Linking Engagement to Real-World Outcomes
rezonanz is developing a quantitative framework to link investor engagement to measurable changes in corporate behavior and ESG performance in collaboration with Prof. Julian Kölbel of the University of St. Gallen. With support from the Swiss Innovation Agency Innosuisse, we're examining how engagement efforts translate into real-world impact. We do this by analyzing multi-year engagement data from institutional investors managing over $28 trillion in AUM and by inviting investors to share proprietary data through our second annual data-sharing initiative.
Below you'll find more information about our research framework. Learn more about the initiative and how to participate here.
Our key question:
how does investor engagement influence real-world outcomes in corporate behavior?
With more engagement data being disclosed publicly and directly to rezonanz, we are developing a quantitative research framework to link engagement activities to measurable changes in corporate behavior and ESG performance.
We will apply cross-sectional time series models to our multi-year dataset to examine how engagement efforts correlate with concrete changes in performance on ESG factors (such as emissions reduction) over time. While ESG scores are imperfect proxies for real-world impact, tracking their changes over time helps evaluate whether engagement efforts align with measurable improvements.
We've already collected:
with engagement records
Collecting additional public and proprietary data
In Q2 2025, we’re expanding our data collection efforts by inviting dozens of institutional investors to share their 2024 engagement records with us via our purpose-built platform. By Q2 2026, we aim to collect a full three-year dataset, allowing for more robust trend analysis.
We're collecting engagements at the following levels of granularity:
- Company name only
- Broad ESG dimensions (“E”, “S”, or “G”)
- Specific topics (e.g., Climate, Labor Rights)
- Activity-level actions in pursuit of engagement objectives
With those engagements as our independent variables and changes in ESG scores as the initial dependent variable (proxy), we can, for example, compare:
- Aggregate ESG score changes vis-à-vis counts of engagements investors disclose
- Environmental engagements ('E') with environmental score changes, social engagements ('S') with social score changes, and governance engagements ('G') with governance score changes.
- “Climate” engagements vis-à-vis changes in climate scores
Complementary research questions
Beyond the core model, future complements to this work could explore:
- Does engagement intensity matter? (e.g., Do more frequent interactions drive greater change?)
- Are some topics more responsive to engagement? (e.g., Are “E” engagements more effective in shifting “E” scores than “S” engagements on “S” scores?)
- In what cases can we replace ESG scores with more direct impact metrics?
- Can this framework be adapted to measuring the effectiveness of specific stewardship tactics, such as filing shareholder proposals, in order to explore how shareholder proposals on climate-relevant lobbying change company performance over time?
Limitations and challenges
Certain limitations remain, including endogeneity, biases in voluntary disclosures, and the imprecision of ESG metrics. We will review and address these and other challenges as the scope and granularity of the dataset becomes clearer.
Methodological context
Our approach builds on prior research including:
- Kölbel & Heeb (2024): A field experiment found that investor engagement, combined with a credible threat of exit, increased corporate climate commitments by 5.3 percentage points. (SSRN)
- Barko, Cremers, & Renneboog (2021): Larger, more geographically proximate investor coalitions were more effective in achieving engagement goals.
- Dimson, Karakaş, & Li (2015): Collaborative engagements led by lead investors with supporting coalitions improved corporate performance and increased investor fund flows.
We welcome your input
We're transparently disclosing our approach in order to invite feedback from the broader community of practitioners and academics. We welcome your thoughts and look forward to further discussions on this topic. Contact us to share your thoughts
Seeking to benchmark your engagement approach while contributing to improve understanding of what works?
By participating, investors receive a custom mapping of their engagements against peer investors. These insights provide leverage and help focus resource-intensive activities more effectively.
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