Julia Redenius-Hövermann), Zeitschrift für Wirtschaftsrecht, S. 1885-1895.
Die virtuelle Hauptversammlung – Chancen, Risiken und Herausforderungen im Sinne guter Corporate Governance, 2020 (with Julia Redenius-Hövermann), Der Aufsichtsrat, 05/2020 S. 8-13.
Börsenzeitung, „Nachhaltigkeitsleitfaden für den Mittelstand“, 10.09.2022
Managermagazin, „Grüne Heuchelei“, 16.12.2021
Börsenzeitung, „Nicht nur Häkchen setzen“, 16.10.2021
Börsenzeitung, "Fondsmanager im ESG-Dilemma", 05.06.2021
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, „Nachhaltigkeit – ein Pflichtprogramm auch für Aufsichtsräte!“, 10.04.2021
Süddeutsche Zeitung, „Große blinde Flecken“, 22.03.2021
Börsenzeitung, "DVFA stellt Nachholbedarf in der Governance fest", 09.12.2020
HV-Magazin, „Wie sieht die HV der Zukunft aus – Experteninterview“, 12.10.2020
Börsenzeitung, „Gesetzgeber muss Aktionärsrechte in der virtuellen HV sichern“, 25.09.2020
Institutional-money, DVFA über den Lohn guter Governance, 11.09.2020
Börsenzeitung, „Eine gute Governance senkt die Risiken“, 11.09.2020
HR Info, Interview, 02.07.2020
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, „Der blinde Fleck der BaFin“, 01.07.2020
Handelsblatt, „Der Kampf um den guten Ruf“, 17.06.2020
ComplianceChannel-TV, „Doing safe by doing good“, Podcast, 09.06.2020
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung „Wirecard in der Krise“, 29.05.2020
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung „Die virtuelle Hauptversammlung hat Chancen und Risiken“, 15.04.2020
Börsenzeitung „Nachhaltigkeitsrisiken aus Sicht des Aufsichtsrats“, 17.01.2020
Börsenzeitung „Kleine Assetmanager müssen sich umstellen - Neues Aktionärsrechtegesetz ARUG II fördert Austausch im Sinne von „Stewardship““, 21.09.2019
Wirtschaftswoche “Es gibt keine gläserne Klippe”, 11.01.2019
Reuters “Doing the dirty work – do women mop up workplace mess?”, 13.12.2018