New rezonanz research collaboration on investor engagement and real-world impact

We are excited to announce a groundbreaking research collaboration between rezonanz and Professor Julian Kölbel of the Center for Financial Services Innovation at the University of St. Gallen in Switzerland. With financial support from the Swiss Innovation Agency Innosuisse’s prestigious Innobooster Sustainable Digital Finance program, this initiative aims to bridge a critical gap in sustainable finance: understanding how investor engagement translates into measurable changes in corporate behavior.

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Why This Research Matters

Investor engagement is widely regarded as a key tool for influencing corporate ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) performance. However, a crucial question remains:  

How does investor engagement influence real-world outcomes in corporate behavior?

Despite growing enthusiasm for active ownership, there is limited empirical evidence directly linking engagement efforts to tangible corporate outcomes. The challenge of collecting the data to robustly compare dozens of investors’  engagements with thousands of companies over extended time periods has been a key hurdle.

Our research seeks to fill this void by developing a robust, data-driven framework to assess how and when engagement influences corporate ESG performance.

Backed by the Innosuisse Innobooster Program

The importance of this research has been recognized by Innosuisse, Switzerland's Innovation Agency, through its Innobooster Sustainable Digital Finance program. This funding enables us to expand our dataset through direct outreach and novel data collection methods, establish a framework that helps us measure what is working, and work directly with investors themselves to find ways software can be supportive. Our goal is to support a transformation in the way investors and policymakers evaluate engagement impact.

Our Research Approach

Unprecedented Data Scope

• Our dataset from 2023 alone combined engagement records from 46 institutional investors managing over $28 trillion in AUM, extending to cover over 4,000 companies.
• Expansion in Q2: With the publication of this blog, we’re launching our 2025 engagement data-sharing initiative and are inviting 100+ institutional investors to share their 2024 engagement records with us directly in order to get their efforts mapped against peers.
• By 2026: A full three-year dataset will allow for trend analysis and deeper insights.

Methodological Rigor

Using cross-sectional time series models, we can analyze how engagement correlates with changes in corporate sustainability performance over time. Key elements of our methodology include:

• Measuring engagement intensity: Investors disclose engagement efforts across four levels, from company names to detailed activity-level actions.
• Quantifying impact: Comparing performance changes changes against various engagement factors (e.g., environmental engagements vs. environmental score shifts).
• Testing effectiveness: Our goal is to determine whether engagement efforts have a statistically significant effect on corporate ESG performance.

Future Research Directions

Beyond our core model, we aim to explore:

• Differing definitions of engagement: given that investors’ disclosures vary widely in scope and granularity, what definitions of engagement are emerging through practicioners’  disclosures?
• The role of engagement intensity: Do frequent interactions drive greater change?
• Effectiveness across ESG dimensions: Are environmental engagements more impactful than social or governance efforts?
• The influence of specific stewardship tactics on corporate change.

Overcoming Challenges

We acknowledge the complexities in this field, including endogeneity issues, voluntary disclosure biases, and the limitations of ESG metrics. Our research builds on existing studies, such as:

• Kölbel & Heeb (2024): Demonstrated that investor engagement, coupled with an exit threat, improved corporate climate commitments.
• Barko, Cremers, & Renneboog (2021): Found that larger investor coalitions were more effective in achieving engagement goals.
• Dimson, Karakaş, & Li (2015): Showed that collaborative engagements led to enhanced corporate performance.

Join Us in Advancing Sustainable Finance

By establishing a rigorous, data-driven approach to measuring engagement impact, this research has the potential to reshape the sustainable investment landscape. With Innosuisse’s support, we are pioneering a new standard for linking investor stewardship to real-world outcomes.

We look forward to collaborating with institutional investors, researchers, and industry leaders to drive meaningful change.  

If you're an investor with direct engagements or service providers and asset managers engaging on your behalf, please visit our dedicated site to participate: https://www.rezonanz.io/engagement-pilot-initiative

For more information about our methodology, see https://www.rezonanz.io/measuring-engagement-impact

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