Pros And Cons Of Shareholder Activism

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In recent years, activist shareholders and their influence on organisations has become a very important and highly debated issue. According to Smith (1996), shareholder activism refers to monitoring, controlling and attempting to influence or change the organisational control structure of companies that do not tend to pursue the goal of shareholder wealth maximization. One of the major tendencies of shareholders to vote against the excessive remuneration packages of the chief executives of top British firms was noticed in the spring of 2012 and eventually, this incident was called "Shareholder Spring" . While some analyst disagree over the extent to which an increased shareholder activism in "shareholder spring" had effect on the way UK organisations are governed, it is believed that that attempts of shareholders to …show more content…

Furthermore, in the last decade, an increasing number of major shareholders attempt to influence corporate behaviour by using their equity stakes in organisation to pressure the management for improved performance and increase the value of their investments. However, shareholder activism is believed to be very controversial. Some proponents of shareholder activism believe that the involvement of shareholders in the management of the company ensures that the invested capital is spend properly and that the directors do grant themselves excessive remuneration packages and focus mainly on maximisation of shareholder value. Opponents, on the other hand, often criticise a high degree of shareholder activism as they considered that active investors are mainly focused on their own short-term benefits and profits and not on the long term aims and goals of organisations (Corkery,