Shareholder Activism for Sustainability: Organizational Responses to Investors’ Demands

• In Event: 256 - Section on Organizations, Occupations and Work Roundtables (one-hour)
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 16. Social Responsibility

Abstract

This paper explores how companies respond to conflicting institutional demands. While companies need to gain profit, shareholder activists tackle ecological and social misbehavior within companies and question the purpose and the role of companies within society. According to institutional theory, shareholder activism is seen as a legitimation contest for corporations which demands (behavioral or discursive) strategic responses of targeted organizations. In order to analyze these strategic responses I conducted twenty interviews with mainly German speaking shareholder activists and investor relations departments of German companies. The research illustrates the influence of institutional settings on corporate responses to conflicting demands.

Author

• Sebastian Nagel, University of Jena