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An inductive analysis of ESG practices and assumptions of materiality amongst South African asset managers
South Africa is a country burdened by the overhang of apartheid and recent state capture, and desperately trying to balance economic growth with well-being of all stakeholders. This has opened the door for ESG practices to provide holistic solutions for both society and business. This is made partic...
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| Format: | Thesis |
| Language: | English |
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Graduate School of Business (GSB)
2020
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| _version_ | 1867613219362701312 |
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| access_status_str | Open Access |
| author | Worthington-Smith, Matthew |
| author2 | Giamporcaro, Stephanie |
| author_browse | Giamporcaro, Stephanie Worthington-Smith, Matthew |
| author_facet | Giamporcaro, Stephanie Worthington-Smith, Matthew |
| author_sort | Worthington-Smith, Matthew |
| collection | Thesis |
| description | South Africa is a country burdened by the overhang of apartheid and recent state capture, and desperately trying to balance economic growth with well-being of all stakeholders. This has opened the door for ESG practices to provide holistic solutions for both society and business. This is made particularly relevant by applying business resources to the most relevant ESG issues facing companies, the focus of this study. To achieve the objective of promoting positive societal outcomes through better corporate engagement with ESG, the study analysed 22 asset managers, 25 companies and 25 earnings call transcripts for the opinions of asset managers, companies and analysts on which issues were material to them across five industries. Alongside this analysis, asset managers were interviewed for their opinion of ESG as it is currently practiced in the South African market, where they saw barriers to its practice and where potential improvements could be made. The study found alignment between asset managers and companies on the majority of material issues, but little alignment with analysts, suggesting a break-down in conversation between investors and companies. In particular, the issue of governance was stressed as the most important issue category by asset managers across all industries, but was given little air-time by both companies and analysts. These findings were consistent with the literature on investor perspectives of ESG, company ESG disclosure and materiality. The author suggests a model for materiality be developed to gauge company response to material ESG issues more consistently and aide engagement. Key words: ESG, sustainability, materiality, decoupling, disclosure |
| format | Thesis |
| id | oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/32307 |
| institution | University of Cape Town (South Africa) |
| language | eng |
| last_indexed | 2026-06-10T12:32:39.476Z |
| license_str | Not specified — see source repository |
| provenance_str_mv | Harvested via OAI-PMH from UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository |
| publishDate | 2020 |
| publishDateRange | 2020 |
| publishDateSort | 2020 |
| publisher | Graduate School of Business (GSB) |
| publisherStr | Graduate School of Business (GSB) |
| record_format | dspace |
| source_str | UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository |
| spelling | oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/32307 An inductive analysis of ESG practices and assumptions of materiality amongst South African asset managers Worthington-Smith, Matthew Giamporcaro, Stephanie ESG sustainability materiality decoupling disclosure South Africa is a country burdened by the overhang of apartheid and recent state capture, and desperately trying to balance economic growth with well-being of all stakeholders. This has opened the door for ESG practices to provide holistic solutions for both society and business. This is made particularly relevant by applying business resources to the most relevant ESG issues facing companies, the focus of this study. To achieve the objective of promoting positive societal outcomes through better corporate engagement with ESG, the study analysed 22 asset managers, 25 companies and 25 earnings call transcripts for the opinions of asset managers, companies and analysts on which issues were material to them across five industries. Alongside this analysis, asset managers were interviewed for their opinion of ESG as it is currently practiced in the South African market, where they saw barriers to its practice and where potential improvements could be made. The study found alignment between asset managers and companies on the majority of material issues, but little alignment with analysts, suggesting a break-down in conversation between investors and companies. In particular, the issue of governance was stressed as the most important issue category by asset managers across all industries, but was given little air-time by both companies and analysts. These findings were consistent with the literature on investor perspectives of ESG, company ESG disclosure and materiality. The author suggests a model for materiality be developed to gauge company response to material ESG issues more consistently and aide engagement. Key words: ESG, sustainability, materiality, decoupling, disclosure 2020-10-15T11:50:21Z 2020-10-15T11:50:21Z 2020 2020-10-15T11:30:02Z Master Thesis Masters MPhil http://hdl.handle.net/11427/32307 eng application/pdf Graduate School of Business (GSB) Faculty of Commerce |
| spellingShingle | ESG sustainability materiality decoupling disclosure Worthington-Smith, Matthew An inductive analysis of ESG practices and assumptions of materiality amongst South African asset managers |
| thesis_degree_str | Master's |
| title | An inductive analysis of ESG practices and assumptions of materiality amongst South African asset managers |
| title_full | An inductive analysis of ESG practices and assumptions of materiality amongst South African asset managers |
| title_fullStr | An inductive analysis of ESG practices and assumptions of materiality amongst South African asset managers |
| title_full_unstemmed | An inductive analysis of ESG practices and assumptions of materiality amongst South African asset managers |
| title_short | An inductive analysis of ESG practices and assumptions of materiality amongst South African asset managers |
| title_sort | inductive analysis of esg practices and assumptions of materiality amongst south african asset managers |
| topic | ESG sustainability materiality decoupling disclosure |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/11427/32307 |
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