Das Projekt "The Influence of Corporate Responsibility on the Cost of Capital" wird vom Umweltbundesamt gefördert und von Schlange & Co. GmbH durchgeführt. Corporate responsibility (CR) issues have gained importance within the financial community due to the exponential growth of specialized institutes, expansion of academic and research departments, increased launching of mutual funds allocated according to sustainability criteria, proliferation of online resources and other publications, and specialized corporate responsibility reports. A closer look at the literature concerning the relationship between CR issues and financial measures indicated three major fields for improvement in this area: (1) the development of a common understanding of CR issues; (2) the measurement of CR performance; and (3) the question of how CR issues affect the risk profile of a company. Since a common understanding of CR cannot be constructed theoretically, we based our research on the frequently used triple bottom line approach, in which CR incorporates economic, ecological and social responsibility issues. When it comes to the field of measuring CR performance, there are already plenty of methods and frameworks. In this research we developed a unique CR rating scheme based on existing frameworks and using weighting factors from analysts and investors. The question of how CR affects the risk profile of a company led to the projects objective: to analyze the impact of CR on capital market financing with a specific focus on electric utilities, assuming that the lower the company risk, the lower the cost of capital. We hypothesized that there is a relationship between CR and financial performance (H1) and that good CR performance reduces the risk to a company (H2). A clear relationship between CR and financial performance was not found, but CR and financial performance were indirectly linked throughout company risk. This research delivers evidence that CR performance is strongly linked to financial risk measures. There is also support for the assumption that CR issues are likely to be regulation-driven. Regulation seems to be a driver for CR engagement in the utility industry. It seems that a complete lack of CR engagement exposes a company to unnecessary high risk.