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Socially Responsible Investment Engagement

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Stakeholder Engagement: Clinical Research Cases

Part of the book series: Issues in Business Ethics ((IBET,volume 46))

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.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Organization Studies, School of Social and Behavioral Science, Tilburg University, Warandelaan 2, 5000 LE, Tilburg, The Netherlands

    Tobias Gössling

  2. Circle Economy, Nieuwe Herengracht 95, 1011 RX, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    Bas Buiter

Authors
  1. Tobias Gössling
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  2. Bas Buiter
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Tobias Gössling .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Darden School of Business, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia, USA

    R. Edward Freeman

  2. Faculty of Management, University of Tampere, Tampere, Finland

    Johanna Kujala

  3. Institute for Strategic Management: Stakeholder View, HWZ University of Applied Sciences in Business Administration Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland

    Sybille Sachs

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Gössling, T., Buiter, B. (2017). Socially Responsible Investment Engagement. In: Freeman, R., Kujala, J., Sachs, S. (eds) Stakeholder Engagement: Clinical Research Cases. Issues in Business Ethics, vol 46. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-62785-4_6

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