Alan’s research, which we have been following with some interest over the last 3 and a half years, is directly relevant to our work at Ethical Futures, given its focus on financial advice for impact investors. 

Whilst we don’t want to drown you in the details (his thesis is over 300 pages and 80,000 words long!) we thought we’d ask Alan to share some of the findings which he thinks are most interesting. 

Marian: Congratulations on this fantastic achievement! Can you please give us a summary of the thesis Alan, preferably in less than 100 words? 

Alan: Thanks Marian, it is something people keep asking me to do, so you’d think that I’d be good at it by now! (I hope you don’t count this in the 100 words, or I won’t have much left to work with!). 

Essentially, I wanted to understand how people make decisions about Impact Investing when advice is a factor.  I started by thinking about a key concept in behavioural finance (how human behaviour influences financial decision-making) about how when we feel things aren’t how they should be it changes how we think about investing. 

Marian: I’m not sure I am any clearer but do go on. 

Alan: It was summed up perfectly by one of my participants: 

“…People think about what they experienced when they were growing up. The number of ladybirds and the amount of birdsong and stuff like that, should have been like it was in the 1960s…” 

If people see the world in a state of loss from a position they think it should be in, then they might act to try and correct that. 

In terms of Impact Investing a perceived loss of something non-financial like birdsong, ladybirds or hedgehogs might result in wanting to invest to try and fix that. 

Marian: Ok, did you find that was the case? 

Alan: Ish.  Like all things, the reality is much more nuanced.  For some people, and their advisers, this is definitely something which impacts decision-making.  What was perhaps more interesting was that people were focussed on avoiding harm in the first instance.  When they know they aren’t complicit in making things worse, then they might look at investing to try and help create change or make a difference. 

Marian: Do you think these findings are going to change the way in which people give advice? 

Alan: I am not sure.  I hope it will help people understand how non-financial returns can be very important to people and why.  I think it has shown that how people perceive the state of the world in which we live can have a meaningful impact on advice decisions and even on how the advice is presented? 

This might be helpful in supporting people who are not yet investing for the purpose of creating change. 

Marian:Was there anything that surprised you in particular? 

Alan: The most exciting things for me (and apologies if I geek-out for a moment) was learning about how the language people use to describe investing in and advising on Impact Investments.  I am still really excited about this, and I am currently looking for ways in which I can extend that research into other areas. 

Marian: So, the fun isn’t over yet then? 

Alan: Definitely not.  I’d say it’s only just beginning.  Or at least I hope so! 

The important thing for me is that whatever I am looking at I want it to be useful.  I don’t want to be caught up in doing research for its own sake.  It must be useful to investors, advisers, and to the world in general. 

Marian: Is there anywhere anyone can read your research if they are really interested? 

Alan: Hopefully I will be able to share the British Library link to my thesis before long but since the cyber attack which took down their thesis repository a couple of years ago, I am not sure when this will be available. 

I am working on a summary version of my findings at the moment.  I had thought about sharing a copy of my abstract, then I read it, and I realised that it might not help very much! 

Marian: Thanks for taking the time to talk about this. 

Alan: Thank you for asking me to do so!  And also, thanks for the support while I’ve been studying and to all of the people who participated in the research and who shared their time and experiences.  Without them there wouldn’t be any research!