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Are CSR activities associated with shareholder voting in director elections and say-on-pay votes?

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  • Cullinan, Charles P.
  • Mahoney, Lois
  • Roush, Pamela B.

Abstract

When making investment decisions, many investors now regularly consider a company’s CSR activities along with traditional financial performance measures (Elliott et al., 2014). Our study considers whether shareholders may also consider CSR activities when voting in director elections and say-on-pay votes. We find that CSR performance is associated with shareholder support in both director elections and say-on-pay votes. In particular, we find higher support for both director elections and executive compensation when there are more CSR strengths. Additionally, we find that the social strength aspect of CSR is the most important component in the relationships between CSR and director elections and that the environmental strengths aspect is the most important component in the relationship between CSR and executive compensation. Our results suggest that shareholders may value certain types of CSR and are more supportive of boards and management when CSR performance is stronger.

Suggested Citation

  • Cullinan, Charles P. & Mahoney, Lois & Roush, Pamela B., 2017. "Are CSR activities associated with shareholder voting in director elections and say-on-pay votes?," Journal of Contemporary Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 13(3), pages 225-243.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jocaae:v:13:y:2017:i:3:p:225-243
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jcae.2017.09.003
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    Cited by:

    1. Yang, Liuyong & Wang, Beibei & Luo, Deming, 2022. "Corporate social responsibility in market liberalization: Evidence from Shanghai-Hong Kong Stock Connect," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 77(C).
    2. Jörn Obermann, 2020. "Let’s talk about money! Assessing the link between firm performance and voluntary Say-on-Pay votes," Journal of Business Economics, Springer, vol. 90(1), pages 109-135, February.
    3. Essam Joura & Qin Xiao & Subhan Ullah, 2023. "The moderating effects of CEO power and personal traits on say‐on‐pay effectiveness: Insights from the Anglo‐Saxon economies," International Journal of Finance & Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 28(4), pages 4055-4078, October.
    4. Bedford, Anna & Bugeja, Martin & Ghannam, Samir & Jeganathan, Davina & Ma, Nelson, 2023. "Were CEO pay cuts during the COVID-19 pandemic merely symbolic? Shareholders' reaction and outrage," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    5. Eunice S. Khoo & Li Chen & Gary S. Monroe, 2023. "Shareholder election of CSR committee members and its effects on CSR performance," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 50(3-4), pages 716-763, March.
    6. Juan Pineiro-Chousa & Marcos Vizcaíno-González & Samuel Ribeiro-Navarrete, 2019. "Using voting decisions to identify shocks in the financial services industry," Service Business, Springer;Pan-Pacific Business Association, vol. 13(2), pages 419-431, June.
    7. Mingyuan Guo & Shuyu Shen, 2019. "Managerial Shareholding and CSR: Does Internal Control Quality Matter?—Evidence from China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(15), pages 1-21, August.
    8. Tseng, Chih-Yang & Demirkan, Sebahattin, 2021. "Joint effect of CEO overconfidence and corporate social responsibility discretion on cost of equity capital," Journal of Contemporary Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 17(1).
    9. Nicola Cucari, 2019. "Determinants of say on pay vote: a configurational analysis," International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal, Springer, vol. 15(3), pages 837-856, September.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Boards of directors; Corporate social responsibility; Director elections; Say-on-pay; Shareholder voting;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G34 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Mergers; Acquisitions; Restructuring; Corporate Governance
    • M12 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Business Administration - - - Personnel Management; Executives; Executive Compensation

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