Three essays on institutional investing and corporate responsibility

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This dissertation explores three key research questions regarding institutional investing and corporate responsibility. First, it investigates institutional investors committed to responsible investing and their impact on environmental and social performance. The findings reveal that these investors are pivotal in establishing a positive relationship between institutional ownership and corporate sustainability, significantly contributing to successful collaborative engagements and mitigating adverse corporate incidents. This underscores the need for a nuanced perspective on institutional investment and sustainability. Second, the research analyzes the influence of passive investors on firms' long-term actions, utilizing a sample of over 28,000 companies. It shows that firms with substantial passive ownership tend to invest more in R&D, file more patents, enhance their organizational capital, and adopt long-term-oriented language in their disclosures. This indicates that passive ownership can effectively counteract short-termism within firms. Lastly, the study examines how equity index membership affects environmental performance, drawing on a unique dataset of 132 index launches. It finds that companies added to new stock indexes significantly improve their environmental sustainability, adjust their CSR-related disclosures, and enhance accounting profitability. These results suggest that stock indexes play a crucial role in sh