Shareholder Support for Directors with CSR Expertise and CSR Performance Records

This study examines whether shareholders value directors' CSR-related expertise and whether shareholders hold them accountable for a firm's CSR performance. The research questions addressed in this project are: (1) Do shareholders increase their support for directors with CSR-related expertise? (2) Do shareholders increase (decrease) their support for directors following an improvement (a deterioration) in a firm's CSR performance? It is important to examine these issues due to three recent trends: (i) Boards are increasingly seen as responsible for CSR-related issues; (ii) Shareholders are more concerned with CSR-related issues; and (iii) Shareholder activism has grown in the past decade following the adoption of proxy access proposals.