Building eco-friendly corporations: The role of minority shareholders

Business Building, Conference Room 903 (Beirut Campus)

The office of Graduate Studies & Research is hosting a lecture titled Building eco-friendly corporation: The role of minority shareholders, by Dr. Ahmet Şensoy, Vice-Dean of Business School at Bilkent University - Ankara, Turkey.

Abstract:

Based on China’s mandatory requirement for listed firms to implement online voting in their annual general shareholder meetings, we investigate whether and how minority shareholders influence corporate environmental performance (CEP). We use the difference-in-difference approach and find that the implementation of online voting promotes minority shareholders’ participation in shareholder meetings, which, in turn, leads to improved CEP of listed firms. We discover that “local pollution” exposure and “the increasing awareness of listed firms’ environmental risks” are the main motives of minority shareholders concerning listed firms’ environmental performance. Furthermore, we find that the minority shareholders improve CEP of listed firms through influencing groups with greater bargaining power.

Biography:

Ahmet Şensoy is an associate professor of finance and the vice dean of the business school at Bilkent University. He received his BS, MS and PhD degrees in mathematics from Bilkent University and another MS degree in financial engineering from Bogazici University. Prior to joining Bilkent, he worked as a specialist at the Research and Business Development Department, and Derivatives Market of Borsa Istanbul (Istanbul Stock Exchange) from 2012 to 2017. He was a visiting researcher at Nasdaq OMX during February 2014 and 2015.  He is the recipient of the TÜBİTAK Incentive Award in 2018 and the TÜBA Young Scientist Award in 2020. He serves as an associate editor for International Review of Financial Analysis, International Review of Economics and Finance, Research in International Business and Finance, Emerging Markets Finance and Trade; and a guest editor for Annals of Operations Research. His work appeared in outlets such as Production and Operations Management, Journal of Business Ethics, Journal of Corporate Finance, Journal of Economic Behaviour and Organization, etc. He teaches advanced empirical finance, financial economics, risk management and corporate finance at various levels.