Shareholder Empowerment A New Era in Corporate Governance

by Goranova, Maria; Ryan, Lori Verstegen

• ISBN13: 9781137376442
• ISBN10: 1137376449
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2015-10-08
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan

Summary

Despite investors' growing influence in modern corporations, the impact of shareholder empowerment remains uncertain. Proponents claim that empowered shareholders will improve managerial accountability and firm performance; critics warn that empowering shareholders will merely compound the problems of managers' and shareholders' self-serving behavior. In this book, leading management experts offer critical insights into the promises and illusions of shareholder empowerment, the discrepancies between theory and practice, and the challenges posed by disparities in global corporate governance regimes. It uniquely addresses where diverse shareholders such as hedge funds, institutional investors, individual shareholders, and state and religious organizations stand on the shareholder empowerment debate by applying new and existing management theories and practices.

Author Biography

Lori Verstegen Ryan is Professor of Management and Director of the Corporate Governance Institute at San Diego State University, USA. Her research on institutional ownership and business ethics has appeared in such journals as Academy of Management Review, Organization Science, Journal of Management, and Business Ethics Quarterly. She has served on several editorial boards, including Academy of Management Review.

Maria Goranova is Associate Professor of Organizations and Strategic Management at University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee, USA. She researches corporate governance and corporate strategy, particularly how ownership interests, shareholder activism and executive compensation affect corporate diversification and mergers and acquisitions. Her research has been published in such journals as Strategic Management Journal, Organization Science, and Journal of Management. She serves on the editorial board of Journal of Management.

Table of Contents

1.Introduction
Maria Goranova and Lori Verstegen Ryan

Part I. Shareholder Empowerment: Promises and Illusions
2.Combining Financial and Psychological Insights for a New Typology of Ownership Katarina Sikavica and Amy Hillman

3.Is Shareholder Empowerment a 'Good Thing'?
Kevin Morell and Loizos Hereacleous

4. Shareholder Democracy as a Misbegotten Metaphor
Ann Buchholtz and Jill Brown

5.Agents without Principals Revisited
Thomas Jones and Adrian Keevil

6.Boards and Shareholders: Bridging the Divide
Jenna Burke and Cynthia Clark
7.The Twilight of Berle and Means Corporation
Gerald Davis

Part II. Shareholder Diversity and Global Empowerment

8.Managerialism vs. Shareholderism: An Examination of Hedge Fund Activism
Marguerite Schneider

9.Religious Organizations as Shareholders: Characteristics, Tendencies and Implications Jennifer Goodman

10.Angel Investors: Firms' Early Empowered Shareholders
John P. Berns and Karen A. Schnatterly

11.Privatization and Principal-Principal Conflicts in Transition Economies
Canan C. Mutlu, Mike W. Peng, and Marc Van Essen

12.Institutional Change and Ownership Patterns in Italy
Alessandro Zattoni and Francesca Cuomo

13.Local Repairs in Light of Global Ideas: Ownership Structure and the Worldwide Diversity of Corporate Governance Codes
Jordan Otten and Marc Van Essen