Plan

1. Get familiar with the data:
   
   1. Can we access the data?
      
   2. Is it possible to extract information or does it need hand collection?
      
2. Data:
   
   1. 13D
      
   2. 13G
      
   3. News
      
3. I collected several WSJ articles in 2015: almost all of the activists tend to target large corporations with a lot of cash. Do these activists have 5 percent holdings (and therefore have to fill with the SEC) or do they use other means of pressure on the board ("just vote no" campaigns, legal suits,...) (To acquire 5 percent of large corporation, such as Apple is costly and difficult. Therefore I assume that these activists may use different means of pressure to the board, such as "just vote no" campaigns or others. Could you cross-check the news data with the 13G filling for several news articles - I am printing those for you)
   
4. Look what you)
   
5. Descriptive Statistics:
   
   1. Number of activist efforts during the years (probably 2000 to 2015 if it is not too difficult to collect the data - this time period would contain pre-crises, crises and post-crises period)
      
   2. Who are the activists: hedge funds, mutual funds, pension funds, individual investors...
      
   3. What are the characteristics of firms that are targeted by different groups of activists (size, industry, age, cash, profitability, payout...)
      
   4. What  happens to these firms  after they are targetted (overall and by  activists enter the firm: 
      
      1. Dividends
         
      2. Repurchases
         
      3. CEO groups):
         
         1. DIvidends
            
         2. Repurchases
            
         3. CEO  turnover
            
         4. Board changes
            
         5. Takeovers
            
         6. Spinn-offs
            
         7. ROA
            
         8. Stock price (event study)
            
         9. R&Ds: According changes
            
         10. Takeovers
             
         11. Spin-offs
             
         12. ROA
             
         13. ROA
             
         14. Stock price: event study
             
         15. R&D expenditures: According  to the WSJ article (DENNIS K. BERMAN: A Radical Idea for Activist Investors, Jan. 27, 2015) activists are going mainly after cash and making a company a take-over target. This is rather improvement in the short-term not long-term performance. Accordingly, activists stay usulally less than two years. What about improving a long-term performance? Why activists do not identify companies that are paying too much into dividends or buybacks and do not pursue  profitable long-term opportunities? 
             
      ...
      
      
      
       opportunities? 
      
   5. Cash