Institutional Shareholder Engagement with Japanese Firms

48 Pages Posted: 18 Jun 2015 Last revised: 30 Jul 2015

See all articles by Gordon L. Clark

Gordon L. Clark

Oxford University - Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment

Sarah McGill

University of Oxford; University of Oxford - Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment

Yukie Saito

University of Oxford - School of Geography and the Environment

Michael Viehs

European Centre for Corporate Engagement (ECCE)

Date Written: June 17, 2015

Abstract

This paper explores how shareholder engagement on environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues is informally exercised by a large global institutional investor with locally embedded, geographically remote firms. By studying a UK asset manager’s shareholder engagement strategies on ESG issues toward Japanese firms, we document three findings. First, it is found that main target firms of engagement activities are large firms with global operations, and that corporate governance issues are the most important engagement topic in Japan. Second, in trying to effectively exercise voice across societies, engagement activities are conducted with geographically remote target firms on various ESG agendas through a self-enforcing, face-to-face, and sometimes collective manner. Finally, this study argues the gap between the asset manager’s motivation to engage and local target firms’ readiness to respond due to corporate organisational and language issues.

Keywords: Shareholder engagement, ESG, corporate governance

JEL Classification: G15, G23, G34

Suggested Citation

Clark, Gordon L. and McGill, Sarah M and McGill, Sarah M and Saito, Yukie and Viehs, Michael, Institutional Shareholder Engagement with Japanese Firms (June 17, 2015). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2619616 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2619616

Gordon L. Clark

Oxford University - Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment ( email )

South Parks Road
Oxford, OX1 3QY
United Kingdom
+44 1865 285197 (Phone)
+44 1865 285073 (Fax)

HOME PAGE: http://www.geog.ox.ac.uk/staff/glclark.html

Sarah M McGill

University of Oxford - Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment ( email )

United Kingdom

University of Oxford ( email )

Mansfield Road
Oxford, Oxfordshire OX1 4AU
United Kingdom

Yukie Saito

University of Oxford - School of Geography and the Environment ( email )

Mansfield Road
Oxford OX1 3TB, OX1 3QY
United Kingdom

Michael Viehs (Contact Author)

European Centre for Corporate Engagement (ECCE) ( email )

Tongersestraat 53
Maastricht, 6211LM
Netherlands

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