Research

2007 Corporate Board Investor Survey

Dean's Comments

"Corporate board leadership that is centered on values and ethical behavior plays an important role in how investors evaluate companies they chose to include in their portfolio. Clearly, investors are looking at more than the balance sheet and sales projections when it comes to investments."

- Linda A. Livingstone
Dean

Pepperdine University's Graziadio School of Business and Management commissioned a study of investor attitudes toward CEOs and their corporate boards. We set out to understand how those owning stock in companies perceived the current state of ethical management by senior management, executive pay, boardroom diversity and its impact, and corporate accountability.

To view complete survey results, visit charts and data.

Our review of public records shows there is little information available on the subject, but that it is one much discussed in the media, in management settings and among MBA programs. Knowing and understanding investors' opinions could be useful for other investors, those who aspire to corporate boards and those on the track to senior management. What's more, some of the topics covered in the study, such as ethics, are very much of interest to MBAs at the Graziadio School.

The final results are based on 482 interviews conducted using Opinion Research Corp.'s omnibus telephone survey. The survey included a total of 2,051 respondents, of which 24% met our criteria of having at least $100,000 invested in either mutual funds, individuals stocks or a combination of the two. The margin of error for a sample of this size is 4.5 percentage points.