SMU SOE Seminar (March 1, 2023): The Voice: The Shareholders’ Motives Behind Corporate Donations

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ABSTRACT What motivates shareholders to become prosocial activists? When the COVID19 pandemic began, political and media groups demanded COVID-19-related donations from large corporations. We study shareholder support for such donations, exploiting the heightened media scrutiny of annual general meetings. We find that the reputational gains enjoyed by shareholders of donating firms led prominent individual shareholders to seek donations. However, large institutional shareholders, who are rarely associated with specific corporations in their portfolios, preferred to donate independently, opposing donations in their footprints. This mechanism also operates in non-pandemic periods, highlighting the ability of media attention to increase support for visible prosocial decisions. Keywords: exit and voice, shareholder activism, social responsibility, charitable donations, COVID-19, market exit, Ukraine, Russia. JEL Codes: G32, G41, M14 Click here to view the CV. Click here to view the paper.
		PRESENTER Michele Fioretti Sciences Po
		RESEARCH FIELDS Empirical Industrial Organization Applied Microeconomics Business Ethics
		DATE: 1 March 2023 (Wednesday)
		TIME: 4pm - 5.30pm
		VENUE: Meeting Room 5.1, Level 5 School of Economics Singapore Management University 90 Stamford Road Singapore 178903