This report summarises private shareholder engagements in Japan by Governance for Owners Japan between 2009 and 2019. Findings show high success rates and positive abnormal returns, with quiet activism proving more effective than public campaigns. Evidence indicates such private engagements support Japan’s governance reforms and long-term shareholder value.

This report summarises research comparing the effectiveness of “exit” strategies, such as divestment and boycotts, with “voice” strategies, such as shareholder engagement, in influencing corporate behaviour. It concludes that when most investors are even slightly socially responsible, engagement leads to socially optimal outcomes, whereas exit rarely does and can reduce welfare.

The report by Japan’s Government Pension Investment Fund (GPIF) evaluates how engagement by external asset managers has affected investee companies from 2017–2022. Using causal inference analysis across over 26,000 engagements, it finds positive links between engagement and improvements in corporate value, governance, decarbonisation, and diversity.

This study analyses whether investor engagement on environmental, social, and governance (ESG) issues reduces firms’ downside risk. Using data from 1,443 engagements with 485 global firms (2005–2018), it finds that successful engagements, particularly on environmental and climate issues, significantly lower downside risk and related environmental incidents.

This report summarises analysis of 31 PRI-coordinated investor engagements on environmental and social issues between 2007 and 2015. It finds that leadership structures, particularly two-tier models with lead and supporting investors, enhance engagement success, improve target company performance, and are associated with higher subsequent fund flows for participating investors.

Index provider engagement can impact corporate climate policies, this study indicates. Of the 300 randomly-selected companies receiving a letter encouraging the commitment to setting science-based climate targets, 21% committed to actually doing so, compared to 15.7% of the control group.