Investments and Returns: Who Has Legitimate Claim on the Returns of the Firm?
Authors: Scully, Maureen; Gentile, Mary C.
Source: The Aspen Institute Center for Business Education's Corporate Governance and Accountability Project
Year: 2004
Abstract:
This Teaching Module was prepared by Dr. Mary Gentile, Associate of and Consultant to the Aspen Institute Business and Society Program, and Dr. Maureen Scully, Assistant Professor in Management at UMass Boston's College of Management and Consultant to the Aspen Institute Business and Society Program.
In 2003, The Aspen Institute Business & Society Program embarked upon a research initiative on Corporate Governance and Accountability to learn more about the prevailing models of corporate governance and theories of the firm, as they are understood, researched and taught by business school faculty.
To that end, we interviewed and convened a group of faculty from leading business schools who identified a number of topics, or “teachable questions,” which they believed could or should usefully be introduced into the business curriculum, given appropriate teaching materials. Accordingly, we have developed this and other Teaching Modules on Corporate Governance and Accountability.
Corporate governance and accountability are examined through case studies, background conceptual pieces, and articles from the business and popular press. The background readings are by Professor Margaret Blair and colleagues, whose work challenges conventional assumptions about the primacy of shareholders among corporate stakeholders, based on legal precedent and best practices for long-term firm viability. Blair's work incorporates human institutions, group integrity, and coordinative behavior and relationships among corporate members. The issues raised by the cases can be analyzed in light of the corporate governance and accountability perspective presented in the readings. This Teaching Module is one of several being developed on corporate governance -- each will feature a different author or perspective.
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