IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/bstrat/v27y2018i6p712-727.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Unleashing the Power of Networks: Shareholder Activism, Sustainable Development and Corporate Environmental Policy

Author

Listed:
  • Aimei Yang
  • Nur Uysal
  • Maureen Taylor

Abstract

In recent years, a new trend has emerged in which shareholder activists have formed networks to empower shareholders and magnify shareholder voices. This study explores the structural patterns and effectiveness of shareholder activism networks and shows how those networks affect corporate sustainability policies. We draw upon stakeholder influence theory, stakeholder network management theory and recent studies on activism networks to examine a shareholder activism network formed around environmental issues. The study found that (1) the structure of shareholder activist networks is largely driven by organizational attributes such as organization type, organizations’ human resources, media visibility and history; and (2) activist organizations with high centralities and eigenvector centralities enjoy more efficient results. This study contributes to our understanding of the business responses to shareholder demands on improving environmental performance and paves the way for future research on sustainable development through partnerships with shareholder networks. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment

Suggested Citation

  • Aimei Yang & Nur Uysal & Maureen Taylor, 2018. "Unleashing the Power of Networks: Shareholder Activism, Sustainable Development and Corporate Environmental Policy," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 27(6), pages 712-727, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:bstrat:v:27:y:2018:i:6:p:712-727
    DOI: 10.1002/bse.2026
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1002/bse.2026
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1002/bse.2026?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Anthony Goerzen & Paul W. Beamish, 2005. "The effect of alliance network diversity on multinational enterprise performance," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 26(4), pages 333-354, April.
    2. Bonner, Joseph M. & Kim, Daekwan & Cavusgil, S. Tamer, 2005. "Self-perceived strategic network identity and its effects on market performance in alliance relationships," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 58(10), pages 1371-1380, October.
    3. Jacobsen, Grant D., 2011. "The Al Gore effect: An Inconvenient Truth and voluntary carbon offsets," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 61(1), pages 67-78, January.
    4. Maria Goranova & Lori Verstegen Ryan, 2015. "Shareholder Empowerment: An Introduction," Palgrave Macmillan Books, in: Maria Goranova & Lori Verstegen Ryan (ed.), Shareholder Empowerment, chapter 0, pages 1-32, Palgrave Macmillan.
    5. Teresa Doménech & Michael Davies, 2011. "The role of Embeddedness in Industrial Symbiosis Networks: Phases in the Evolution of Industrial Symbiosis Networks," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 20(5), pages 281-296, July.
    6. David G Hyatt & Nicholas Berente, 2017. "Substantive or Symbolic Environmental Strategies? Effects of External and Internal Normative Stakeholder Pressures," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 26(8), pages 1212-1234, December.
    7. Robert Monks & Anthony Miller & Jacqueline Cook, 2004. "Shareholder activism on environmental issues: A study of proposals at large US corporations (2000–2003)," Natural Resources Forum, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 28(4), pages 317-330, November.
    8. Erin M. Reid & Michael W. Toffel, 2009. "Responding to public and private politics: corporate disclosure of climate change strategies," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(11), pages 1157-1178, November.
    9. Jeremy Galbreath, 2010. "Corporate governance practices that address climate change: an exploratory study," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 19(5), pages 335-350, July.
    10. Pablo Gomez‐Carrasco & Giovanna Michelon, 2017. "The Power of Stakeholders' Voice: The Effects of Social Media Activism on Stock Markets," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 26(6), pages 855-872, September.
    11. Erin Marie Reid & Michael W. Toffel, 2008. "Responding to Public and Private Politics: Corporate Disclosure of Climate Change Strategies," Harvard Business School Working Papers 09-019, Harvard Business School, revised Jun 2009.
    12. X. D. Xu & S. X. Zeng & H. L. Zou & Jonathan J. Shi, 2016. "The Impact of Corporate Environmental Violation on Shareholders' Wealth: a Perspective Taken from Media Coverage," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 25(2), pages 73-91, February.
    13. Denis Cormier & Michel Magnan, 2015. "The Economic Relevance of Environmental Disclosure and its Impact on Corporate Legitimacy: An Empirical Investigation," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 24(6), pages 431-450, September.
    14. Andrew L. Friedman & Samantha Miles, 2002. "Developing Stakeholder Theory," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 39(1), pages 1-21, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Mahmoudian, Fereshteh & Lu, Jing & Yu, Dongning & Nazari, Jamal A. & Herremans, Irene M., 2021. "Inter-and intra-organizational stakeholder arrangements in carbon management accounting," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 53(1).
    2. Khan, Muhammad Arif & Khan, Ashraf & Hassan, M. Kabir & Maraghini, Maria Pia, 2024. "Market response to environmental social and governance performance: A global analysis," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 67(PA).
    3. Kostaris, Konstantinos & Andrikopoulos, Andreas, 2023. "Brokers in beneficial ownership: A network approach," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 88(C).
    4. Mercedes Alda, 2019. "Corporate sustainability and institutional shareholders: The pressure of social responsible pension funds on environmental firm practices," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(6), pages 1060-1071, September.
    5. Yunyue Zhou & Chengli Shu & Wei Jiang & Shanxing Gao, 2019. "Green management, firm innovations, and environmental turbulence," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(4), pages 567-581, May.
    6. Lu, Jing & Qiu, Yuhang, 2024. "Does minority shareholder activism reduce stock idiosyncratic risk?," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 67(PA).
