Constructing a Corporate Social Responsibility Fund Using Fuzzy Multiple Criteria Decision Making
The past decade has witnessed numerous financial scandals occurring all around the world, including those involving Enron, Worldcom, Rebar Group, Societe Generale, and so on. These incidents have created concern and instability in the society and the economy. Consequently, corporate social responsibility (CSR), which is a form of corporate self-regulation integrated into a business model, has become more important than ever before. Although ethical funds have become a popular financial product among investors in developed nations, the Taiwanese stock markets currently lack listed CSR funds. This study examines the crucial aspects and criteria associated with CSR in manufacturing and non-manufacturing industries using the fuzzy multiple criteria decision making (fuzzy MCDM). Empirical findings indicate that the three aspects and fifteen rules of CSR exhibit substitution effects. However, these aspects do not differ significantly in terms of importance, with the only relatively low score being that of the ethical aspect. The findings demonstrate that financial analysts in Taiwan pay greater attention to a firm's financial stability than to implementation of CSR. The financial analysts also expect a CSR fund to follow a conservative investment style. On four measures of fund performance, the CSR fund outperforms the TAIEX, TSIF, and MSCI indices. This demonstrates that the investment risk of the CSR fund is low and justifies a recommendation to hold over the long term.
corporate social responsibility ethical fund mcdm fuzzy integral