This file was created by the TYPO3 extension publications --- Timezone: CEST Creation date: 2026-05-28 Creation time: 00:04:07 --- Number of references 11 Since the Paris Agreement in 2015 and the European Union’s commitment to leading the transition toward a sustainable economy, the European market for passively managed ESG products has experienced remarkable growth. This study examines the financial performance of 34 European ESG ETFs linked to the MSCI Europe Index from 2015 to 2024, taking into account key events like the Paris Agreement, COVID-19, and the Russia-Ukraine conflict. To assess ESG ETF performance, we apply the Sharpe (Sharpe, Management Science 9:277–293, 1963) index model and the Fama French (Fama and French, Journal of Financial Economics 116:1–22, 2015) five-factor model. Furthermore, we analyze how geopolitical crises, health crises, and the choice of ESG strategy are related to ETF performance. The results indicate that the ESG strategy itself shows only a limited relationship with alpha values, but is related with the sensitivity to market fluctuations. Moreover, we find that ESG ETFs tend to underperform their non-sustainable benchmarks during periods of geopolitical turmoil, accompanied by increased risk exposure, as observed during the Russia–Ukraine conflict. article 2026 1 14 1479-179X,1470-8272 10.1057/s41260-025-00436-w Journal of Asset Management 27 Springer 4 https://epub.uni-regensburg.de/id/eprint/78439 Lena Gebauer Christian Kreuzer Christoph Schmidhammer Unlike traditional assets, cryptocurrencies lack fundamental information such as dividends, earnings, or cash flows, requiring market participants to rely on alternative sources of information for price discovery and trading decisions. In this study, we analyze the relationship between news sentiment and Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) futures returns, as well as net trading positions. We use a dataset of over 9100 BTC and 5400 ETH news articles. The findings reveal that news sentiment is significantly associated with futures price movements and market positioning by professional investors. We extend the traditional dictionary-based approach of Loughran and McDonald (2011) by enabling a more precise identification of crypto-relevant content. Our findings highlight the role of news sentiment as an information channel in cryptocurrency derivatives markets and uncover substantial differences between the BTC and ETH futures markets. article 2026 1 03 1380-6645,1573-7144 Review of Derivatives Research Springer https://epub.uni-regensburg.de/id/eprint/78030 Christian Kreuzer Christian Sparrer Gregor Dorfleitner This study examines 139 socially responsible and 4,898 conventional U.S. mutual funds from 2013–2020, analyzing social responsibility and irresponsibility by screening fund holdings. SR funds show higher weighted ESG ratings and subscores than conventional funds but underperform regarding corporate scandals, driven by social and governance issues, with no significant differences in environmental scandals. Passive SR funds tend to show higher weighted ESG scores than active SR funds. The findings offer valuable insights for ethical investors and fund managers to enhance investment strategies and decision-making. article 2025 11 24 10.1016/j.frl.2025.109002 Finance Research Letters 87 Elsevier 109002 https://epub.uni-regensburg.de/id/eprint/78250 Jakob Artinger Christian Kreuzer Cryptocurrencies provide an escape from the conventional financial system and its regulations and could therefore become increasingly popular in the midst of geopolitical uncertainties. We analyze the linkage of the Russia–Ukraine conflict and the trading volume of 16 major cryptocurrencies via event study methodologies, based on a geopolitical risk index. The results show that the trading volume of most cryptocurrencies is positively affected by the events of the conflict. This is especially true for payment tokens and most utility coins. Interestingly, stablecoins show only fewer trading volumes before the actual event. Among utility tokens, Ripple in particular is positively influenced. article 2024 9 28 10.1016/j.frl.2024.106191 Finance Research Letters 69 Part B Elsevier 106191 https://epub.uni-regensburg.de/id/eprint/59320 Christian Kreuzer Ralf Laschinger Christopher Priberny Sven Benninghoff Based on an international data set that comprises over 6,100 companies located in 44 countries in the years 2002–2018, this paper analyzes the relation between corporate scandals and board structures besides further firm-related, political, nation-level economic, and cultural variables. We identify board structure variables that are positively associated with a firm’s corporate scandals, namely high CSR efforts and busy board members. There are also variables that are negatively associated with this kind of behavior, namely qualified and skilled boards. No clear evidence can be determined from a board’s gender diversity, independent board members, and board size. article 2024 2366-6153,0341-2687 10.1007/s41471-024-00192-4 Schmalenbach Journal of Business