Regulations designed to prevent illegal corporate takeovers are currently a primary barrier to investors collaborating on climate change.
March 31, 2026
Original Paper
Who is afraid of Acting in Concert? The Platform Dilemma of Collaborative Shareholder Engagement
SSRN · 6425939
The Takeaway
We usually assume that if big investors want a company to go green, they can simply team up to demand change. This research shows that 'acting in concert' laws—meant to stop secret market manipulation—make it legally risky for investors to coordinate, effectively trapping them in a dilemma where the law prevents collective action for the public good.
From the abstract
Collaborative engagement has become a central mechanism through which institutional investors worldwide enhance corporate sustainability, yet its adoption remains uneven across capital markets. This study examines Germany's collaborative engagement environment as a critical case, where collaboration is limited and institutionalized engagement platforms have not been established. Based on semi-structured interviews with German institutional investors, we find that while shareholder engagement is