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Vocabularies of Motive and Temporal Perspectives: Examples of Pension Fund Engagement and Disengagement

Tilba, Anna; Wilson, John F.

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Authors

John F. Wilson



Abstract

Prior research on institutional investors’ role in corporate governance draws a distinction between engaged and disengaged pension funds. The aim of this study was to shed more light on how pension fund practitioners talk about engagement and disengagement. Using insights from 35 in‐depth, semi‐structured interviews and round‐table discussions with pension fund trustees, executives, investment officers and financial intermediaries, we identify different types of vocabularies and temporal perspectives used to account for different stances towards engagement. We highlight a tension between a seemingly causal relationship between accounts and future behaviour and argue that these ‘accounts’, ‘vocabularies’ and ‘uses of the past’ in themselves need to be treated as an object of study because they may represent not simply the individual motivations but rather the expressions of extant norms in the broader social context of financial markets. An important policy implication is that perceived realities of investment are unlikely to cause a change in pension fund behaviour because participants seem to decouple their view of the world from their impact on the world.

Citation

Tilba, A., & Wilson, J. F. (2017). Vocabularies of Motive and Temporal Perspectives: Examples of Pension Fund Engagement and Disengagement. British Journal of Management, 28(3), 502-518. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8551.12225

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Jan 13, 2017
Online Publication Date May 9, 2017
Publication Date Jul 1, 2017
Deposit Date Jul 6, 2018
Publicly Available Date Mar 29, 2024
Journal British Journal of Management
Print ISSN 1045-3172
Electronic ISSN 1467-8551
Publisher Wiley
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 28
Issue 3
Pages 502-518
DOI https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8551.12225
Public URL https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1322099
Related Public URLs https://eprint.ncl.ac.uk/231346

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Copyright Statement
This is the accepted version of the following article: Tilba, Anna & Wilson, John F. (2017). Vocabularies of Motive and Temporal Perspectives: Examples of Pension Fund Engagement and Disengagement. British Journal of Management 28(3): 502-518, which has been published in final form at https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8551.12225. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance With Wiley Terms and Conditions for self-archiving.





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