Towards Sustainable Finance: Conceptualizing Future Generations as Stakeholders

Abstract

The paper aims to address a difficult yet important issue of the modern world, which is related to a lack of consideration, from investors’ point of view, for the sustainable future of our socioeconomic system. Many investors think in terms of MSV (maximization of the shareholder value) and fail to consider other important stakeholders. Future generations will “inherit” the results of the actions of current generations. Investing money in some lucrative ideas is definitely a very important financial activity, but it must be done responsibly. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) postulated by the UN; the Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) criteria; and the Equator Principles are some notions proposed to be considered to make investors’ actions more responsible. Future generations deserve a better, safer, and unwasted place to live in, so it is the right time to start thinking of them as major stakeholders. The paper reviews some of the important research related to this issue and brings its contribution to the stakeholder theory by proposing a new vision, one that is future oriented. The proposal to conceptualize future generations as stakeholders is an important contribution of the paper. Methodologically, we relied on relevant literature and recent initiatives and approaches. Further research is needed to identify the means to operationalize our proposal.