Shareholder activism on climate issues: The role of framing and stakeholder systems

Shareholder activism is an important driver of corporate change. It has become a prominent organisational phenomenon that has been mainly studied within activist-firm dyads, providing only a partial understanding of the overarching process, and the actors involved. Noting these limitations, this study develops a system-level view of activism that captures the connections between shareholder activists, firms, and stakeholders. In the European context of shareholder activism on climate issues, we explore its structural and dynamic dimensions by examining the interdependencies between shareholder activists and a stakeholder systems comprising organisational stakeholders, climate and stewardship experts that help shareholder activists converge their collective actions within coalitions. We conceptualise shareholder activism as a dynamic process structured around three embedded frames: disclosure-seeking, financial materiality, and double materiality. The disclosure-seeking frame is motivational, whereas the financial and the double materiality frames are diagnostic and prognostic, respectively. Our findings show that collective actions of shareholder activists produce ripple effects between these frames at a systems level. We highlight a clear shift towards the financial and double materiality frames reflecting an increasing alignment between financial interests and environmental impact. These results support the system-level view of shareholder activism that should be extended to other environmental issues.