Online voting and minority shareholder dissent: Evidence from China

Using proposal-level data in China, we document that online voting significantly increases minority shareholders’ participation in voting, and online voting is related to more dissenting votes. The association between online voting and minority shareholders’ participation and dissent is stronger in underperforming firms, indicating that minority shareholders tend to participate and dissent to express dissatisfaction. The association is stronger for shareholders with stronger voting power. Finally, we find that when minority shareholders’ dissent fails to veto a proposal, dissenting minority shareholders are less likely to participate and vote again the following year. Our results suggest that mechanisms designed to facilitate minority shareholder voting lead to greater and more informed participation in the corporate governance process.