Research by the Corporate Governance Research Initiative

In fall 2023, Stanford Graduate School of Business, the Hoover Institution Working Group on Corporate Governance at Stanford University, and the Rock Center for Corporate Governance at Stanford University jointly conducted a nationwide survey of…

CEO succession planning is a critical exercise for any organization. And yet, experience clearly demonstrates that many companies fail to successfully handle the transition from one CEO to the next. What are the causes of this breakdown? We…

Recent years have seen a reemergence of the practice of awarding “mega grants” to CEOs. Mega grants are large, one-time equity awards granted in lieu of or in addition to annual awards with the intended purpose of providing significant incentive…

This Data Spotlight provides data and statistics on the level and structure of CEO compensation in the United States. This data supplements in the issues introduced in the Quick Guides “…

In Closer Look, we highlight significant “holes” in our knowledge of corporate governance. These are central issues where insufficient or inadequate study has left us unable to answer basic questions, and where key assumptions relied upon by…

In this Closer Look, we consider current trends in shareholder activism and their potential impact. We examine the introduction of universal proxies, the increase in “activism experience” among directors, and the changing strategies of activists…

A roadmap to understanding the fundamental concepts of corporate governance based on theory, empirical research, and data. This guide will take an in-depth look at Board of Directors.

A roadmap to understanding the fundamental concepts of corporate governance based on theory, empirical research, and data. This guide takes an in-depth look at CEO compensation.

A roadmap to understanding the fundamental concepts of corporate governance based on theory, empirical research, and data. This guide takes an in-depth look at CEO succession planning.

A roadmap to understanding the fundamental concepts of corporate governance based on theory, empirical research, and data. This guide will take an in-depth look at shareholders and activism.

A roadmap to understanding the fundamental concepts of corporate governance based on theory, empirical research, and data. This guide takes an in-depth look at the …

This Research Spotlight provides a summary of the academic literature on environmental, social, and governance (ESG) ratings, including:

• The influence of ESG ratings on mutual fund flows
• The correlation of ESG ratings…

This Research Spotlight provides a summary of the academic literature on environmental, social, and governance (ESG) activities including:

• The relation between ESG activities and firm value
• The impact of environmental and…

In this Closer Look, we examine individual investor perception of ESG to gauge their concern for environmental and social issues, their view of whether fund managers should use their voting power to influence ESG practices, and their willingness…

In summer 2022, Stanford Graduate School of Business, the Hoover Institution Working Group on Corporate Governance at Stanford University, and Rock Center for Corporate Governance at Stanford University jointly conducted a nationwide survey of 2,…

Between 2010 and 2017, Chinese investors used an investor interactive platform (IIP) to ask public companies around 2.5 million questions, the vast majority of which received a reply within two weeks. We analyze these IIP dialogues…

ESG ratings firms provide information to investors, analysts, and corporate managers about the relation between corporations and non-investor stakeholders interests. Recently, ESG ratings providers have come under scrutiny over concerns of the…

In this Closer Look, we use the example of VICI Properties — a publicly traded REIT that emerged from the bankruptcy of Caesar’s Entertainment — to examine how appropriate governance choices can change the course of a corporation and establish a…

This Quick Guide provides data and statistics on the attributes of the CEOs and CEO succession events at publicly traded companies in the United States. This data supplements the issues introduced in the Quick Guide “…

We explain when and how staggered difference-in-differences regression estimators, commonly applied to assess the impact of policy changes, are biased. These biases are likely to be relevant for a large portion of research settings in finance,…

This Research Spotlight provides a summary of the academic literature on whether companies with an independent chairman of the board exhibit better governance quality than companies with a dual chairman/CEO. It reviews the evidence of:

…

This Research Spotlight provides a summary of the academic literature on outside (non-executive) directors and directors who are independent according to New York Stock Exchange listing requirements. It reviews the evidence of:

• …

We examine CEO turnover and succession planning using a unique and highly comprehensive data set from the company exechange. Exechange applies a novel methodology that evaluates the circumstances surrounding a CEO departure to determine the…