    7. Shailesh Rastogi & Kuldeep Singh & Jagjeevan Kanoujiya, 2024. "Impact of Shareholders’ Activism on the Performance of Banks in India: A Panel Data Application," Business Perspectives and Research, , vol. 12(1), pages 83-99, January.
    8. Ringe Wolf-Georg, 2023. "Investor Empowerment for Sustainability," Review of Economics, De Gruyter, vol. 74(1), pages 21-52, April.
    9. Yanlin Ma & Yuting Liu & Andrea Appolloni & Junqi Liu, 2021. "Does green public procurement encourage firm's environmental certification practice? The mediation role of top management support," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 28(3), pages 1002-1017, May.
    10. Andrew Peterman & Arno Kourula & Raymond Levitt, 2020. "Organizational roles in a sustainability alliance network," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(8), pages 3314-3330, December.
    11. Pascal Back & Oskar Colombo, 2022. "Shaping CEOs’ future focus through shareholder activism: the role of proposal characteristics," Journal of Management & Governance, Springer;Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA), vol. 26(1), pages 255-286, March.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Yuchen Shen & Mohammad Tazul Islam & Michiyuki Yagi & Katsuhiko Kokubu, 2015. "How do firms' climate-related management and strategy affect climate change risks and opportunities awareness?," Discussion Papers 2015-26, Kobe University, Graduate School of Business Administration.
    2. Agnieszka Karman, 2022. "The Homogenization of Carbon Management Practices: How Organizations Response to Isomorphic Pressures to Reduce GHG Emissions," European Research Studies Journal, European Research Studies Journal, vol. 0(1), pages 148-173.
    3. Michaela Rankin & Carolyn Windsor & Dina Wahyuni, 2011. "An investigation of voluntary corporate greenhouse gas emissions reporting in a market governance system," Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 24(8), pages 1037-1070, October.
    4. Zahra Borghei, 2021. "Carbon disclosure: a systematic literature review," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 61(4), pages 5255-5280, December.
    5. Matthias Damert & Rupert J. Baumgartner, 2018. "External Pressures or Internal Governance – What Determines the Extent of Corporate Responses to Climate Change?," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 25(4), pages 473-488, July.
    6. Julián Andres Díaz Tautiva & Joana Huaman & Roberto D. Ponce Oliva, 2024. "Trends in research on climate change and organizations: a bibliometric analysis (1999–2021)," Management Review Quarterly, Springer, vol. 74(1), pages 227-261, February.
    7. Walid Ben‐Amar & Philip McIlkenny, 2015. "Board Effectiveness and the Voluntary Disclosure of Climate Change Information," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 24(8), pages 704-719, December.
    8. Thayla Zomer & Paulo Savaget, 2023. "Disentangling Decarbonisation Ambidexterity: An Analysis of European Companies," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(13), pages 1-17, July.
    9. Le Luo & Qingliang Tang & Juan Peng, 2018. "The direct and moderating effects of power distance on carbon transparency: An international investigation of cultural value and corporate social responsibility," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 27(8), pages 1546-1557, December.
    10. Lyton Chithambo & Ishmael Tingbani & Godfred Afrifa Agyapong & Ernest Gyapong & Isaac Sakyi Damoah, 2020. "Corporate voluntary greenhouse gas reporting: Stakeholder pressure and the mediating role of the chief executive officer," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(4), pages 1666-1683, May.
    11. Varsha Sehgal & Naval Garg & Jagvinder Singh, 2023. "Impact of sustainability reporting and performance on organization legitimacy," International Journal of System Assurance Engineering and Management, Springer;The Society for Reliability, Engineering Quality and Operations Management (SREQOM),India, and Division of Operation and Maintenance, Lulea University of Technology, Sweden, vol. 14(1), pages 143-153, March.
    12. Maria Ruiz‐Castillo & Juan Alberto Aragón‐Correa & Nuria Esther Hurtado‐Torres, 2024. "Independent directors and environmental innovations: How the visibility of public and private shareholders' environmental activism moderates the influence of board independence," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(2), pages 424-440, February.
    13. Daniel Kouloukoui & Marcia Mara de Oliveira Marinho & Sônia Maria da Silva Gomes & Pieter de Jong & Asher Kiperstok & Ednildo Andrade Torres, 2020. "The impact of the board of directors on business climate change management: case of Brazilian companies," Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change, Springer, vol. 25(1), pages 127-147, January.
    14. Cheng-Wen Lee & Mao-Wen Fu, 2024. "Conceptualizing Sustainable Business Models Aligning with Corporate Responsibility," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(12), pages 1-31, June.
    15. Tae Jun Bae & James O. Fiet, 2023. "Intra-Stakeholder Heterogeneity Perspective on the Hybridity of Competing Institutional Logics for Social Enterprises," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(4), pages 1-18, February.
    16. Michelon, Giovanna & Rodrigue, Michelle & Trevisan, Elisabetta, 2020. "The marketization of a social movement: Activists, shareholders and CSR disclosure," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 80(C).
    17. Caroline Flammer & Michael W. Toffel & Kala Viswanathan, 2021. "Shareholder activism and firms' voluntary disclosure of climate change risks," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 42(10), pages 1850-1879, October.
    18. Olivier Boiral & Marie‐Christine Brotherton & Léo Rivaud & David Talbot, 2022. "Comparing the uncomparable? An investigation of car manufacturers' climate performance," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(5), pages 2213-2229, July.
    19. Binh Hoang Duc & Khang Do Ba, 2017. "Business responses to climate change: strategies for reducing greenhouse gas emissions in Vietnam," Asia Pacific Business Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 23(4), pages 596-620, August.
    20. Andreas Wagner & Denise Fischer‐Kreer, 2024. "The role of CEO regulatory focus in increasing or reducing corporate carbon emissions," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(2), pages 1051-1065, February.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:bstrat:v:27:y:2018:i:6:p:712-727. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1002/(ISSN)1099-0836 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.