The Performance of Investor Engagement Dialogues to Manage Sustainability Risks

• This empirical study investigates the performance of a collaborative dialogue process where active Nordic investors interact with target companies behind the scenes to manage sustainability risks. The question addressed is what are the financial and nonfinancial characteristics of targets that provide opportunities for a successful dialogue process. The social movement theory of interest-driven collective action and the dialogic theory of effective communication are used as the conceptual framework with which to examine a proprietary dataset covering 326 dialogues with MSCI World companies. The results indicate that the performance of an agent-led collaborative dialogue process depends on the target company’s characteristics. The responsiveness of targets to the direct requests of the agent for comments, the willingness of targets to make an effort to implement changes raised by the agent throughout ongoing negotiations, and the success of the dialogue process are systematically related to the sustainability and financial attributes of targets. 

Subject headings

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Ekonomi och näringsliv -- Företagsekonomi (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Economics and Business -- Business Administration (hsv//eng)

Keyword

Dialogue

sustainability

risk

performance

process

management

activism

företagsekonomi

Business Studies

Business administration

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

art (subject category)