Purpose, Use, Potential Misuse of Stock Prices in Public Equity Market Deadline for Proposals: November 15, 2013 Author Presentation of Findings: September 19, 2014 The Investor Responsibility Research Center Institute & The Millstein Center for Global Markets and Corporate Ownership have initiated a joint effort to better understand the purpose, use and potential misuse of stock prices in […]
Tag Archives | theory
Video Friday: Should 'Shareholder Value' Rule Business Thinking?
A KnowledgeAtWharton interview with Eric W. Orts, author of Business Persons: A Legal Theory of the Firm. According to Frank Partnoy, Professor of Law and Finance, University of San Diego, (more…)
Review – Competition, Diversity and Economic Performance: Processes, Complexities and Ecological Similarities
Mainstream microeconomics has emphasized the search for perfectly competitive markets within a framework of equilibria in a quest to maximize economic efficiency. Tisdell argues that intense competition can reduce economic performance. He concentrates on market adjustments and the evolution of economic systems where the role of diversity, product niches, cooperation between firms and comparisons with […]
Review: Shareholder Activism as a Corrective Mechanism in Corporate Governance
Rose, Paul and Sharfman, Bernard S., Shareholder Activism as a Corrective Mechanism in Corporate Governance (September 11, 2013). Ohio State Public Law Working Paper No. 225. Available at SSRN. Type: Theoretical Research Issue: How can activism be utilized to allow corporate decision making to be executed in the most efficient manner? (more…)
Stakeholder Theory: Impact and Prospects
Stakeholder Theory: Impact and Prospects edited by Robert A. Phillips provides a great education in history to those of us who have been using the term “stakeholder” but who have little idea of its origins. Honoring the twenty-fifth anniversary of R. Edward Freeman’s Strategic Management: A Stakeholder Approach, Phillips assembles a collection of commentaries and critiques […]
Review: The Corporate Objective
Although large public companies dominate the world, there is no unanimity as to their objective. Andrew Keay tackles this very important topic with skill and in considerable depth. First, he examines the two most dominant theories, shareholder primacy and stakeholder theory. Unsurprisingly, he finds them falling short and goes on to propose the inelegant but well thought out […]
Corporate Governance and the Business Life Cycle
Corporate Governance and the Business Life Cycle (Corporate Governance in the New Global Economy), Igor Filatotchev (Editor) Most of the empirical literature on corporate governance is rooted in agency theory. While the principle-agent relationship and monitoring play a central role, governance is also concerned with entrepreneurship and contextual issues. The editor has chosen a good […]
New Compendium Hits the High Points
Corporate Governance: A Synthesis of Theory, Research, and Practice (Robert W. Kolb Series) edited by H. Kent Baker and Ronald Anderson provides an excellent overview of contemporary issues in corporate governance with a primary focus on the relationship between managers and shareowners, as well as other stakeholders. One of the more interesting and creative chapters […]
Entrepreneurs and Democracy: A Political Theory of Corporate Governance
“From the unstable equilibrium between entrepreneurial force and social fragmentation emerges corporate governance that is both legitimate and performing,” directing the “productive action of people who want to stay autonomous and free.” The quick takeaway: corporate governance must increasingly become more democratic to be seen as legitimate. (more…)
Placing Corporate Law Within a Political Context
The Corporation as Imperfect Society by Brian M. McCall articulates a corporate metaphysics rooted in the political philosophy of Aristotle. The dominant models of corporate law and philosophy are rooted in the realm of private law, especially contract, agency and property law. Corporations are viewed as a nexus of contracts or as vehicles for joint […]
Joo Calls for Explicit Examination of Normative Foundations in Corporate Governance Theory
In his recent paper, Theories and Models of Corporate Governance, Thomas Wuil Joo (incorporated into forthcoming Corporate Governance: A Synthesis of Theory, Research, and Practice (Robert W. Kolb Series), briefly surveys a history of American models of the corporation. On the currently dominant model, contractarianism, he notes that whereas early contractarians insisted that corporate governance […]
How to Govern Corporations So They Serve the Public Good: Wrong Title, Right Book
William Sun’s excellent book is less on how to govern corporations to serve the public good than it is an analysis of corporate governance from the perspective of ontology, epistemology, and sociology of knowledge. Sun does an absolutely fascinating job of tracing the development of two pre-Socratic cosmologies that continue to shape modern thought. Heraclitus […]
Inside the Black Box
The Modern Firm, Corporate Governance and Investment (New Perspectives on the Modern Corporation), edited by Per-Olof Bjuggren and Dennis C. Mueller, explores developments in the theory of the firm, as well as how ownership structure and institutional frameworks impact performance. Below, I look at a small sample of the contributions contained in this stimulating reader. As […]
Review: An Islamic Perspective on Governance
An Islamic Perspective on Governance (New Horizons in Money and Finance) by Zafar Iqbal and Mervyn K. Lewis reads like a carefully constructed dissertation setting forth a theory of justice, taxation, government finance and accountability, governance and corruption grounded in Islam. Indeed, it originated as an academic piece and is unlikely to find the wide audience […]