PhD Defence: Yanze Zhang

Abstract

This dissertation examines how communication becomes consequential for corporate governance when evaluations and positions cross corporate boundaries and become observable to relevant audiences.
The first study investigates how social media disapproval influences shareholder dissent in Say on Pay voting. Using firms in the S&P 500 Index from 2011 to 2018, it finds that negative social media coverage is positively associated with shareholder dissent. This relationship is stronger in firms with higher retail ownership and weaker in firms with higher institutional ownership. The findings indicate that social media can help dispersed retail shareholders overcome information processing and coordination barriers, recognize shared concerns, and use their voting rights more effectively to express dissent.
The second study investigates how CEO personality shapes the decision to speak publicly on sociopolitical issues. Drawing on upper echelons theory and the Big Five personality framework, it examines CEOs of S&P 500 firms from 2013 to 2018. The results show that extraversion, agreeableness, and openness are positively associated with CEO activism, while neuroticism is negatively associated with activism. Conscientiousness is not significantly related to activism.
Together, the studies advance behavioral corporate governance by showing how external evaluations shape formal governance outcomes and how psychological differences among CEOs shape public leadership.