Shareholder Engagement on Environmental, Social, and Governance Performance
Shareholder Engagement on Environmental, Social, and Governance Performance
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DOI：
10.1007/s10551-021-04850-z
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发表时间：
2021-07-20
影响因子：
6.1
通讯作者：
Renneboog, Luc
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Barko, Tamas;Cremers, Martijn;Renneboog, Luc
我们通过一个大型国际社会责任活动家基金的专有数据集，研究了幕后投资者的行动主义，以促进环境、社会和治理（ESG）的改善。我们考察了活动家的目标选择、参与形式、对ESG绩效的影响、成功的驱动因素以及对目标运营和价值创造的影响。目标公司通常规模大、知名度高、业绩好、流动性高（股票周转率），ESG业绩低。参与导致ESG评级调整：事前ESG评级差的公司在遵守活动家的要求后评级上升，而事前ESG评级高的公司在披露其ESG问题后评级下降。如果目标对ESG敏感（即，他们有很强的事前ESG概况）。成功的互动会提高目标客户的销售额。风险调整后的超额股票收益率（四个因素调整，相对于匹配的样本未参与的公司）的成功的约定超过了2.7%的不成功的约定。对于事前ESG得分较低的公司，结果尤其强劲。具体而言，在参与结束后的一年中，ESG事前最低四分位数的目标公司的表现比匹配的同行高出7.5%。因此，我们的研究结果表明，关于企业社会责任的行动主义通常会改善ESG实践和企业销售，并为行动主义者带来利润。总之，我们提供的直接证据表明，道德投资和强劲的财务业绩，无论是从积极分子的角度和目标公司的角度来看，可以携手并进。
We study behind-the-scenes investor activism promoting environmental, social, and governance (ESG) improvements by means of a proprietary dataset of a large international, socially responsible activist fund. We examine the activist's target selection, forms of engagement, impact on ESG performance, drivers of success, and effects on the targets' operations and value creation. Target firms are typically large and visible, perform well, and have high liquidity (stock turnover) and low ESG performance. Engagement induces ESG rating adjustments: firms with poor ex ante ESG ratings experience a ratings increase after complying with the activist's demands, whereas firms with high ex ante ESG ratings experience a ratings decrease following the revelation of their ESG problems. Activism that is focused on environmental and social issues is more likely to succeed if targets are ESG-sensitive (i.e., they have a strong ex ante ESG profile). Successful engagements boost targets' sales. Risk-adjusted excess stock returns (with four-factor adjustment and relative to a matched sample of non-engaged firms) of successful engagements outperform those of unsuccessful engagements by 2.7%. Results are especially strong for firms with low ex ante ESG scores. Specifically, targeted firms in the lowest ex ante ESG quartile outperform matched peers by 7.5% in the year after the end of the engagement. Our results thus suggest that the activism regarding corporate social responsibility generally improves ESG practices and corporate sales and is profitable to the activist. Taken together, we provide direct evidence that ethical investing and strong financial performance, both from the activist's and the targeted firm's perspective, can go hand-in-hand together.