Investors' taste for CSR firms and/or customer loyalty to CSR firms can lower systematic risk. Investors with a taste for CSR firms no longer view investment in CSR firms as investment assets, but as consumption assets, because they can derive utility from holding these assets rather than from their pay-offs (Fama and French, 2007). This investment behavior imputes some
kind of inelasticity to the demand curve for CSR stocks. For example, investors may buy or sell these stocks, not because of their risk-adjusted return performance or economic fundamentals, but because of their CSR performance. Similarly, greater customer loyalty to CSR firms means that these firms will face a more loyal (i.e., less price-sensitive) demand and have a profit function that is less sensitive to changes in economic fundamentals. This kind of inelasticity makes these stocks less responsive to market-wide shocks, and less prone to systematic risk. This channel therefore indicates that firms with higher CSR scores tend to have lower systematic risk