insb. Energie- und Umweltmanagement
New Paper: Does Shareholder Signaling Matter for Corporate Strategy?
4. Juli 2025

Foto: Organization & Environment
Can a simple shareholder proposal change corporate strategy? Yes – even if it’s withdrawn, omitted, or gets voted down!
A new paper by Timo Busch, Lisa Scheitza, Tobias Baukloh and Christian Klein shows that firms targeted by ESG- or climate-related shareholder proposals significantly improve their ESG scores and reduce their carbon intensity in the years after the proposal – regardless of its outcome. Just filing the proposal already seems to matter. That’s both surprising and encouraging.
A few more things the authors find:
- Proposals by non-SRI investors are more effective than those from SRI funds – possibly because they’re seen as more “financially serious”.
- The more proposals a company receives, the stronger the effect. Think of it as cumulative pressure.
- Firms respond particularly on environmental and governance issues.
The paper is now published in Organization & Environment and available here.