CGRI research spans these topics: general principles, board of directors, leadership and succession planning, compensation, audit and risk, shareholders, and proxy advisory.
CEO Compensation
A company offer a competitive compensation arrangement in order to attract, retain, and motivate a qualified CEO to manage the organization.
…CEO Succession Planning
The board of directors is responsible for ensuring that correct management is in place to run the organization. This includes hiring, evaluating,…
Equity Ownership
A company offers equity incentives to encourage CEOs to take actions that are in the interest of shareholders. At the same time, equity incentives…
ESG and Stakeholders
There has been tremendous pressure on companies to satisfy stakeholder considerations as part of their long-term planning and governance. This…
Financial Reporting and External Audit
The board of directors is responsible for ensuring the integrity of published financial statements. This includes working with management to set…
International Corporate Governance
The governance system that a company adopts is not independent of its environment. Instead, it is shaped by a variety of factors inherent to the…
Introduction to Corporate Governance
Corporate governance has become a well-discussed and controversial topic among corporations, shareholders, and the general public. However, the…
Shareholders & Shareholder Activism
Shareholders exert influence over the corporation through the board of directors and the proxy voting process. While indirect, this influence can…
Strategy and Risk Oversight
One of the primary responsibilities of the board of directors is to monitor the strategy and risk of the corporation. This Quick Guide provides a…
The Market for Corporate Control
The board of directors might decide it is in the best interest of shareholders to sell the corporation to new owners. In theory, a change in…
2019 U.S. Tax Survey
In October 2019, the Rock Center for Corporate Governance at Stanford University conducted a nationwide survey of 3,062 individuals —…
Pay for Performance … But Not Too Much Pay: The American Public’s View of CEO Pay
Among the controversies in corporate governance, perhaps none is more heated or widely debated across society than that of CEO pay. The views that…
Stakeholders Take Center Stage: Director Views on Priorities and Society 2019
New research from the Rock Center for Corporate Governance at Stanford University and the Diligent Institute finds that corporate directors are…
Loosey-Goosey Governance
A reliable system of corporate governance is considered to be an important requirement for the long-term success of a company. Unfortunately,…
2019 Survey On Shareholder Versus Stakeholder Interests
In spring 2019, the Rock Center for Corporate Governance at Stanford University surveyed 209 CEOs and CFOs of companies included in the S&P…
Stakeholders and Shareholders: Are Executives Really “Penny Wise and Pound Foolish” About ESG?
Currently, there is much debate about the role that non-investor stakeholder interests play in the governance of public companies. Critics argue…
The Business Case for ESG
Recently, there has been debate among corporate managers, board of directors, and institutional investors around how best to incorporate ESG (…
Dual-Class Shares
This Research Spotlight provides a summary of the academic literature on how dual-class share structures influence firm value and corporate…
Long-Term Economic Consequences of Hedge Fund Activist Interventions
We examine the long-term effects of interventions by activist hedge funds. Research documents positive equal-weighted long-term returns and…
Where’s the Greenium?
This study investigates whether investors are willing to trade-off wealth for societal benefits. We take advantage of unique institutional…
Peer Group Choice and Chief Executive Officer Compensation
We examine the selection of peer groups that boards of directors use when setting the level of CEO compensation. This choice is controversial…
Where Does Human Resources Sit at the Strategy Table?
Two decades ago, McKinsey advanced the idea that large U.S. companies are engaged in a “war for talent” and that to remain competitive they need…
Non-Answers During Conference Calls
We construct a novel measure of disclosure choice by firms. Our measure uses linguistic analysis of conference calls to flag a manager’s response…
Shareholders and Corporate Control: Data
This Data Spotlight provides data and statistics on shareholder activism and the market for corporate control. This data supplements the issues…