Research 76 Springer 433-461 https://epub.uni-regensburg.de/id/eprint/59218 Gregor Dorfleitner Christian Kreuzer We empirically study the perception of political uncertainty by UK’s stock markets, covering the entire Brexit period from January 2013 to March 2020. We find that indices dominated by the largest capitalized companies anticipate negatively perceived events already prior to the actual event, whereas positive events only effect them on the event day or following. In contrast, the FTSE 250, composed of medium-sized companies, tends to move prior to positively perceived events. Furthermore, we investigate the daily perception of Brexit measured by a metric based on Google Trends. Our results show that perception significantly affects all major UK indices. article 2024 2199-1235,2199-1227 10.3790/ccm.2025.1457101 Credit and Capital Markets 57 Duncker & Humblot 31-47 https://epub.uni-regensburg.de/id/eprint/76576 Christian Kreuzer Christopher Priberny Johannes Huther This dissertation focuses on financial aspects of sustainability. In particular, corporate social responsibility and irresponsibility are at the core of this dissertation. The four research papers evaluate the relationship between CFP and CSP, SR mutual funds, the linkage of policy, society, culture, and firm characteristics with corporate scandals, and also analyze the linkage of board structure with corporate scandals. thesis_rgbg 2022 8 31 https://epub.uni-regensburg.de/id/eprint/52835 Christian Kreuzer We analyze how board characteristics affect a company's carbon emissions besides further firm -related and cultural variables, using data on over 6,000 companies located in 46 countries for the period 2009-2019. We identify the boards that are more skilled or have a higher share of female members to emit a lower amount of greenhouse gases. Surprisingly, high CSR board efforts show higher carbon emissions. We observe that the importance of time varying effects within a company changed as a consequence of the Paris Agreement in 2015. article 2022 6 21 1544-6123,1544-6131 10.1016/j.frl.2022.103077 Finance Research Letters 49 ACADEMIC PRESS INC ELSEVIER SCIENCE

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103077 https://epub.uni-regensburg.de/id/eprint/52497 Christian Kreuzer Christopher Priberny article 2022 1879-1751,0167-2681 Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization 202 Elsevier 762-784 https://epub.uni-regensburg.de/id/eprint/52805 Gregor Dorfleitner Christian Kreuzer Christian Sparrer Based on a dataset of over 400 fund compositions in the years 2003-2018 this paper analyzes the persistence of controversies scores and environmental, social, governance (ESG) scores in socially responsible US mutual funds. As measurements for corporate social irresponsibility as well as corporate social responsibility activities, it is shown that US mutual funds exhibit controversies and ESG persistence in the short and longer-term. When examining the relationship between controversies and ESG scores in comparison with management fees, it becomes apparent that higher-paid managers achieve better results regarding controversies scoring but worse results regarding ESG scoring, compared to lower-paid managers. article 2021 1544-6123,1544-6131 10.1016/j.frl.2021.101990 Finance Research Letters 43 ACADEMIC PRESS INC ELSEVIER SCIENCE

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101990 https://epub.uni-regensburg.de/id/eprint/45031 Gregor Dorfleitner Christian Kreuzer Ralf Laschinger Based on an extensive international dataset containing Thomson Reuters environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) rating, as well as Thomson Reuters newest controversies and combined score of an average of 2500 companies in the years 2002–2018, this article contributes to the existing discourse of the relationship between corporate social performance and corporate financial performance (CFP) by examining the Fama and French (J Financ Econ 116(1):1–22, 2015) five-factor risk-adjusted performance of positive screened best and worst portfolios, based on a 10% cutoff, respectively, for equally, value- and rank-weighted strategies in the European, US and global market. Furthermore, the controversies score allows us to examine the mid-to-long-term effects of scandals on the CFP without having to rely on the event study methodology. Even though a value-weighted strategy does not show any significant abnormal returns, we examined a significant outperformance for equally weighted worst ESG portfolios and best controversies strategies. These results strongly indicate that this is, on the one hand, driven by low-rated smaller companies (“small sinners”) and clean-coated firms with regard to controversies (“silent saints”) on the other hand. The findings hold for several robustness checks such as adjusting the cutoff rates or splitting the dataset across time. article 2020 1470-8272,1479-179X 10.1057/s41260-020-00178-x Journal of Asset Management 21 Springer 393-412 https://epub.uni-regensburg.de/id/eprint/43486 Gregor Dorfleitner Christian Kreuzer Christian Sparrer