The appointment of activist-nominated directors is an emerging phenomenon, but they’ve come with increased reports of stakeholder harm. A new study published in Strategic Management Journal found that activist directors bring immediate benefits to shareholders, but they appear to impose a managerial myopia that results in executives becoming less inclined to make long-term investments. The research team also found that the adverse effects on stakeholder harm are strongest when a director is a delegate — i.e., they work directly for an activist investor — compared with a trustee, who is appointed by, but does not work for, an activist investor.

The research team — Brian L. Connelly of Auburn University, Mark R. DesJardine of Dartmouth College, Wei Shi of University of Miami, and Zhihui Sun of Capital University of Economics and Business in Beijing — pulled data on thousands of companies that had directors appointed to their board by an activist investor between 2008 and 2019. They compared these boards to those without activist-nominated members to determine the likely consequences of the board appointments across a broad range of scenarios.

Addressing patients’ health-related social needs such as housing instability, food insecurity, transportation barriers and financial strain is important to improving health outcomes yet can be challenging.  A new study from Regenstrief Institute and Indiana University Indianapolis Richard M. Fairbanks School of Public Health investigates the best approach to predicting likely need for one or more health-related social need services.

The number of family caregivers supporting older adults living in home and residential-care settings increased 32%, from 18.2 million to 24.1 million, between 2011 and 2022, according to a new study led by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and the University of Michigan’s Institute for Social Research.

People who feel financially comfortable are more likely to report prosocial actions like donating money and prosocial attitudes than people in a tough financial situation, according to a study.