Corporate shareholders in Singapore: Retail shareholders, effective empowerment and the unfulfilled promise of the digital revolution

• Main Authors: KOH, Pearlie M. C., TAN, Hwee Hoon
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 2022
• Subjects: Stakeholder management; corporate governance; corporate reorganizations; social media > influence; judgments; Singapore; Asian Studies; Business Organizations Law; Strategic Management Policy; Technology and Innovation
• Online Access: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/sol_research/4055
• Institution: Singapore Management University

Under Singapore’s companies legislation, shareholders are vested with significant powers, placing them in the position to play an important monitoring role. Although there are discernible corporate governance benefits to encouraging shareholders to take on a more participatory role, many have argued against shareholder empowerment. Indeed, it is often asserted that shareholders are ill-equipped to play any role in corporate governance for a variety of reasons, including the generally-held view that shareholders, in particular retail investors, are rationally apathetic. The situation is presumed to be exacerbated in Singapore’s “concentrated shareholding” corporate environment. In this research, we sought empirical data to assess the state of shareholder involvement in Singapore and whether information technologies, especially manifested in the form of social media, will have any effect on shareholder behaviour. Our purpose is to reach a view as to whether the superior position statutorily accorded to shareholders in Singapore is ultimately largely aspirational where public or retail shareholders are concerned. This paper presents our results and analysis.