Morality in Times of Uncertainty

The Moral Grounding of Impact Investing Asset Managers

Abstract

This paper analyses the moral discourse of contemporary “caring capitalists” through a Geneva-based study of impact asset managers seeking to generate measurable social and environmental results alongside a financial return. The discursive analysis reveals how strongly impact investing is grounded in the worldview of finance, in spite of its claim to transcend it. In a context of uncertainty about impact, we also show that principle-based deontological frameworks provide our participants with an attractive addition to their consequentialist reasoning.