Shareholder activism is when a shareholder of a publicly-traded company uses their rights to pressure that company to make change. Basically, it’s a way that shareholders can influence and change a company’s behavior in a certain way. For example, shareholders may influence a company to become more environmentally friendly or disinvest from a country with a record of human rights abuses. Shareholder activism can take the form of voting for or against certain corporate actions or members of management, and/or in organizing groups of voters to block or force a corporate  action.