ISS Commissioned by IRRC Institute to Examine the Issues, Trends and Factors that Influence Engagement in the United States
Rockville, MD; October 1, 2013 – Institutional Shareholder Services Inc. (ISS), a leading provider of corporate governance solutions to the global financial community, announced today that it has been commissioned by the IRRC Institute to conduct a follow-up study to its 2011 research on engagement between investors and public corporations in the United States.
“The advent of “say on pay” votes, revisions to the broker vote rule, and the focus on investor stewardship have inspired an evolution in issuer-investor engagement,” explains Dr. Martha Carter, ISS’ Head of Global Research. “Our follow-up study will look at how engagement has changed due to these and other issues. The study will examine the frequency, form, duration, and subject matter of engagement, as well as success factors and impediments.”
An important component of the study is an online survey, which is open to asset managers, asset owners and corporate issuers, to examine how the volume and the success of engagements have changed over recent years and how they are likely to change in the future. In addition to the online survey, ISS will conduct in-depth follow up interviews with a representative sample of respondents to gather more detailed and qualitative insights. The results of the study will be published in early 2014, in preparation for the 2014 U.S. proxy season.
“Everyone talks about engagement, but there is very little real information about what that actually means in practice, “ said Jon Lukomnik, Executive Director of the IRRC Institute. “Until our previous study, no one even knew how often firms and investors engaged or how the various parties defined success. Now, we have an opportunity to study the impacts of a significant event in corporate governance: How has engagement matured after three years of widespread “say on pay“ votes? The answer should help inform corporate management, directors, investors and even regulators about what has worked and what hasn’t worked in engagements.“
The engagement survey has closed. Please visit this site for updates on when the report will be released.
