Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-7cvxr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T16:10:12.439Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

7 - Shareholder Activism

A Driver or an Obstacle to Sustainable Value Creation?

from Part II - The (UN)Sustainability of the EU Economic System

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 December 2022

Beate Sjåfjell
Affiliation:
University of Oslo
Georgina Tsagas
Affiliation:
Brunel University London
Charlotte Villiers
Affiliation:
University of Bristol
Get access

Summary

During the last decade, discussion on shareholder activism concentrated on hedge funds, some seeing them as agents for passive institutional shareholders, bridging the separation of ownership and control, others believing their short-term value-maximization interests differing fundamentally from those of other shareholders. Some have seen hopes for long-term activism in institutional shareholders such as pension funds. In the European Union, activism is seen positively, encouraging proposals to enhance shareholders’ rights against the boards’ discretion. The purpose of this chapter is to focus on institutional investor activism and its impact on both their ultimate beneficiaries and their target companies, and how investors could be incentivised to more sustainable behaviour in their activism. Albeit the focus is on the European Union, institutional investors are global. A broader perspective including North America and Asia is therefore taken. The most important impact of institutional activism is arguably normative, causing changes in corporate governance. Specific attention is therefore given to governance questions.

Type
Chapter
Information
Sustainable Value Creation in the European Union
Towards Pathways to a Sustainable Future through Crises
, pp. 154 - 182
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×