Zumbansen, Peer C.Bevans, Phillip Granville2020-05-112020-05-112019-092020-05-11https://hdl.handle.net/10315/37416ABSTRACT This book investigates how a corporation, as a legal entity with certain specific attributes, but lacking human form, can take action in the real world of human activity. It contends that a corporation must take such action through, and by means of, an organization, both inside and outside its corporate legal limits, consisting of real individual persons and groups of persons. The corporation thus presents itself both as a legal entity assuming the legal form of a corporation and as a social entity taking the form of an organization. One form overlays the other. Those with whom it has legal relations, its legal counterparties, are also, in respect of its organization, participants in that organization. This theory of, or perspective on, the corporation and its governance is explicated here as corporative. The corporation comes into being, is situated, participates, and is embedded, in a complex sociopolitical-economic environment, which includes its legal counterparties and organizational participants. In addition to shareholders, they include employees, customers, suppliers, creditors, local, regional, and national communities, polities and governments, and non-governmental and other organizations, including those whose objectives include the environment, sustainability, governance, and social responsibility. Despite arguments from advocates of shareholder primacy and maximizing shareholder value, neither the corporation nor any of its participants, including shareholders, have any single objective. Instead, such participants have a variety of objectives which may be consistent to varying degrees with those of each other and with those of the corporation. However, the prosperity and well-being of corporations and their organizational participants, and the groups and other organizations of which organizational participants are members, at a macro-level, are, in many ways, interdependent. Today, prompted by various concerns (including the environment, sustainability, technology, changes in employment and other economic engagement patterns, and increasing income disparities), corporations, industry groups and NGOs, like governments, educational institutions, and other organizations, are facing challenges to the continued viability of contemporary capitalism and of its paradigmatic vehicle, the corporation. Addressing these challenges requires that corporations be considered in the context of the complex socio-political-economic environment in which they are situated and of which they partake. Drawing on analysis of corporate statutes and other relevant law, and historical, social, political, economic, organizational, business, and other theory, information and analysis, this work elucidates the corporative theory of, or perspective on, the corporation. It outlines how this might be applied in analyzing the corporation and its governance from a legal perspective. It illustrates how organizational participants may, and do, influence the behaviour of the relevant corporations; and how corporations may, and do, influence the behaviour of organizational participants. This contributes to understanding how such relationships may be employed, not only to save capitalism and the corporation, but to advance common interests in human prosperity, happiness, meaning, and even simple sustenance.Author owns copyright, except where explicitly noted. Please contact the author directly with licensing requests.Organizational behaviorElectronic Thesis or Dissertation2020-05-11Corporate lawCorporate governanceCorporate legal theoryLegal theory of the corporationCorporation as legal entity and organizationCorporate law and organizational behaviourThe corporation and its organizational behaviourThe corporative corporationA new model for the corporationThe future of the corporation and capitalismGovernance and regulation of corporationsCorporate activitiesCorporate behaviourThe corporation and its legal counterparties and organizational participantsOrganizational analysis of the corporationOrganization theoryExternal to the corporationInternal to the corporationStakeholder theory and team production theory distinguishedObjective of the corporationCorporate purposeLiability of the corporationLegal attributes of the corporationOrganizational attributes of the corporationHistory of the development of the modern business corporation in North AmericaThe corporation in actionLegal historyModern business corporationMultidivisional corporationsMultinational corporationsMNCsMultinational entitiesMNEsMultidivisional formsMDFsMultilayered subsidiary formsMLSFsM-form corporationsMFCsStrategic business unitsCorporate social responsibilityCSREnvironmentalSustainability and governanceESGCapitalHuman capitalOrganizational capitalSustainability reportingIntegrated reportingCorporate valuesCorporate cultureCorporate liabilityLimited liabilitySeparate legal entityLocking-in capitalTransferabilityLife of corporationShort-termismLong-termismCorporate shares as investmentsShare valueFinancializationThe corporation and the economyThe corporation and societyThe corporationThe polity and the stateIntraorganizational behaviourExtraorganizational behaviourOrganizational processesOrganizational personnelOrganizational objectivesHolistic analysis of the corporation.