This study analyzed activism that leads to a merger or acquisition (M&A) of a firm to see its benefits for the shareholders at the target firm as well as its acquirer. It used over thirty years of data to understand the impact of the activists’ demands of strategic significance for the firms....

With respect to the increasing significance of transparency and corporate governance, the study at hand investigates the impact of a broad set of principal corporate governance mechanisms on the market valuation of publicly traded real estate companies from the UK, France, the Netherlands and...

This paper reviews the theoretical and empirical literature on the channels through which blockholders (large shareholders) engage in corporate governance. In classical models, blockholders exert governance through direct intervention in a firm's operations, otherwise known as “voice.” These...

Manuscript Type: EmpiricalResearch Question/Issue: This paper studies whether and how diversity among blockholders in their cultural preferences may affect short-term shareholder wealth. Blockholders often hold diverse objectives, leading to principal-principal (PP) conflicts in cross-border...

We investigate the relation between corporate governance characteristics of hostile takeover targets and the choice to employ 'harmful' resistance that is not perceived as being motivated by shareholders' interests. We find that harmful resistance is associated with firms where managers have...

Shareholder voting on corporate acquisitions is controversial. In most countries acquisition decisions are delegated to boards and shareholder approval is discretionary, which makes existing empirical studies inconclusive. We study the U.K. setting where shareholder approval is imposed...

I examine how negative ESG news distorts shareholder outcomes. In 2015 As You Sow began the yearly release of "The 100 Most Overpaid CEOs" list, leading to negative ESG news for firms that make the list. Overpaying CEOs is a governance concern as it signals a failure in proper controls and a...

Non-financial performance measures, such as Environmental, Social, and Governance (“ESG”) measures, are potentially leading indicators of firms' financial performance. I draw on the prior academic literature and the concept of ESG materiality to develop new corporate governance and ESG...

This paper examines the effect of board governance on investment efficiency. I use the staggered enactment of board reforms in 41 countries as a shock to board structure that exogenously improves the quality of board oversight of managers. I find that investment–Q sensitivity improves by...

We reexamine long-term abnormal returns for portfolios sorted on governance characteristics. Firms with strong shareholder rights and firms with weak shareholder rights differ from the population of firms and from each other in how they cluster across industries. Using well-specified tests under...