Socially Responsible Investment Engagement

Abstract

This study explores engagement in socially responsible investment (SRI) processes. More specifically, it researches the impact of shareholder salience on the success of engagement activities. The research question asks: What is the relationship between shareholder salience and engagement effort success? Observations made within this study are based on 61 engagement projects between an institutional investor engaging in the environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) performances of their investees and 61 of the investees. The analysis is based upon the investor’s existing engagement database, which contains log files of 552 engagement activities, as well as interviews with seven engagement professionals. Content analyses and a regression analysis are applied to the database and content analyses to the interviews. No significant relationship between shareholder salience and engagement effort success was found in this case. However, urgency was found to affect the success of engagement efforts. The researchers were unable to find full support for Mitchell et al.’s model of stakeholder salience in the shareholder context with regard to engagement in this specific case. It is suggested that the model be amended by a relational dimension—proximity.