Sources of Stakeholder Salience in the Responsible Investment Movement: Why Do Investors Sign the Principles for Responsible Investment?

Using five years of internal proprietary data collected directly from United Nations supported Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI) signatories, we examine the attributes of the stakeholder relationship between investment organizations and the PRI. The analysis is carried out in the framework of Mitchell’s et al. (1997) theory of stakeholder salience and its further developments by Gifford (2010).The findings highlight pragmatic legitimacy, organizational legitimacy, power attributes and management values as the factors having the most impact on the salience of the claim to sign the PRI in the eyes of investors.