Proxy voting policies as tools for shareholder engagement in CSR: an exploratory study

Rachelle Belinga (1) , Blanche Segrestin (1)

1 CGS i3 - Centre de Gestion Scientifique i3

This paper presents an exploratory study on proxy voting policies as a lever for social shareholder engagement (SSE). It proposes an analysis framework for an ongoing empirical research and produces its first results of investigation. Although SSE is a growing phenomenon, it needs more concrete means of action. If the influence of shareholder activists is frequently denounced for its negative impact on corporations, which concrete means shareholders who want CSR to benefit from their leverage have at their disposal? While in Europe shareholder proposals are limited, proxy voting policies appear as a significant element which has been insufficiently explored in the SSE literature. Starting with a first sample of proxy voting policies, we examine the potential use of voting policies by engaged shareholders. Our analysis shows limited differentiation and we search for some first hypotheses that could lead and support further research.

Mots clés: corporate social responsibility; proxy voting policies; proxy voting; shareholder engagement; corporate governance

Domaines: Gestion et management

Rachelle Belinga, Blanche Segrestin. Proxy voting policies as tools for shareholder engagement in CSR: an exploratory study . European Academy of Management Conference (EURAM 2016): "Manageable cooperation?", Jun 2016, Paris, France. ⟨hal-01312918v1⟩