And there is little question how chief executives feel about shareholder resolutions.

On their own, shareholder resolutions are unlikely to bring fundamental management change.

He said the vote was 35 percent in favor, a significant proportion for a shareholder resolution.

In the last few years, he and other members of his group have sponsored more than 250 shareholder resolutions.

Existing companies will need to pass a shareholder resolution in order to take advantage of this.

Such votes are far higher than the average support level for shareholder resolutions.

The combination goes right to the bottom line and makes them more likely to pay attention to the shareholder resolutions.

Only 9 percent, however, had actually sponsored a shareholder resolution.

They then passed a shareholder resolution declaring that the company had no interest in the contract.

"But if they don't, I think you're also going to see shareholder resolutions trying to adopt some of these things."