Jungius, Tom / Schmidt, André: Why Do Retail Investors Vote? Evidence from a Large Case Study
Arbeitsberichte des Institut für Unternehmensführung, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, 116 (2015)
Abstract
Although corporate voting is a vital instrument of corporate governance, research on the determinants of voting turnout on an individual level is scarce. This paper sheds first light on corporate voting from an individual investor’s perspective by analyzing a large and unique data set collected from a survey among almost 425,000 German retail investors. The results of this case study give unprecedented insight into determinants influencing private shareholders’ decision to cast their votes and their inclination to participate in an-nual general meetings. While not solving this puzzle entirely, the results may offer new implications for explaining the voting turnout with regard to retail investors’ demographic and socio-economic characteristics as well as different investment strategies.