Published: May 27th, 2021 The associate dean for strategic initiatives at Ohio State University talks about his new study on the relationship between big investors and proxy advisers as well as his view that the activist investment movement wouldn’t exist in its current form without the help of proxy advisers. Robovoting — when institutional investors mechanically follow recommendations issued by proxy advisers — is more likely to occur at smaller companies engaged in proxy fights than their larger counterparts, partly because those battles tend to stay out of the media spotlight. That’s the view of Paul Rose, the associate dean for strategic initiatives at Ohio State University. Rose spoke with The Deal for its Activist Investing Today podcast about a new study he developed showing that 114 institutional investors with $5 trillion in assets under management voted last year in lockstep with proxy advisers Institutional Shareholder Services Inc. or Glass, Lewis & Co. LLC on both routine and nonroutine matters.