‘Do-good’ companies can do well for investors, Wharton researchers say

Impact investing is a nice idea — and for many critics, that’s precisely the problem.

The relatively young industry, which focuses on social or environmental returns in addition to financial ones, has until now lacked performance data. So how can you tell if investors are truly “doing well by doing good,” as the saying goes?

New research begins to shed light on the financial viability of such mission-driven investments, indicating returns comparable to non-mission-driven investments. Much research remains to be done, of course, but preliminary results are encouraging.