Variables Proxying Sustainability-Oriented Investor Activism: A Systematic Literature Review

This review aims to identify proxy variables measuring sustainability-oriented investor activism (SOIA) and the underlying theoretical and methodological approaches. Following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines for systematic reviews, the authors identified 56 papers from 2006 to 2024 relevant to the review’s objectives. The review reveals that based on the two distinct modes of SOIA, namely public and private, proxy variables for SOIA also differ. The analysis also reveals the prevalence of proxy variables based on public SOIA in the studies reviewed. Additionally, the review discusses the dominant use of agency and stakeholder theories in explaining SOIA and the methodological reliance on quantitative techniques in the literature. In addition, the review identifies critical gaps, such as a lack of standardization, in measuring SOIA and the challenge of integrating qualitative dimensions. This work contributes to the field by mapping key variables measuring SOIA and addressing the limitations in their measurement in the literature.