ESG success factors for physical, hybrid and virtual shareholders' meetings
Are virtual shareholders' meetings more sustainable than a hybrid or physical format? A short study identified the ESG success factors for shareholders' meetings and compared the event formats.
Factsheet
- Lead school Business School
- Institute(s) Institute for Public Sector Transformation
- Research unit(s) Data and Infrastructure
- Strategic thematic field Thematic field "Sustainable Development"
- Funding organisation Innosuisse
- Duration (planned) 01.02.2024 - 30.09.2024
- Project management Prof. Dr. Jan Bieser
- Head of project Prof. Dr. Jan Bieser
- Project staff Jurek Müller
- Partner Aequitec AG
- Keywords Shareholders’ meetings, Digitalization, Virtual meetings, Hybrid meetings, ESG, Sustainability
Situation
With the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic, many companies have had to make a rapid transition from face-to-face to virtual collab-oration. This shift has extended to shareholders’ meetings, creating new challenges, such as ensuring secure and compliant voting processes and facilitating meaningful shareholder engagement. However, virtual shareholders’ meetings also offer significant opportunities, such as enabling participation from any location, reducing event costs, and lowering travel-related greenhouse gas emissions. Thus, companies now face a complex decision: whether to hold physical, virtual, or even hybrid shareholders’ meetings in the post-COVID era. However, virtual general meetings also offer significant opportunities, such as location-independent participation, reducing event costs and reducing travel-related greenhouse gas emissions. Companies are now faced with a complex decision: should they hold physical, virtual or even hybrid general meetings?
Course of action
In a short study with Aequitec AG and funded by Innosuisse, we identified key ESG success factors for shareholders’ meetings and compared the different meeting formats.
Result
In total, we identified 16 ESG success factors that help companies meet the needs of shareholders and other stakeholders while minimizing environmental impact. These were recorded in a fact sheet. The hybrid format currently offers the most flexibility to simultaneously meet varying ESG and stakeholder requirements. However, it is also the most challenging to implement, as it requires the seamless integration of both physical and virtual elements. As such, there is no one-size-fits-all approach. Companies need to tailor the meeting format to their specific situation to meet the diverse needs of shareholders and stakeholders while minimizing environmental impact.
