Responsible Business Practice by Institutional Investors as the Basic Means of Preventing Violations of Public Interest of Citizen Investors

Vazhynskyi, V., Pohoretskyi, M., & Toporetska, Z. (2024). Responsible Business Practice by Institutional Investors as the Basic Means of Preventing Violations of Public Interest of Citizen Investors. Baltic Journal of Economic Studies, 10(1), 20-29. https://doi.org/10.30525/2256-0742/2024-10-1-20-29

The article is devoted to the analysis of the concept of "responsible business conduct" from the point of view of public interest. It is noted that responsible corporate governance has its origins in the concept of "corporate social responsibility", which became widespread in the 1970s in the US and the UK as a result of increased public and consumer attention to the overall image of companies. At the international level, many documents have been adopted to regulate corporate social responsibility. However, not enough has been done in Ukraine to introduce this category into economic activity. The purpose of the research is to analyse the legal grounds and theoretical approaches to the formation of the concept of "responsible business conduct" and to present the author's approach to the essence of the concept of "responsible business conduct of institutional investors" from the point of view of the protection of the public interest. According to the purpose of the article, several scientific methods of modern epistemology were used in the scientific research. The methodological basis of the study was the theory of legal cognition developed by prominent experts in the field of investment law. In addition, special research methods were used, in particular: comparative – to compare the rules of international and national law; historical and legal – for retrospective analysis of the concept of social responsibility; special legal – for in-depth analysis of the regulations governing the procedure of investment; systematic approach and logical-legal method – to analyse the impact of some factors on the investment activity of individuals and some elements of the formation of logical and specific theoretical and applied conclusions. In conclusion, the authors define responsible business as a set of generally accepted norms, rules and principles that are voluntarily implemented by companies in order to achieve the goals of sustainable development of society; they are not part of the national legislation of Ukraine, but their observance indicates a certain business reputation of the business entity. For institutional investors, responsible corporate governance includes two main groups of activities of an institutional investor: "responsible attraction" of funds and "responsible investment" of funds of individual investors. The authors proposed to divide the responsible business conduct of an institutional investor to manifest its social responsibility into "responsible attraction" of funds and "responsible investment" of funds.