When socially responsible investment analysis becomes financial: an analysis of cognitive and organizational instruments of legitimacy

Abstract : Developed in France in SRI research houses, Socially Responsible Investment (SRI) analysis emerges in brokerage firms. Its entry in the core of organizational field of financial information treatment raises questions about the evolution of the practices. This field study analyses how SRI analysts get legitimacy, how they are managed in brokerage firms and how organisational and institutional contexts shape the ways they form their opinions and interpret information.