Managing Investor Relations

Chapter 6

Ethics and Professionalism

As explained above, the roles and functions of investor relations as a profession are closely tied to changes in economy and society in general. The very appearance of investor relation departments was caused by pressure from social movement activists and financial analysts: “Whereas social movement activists framed shareholder rights as a problem and compelled organizations to uphold them, professional analysts subtly coerced organizations to signal their commitment to investor rights by creating boundary-spanning structures.”¹

In other words, not only companies increased their shareholder’s base, but social movement activists framed the relationship with shareholders as important and thus called for investor ...