Consumer social responsibility is a term that is thrown around by businesses as well as everyday people who believe that it is a major value that firms should stand by. But is this really only something that concerns the decisions of senior level management in well-grounded corporations who have the funds to make a difference?

(Source: InvestingIQ)

Rachel Rosenthal writes that Ethical Investing in Emerging Markets adds to the territory of social responsibilty and is actually an extremely difficult task due to a lack of transparency and reporting standards. In our globalized world and economy, this is an issue that should be taken care of to allow information to flow through to stakeholders.

What is interesting about this is that social responsibility is a major driving force to making this happen because firms are benefiting from exposure and the draw in investment. Quantitatively, funds that incorporate ESG (Environmental, Social, Governmental) standards are leading in stock performance by approximately 25% with total asset growth nearly tripling.

For those of us starting to get involved in trading, perhaps it will be a good idea to follow this trend and create our portfolio wisely. Our decisions to invest in certain companies reflect the values that we carry and also determine the trends of successful companies.