Shareholderism Around the World: Corporate Purpose, Culture, and Law

Published Online:https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2022.00463

References

  • Adams RB (2017) Boards, and the directors who sit on them. Hermalin BE, Weisbach MS, eds. Handbook of the Economics of Corporate Governance, vol. 1 (Elsevier, Amsterdam), 292–368.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Adams RB, Kirchmaier T (2015) Barriers to boardrooms. ECGI Finance Working Paper No. 347/2013, European Corporate Governance Institute, Brussels.Google Scholar
  • Adams RB, Almeida H, Ferreira D (2009) Understanding the relationship between founder–CEOs and firm performance. J. Empirical Finance 16(1):136–150.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Adams RB, Licht AN, Sagiv L (2011) Shareholders and stakeholders: How do directors decide? Strategic Management J. 32(12):1331–1355.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Agle BR, Mitchell RK, Sonnenfeld JA (1999) Who matters to CEOs? An investigation of stakeholder attributes and salience, corporate performance, and CEO values. Acad. Management J. 42:507–525.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Aguilera RV, Desender KA, Bednar MK, Lee JH (2015) Connecting the dots: Bringing external corporate governance into the corporate governance puzzle. Acad. Management Ann. 9(1):483–573.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Aminadav G, Papaioannou E (2020) Corporate control around the world. J. Finance 75:1191–1246.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Anderson JE (2011) The gravity model. Ann. Rev. Econom. 3(1):133–160.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Anderson ME, Jones MA, Marshall SD, Mitchell RJ, Ramsay I (2007) Evaluating the shareholder primacy theory: Evidence from a survey of Australian directors. Legal Studies Research Paper No. 302, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia.Google Scholar
  • Andrews I, Stock JH, Sun L (2019) Weak instruments in instrumental variables regression: Theory and practice. Ann. Rev. Econom. 11:727–753.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Bandiera O, Prat A, Hansen S, Sadun R (2020) CEO behavior and firm performance. J. Political Econom. 128(4):1325–1369.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Barrios JM, Bianchi PA, Isidro H, Nanda D (2022) Boards of a feather: Homophily in foreign director appointments around the world. J. Accounting Res. 60:1293–1335.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • BCE Inc v. 1976 Debentureholders, 2008 SCC 69 (2008).Google Scholar
  • Beierlein C, Davidov E, Schmidt P, Schwartz SH, Rammstedt B (2012) Testing the discriminant validity of Schwartz’ Portrait Value Questionnaire items: A replication end extension of Knoppen and Saris (2009). Survey Res. Methods 6(1):25–36.Google Scholar
  • Bliese PD (2000) Within-group agreement, nonindependence, and reliability: Implications for data aggregation and analysis. Klein KJ, Kozlowski SWJ, eds. Multi-Level Theory, Research and Methods in Organizations: Foundations, Extensions, and New Directions (Jossey-Bass, San Francisco), 349–381.Google Scholar
  • Bloom N, van Reenen J (2007) Measuring and explaining management practices across firms and countries. Quart. J. Econom. 122(4):1351–1408.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Bloom N, van Reenen J (2010) Why do management practices differ across firms and countries? J. Econom. Perspectives 24(1):203–224.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Bradley M, Schipani CA, Sundaram AK, Walsh AP (1999) The purposes and accountability of the corporation in contemporary society: Corporate governance at a crossroads. Law Contemporary Problems 62(3):9–86.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Byron K, Post C (2016) Women on boards of directors and corporate social performance: A meta-analysis. Corporate Governance: Internat. Rev. 24:428–442.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Chin MK, Hambrick DC, Treviño LK (2013) Political ideologies of CEOs: The influence of executives’ values on corporate social responsibility. Admin. Sci. Quart. 58(2):197–232.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Cialdini RB, Trost MR (1998) Social influence: Social norms, conformity and compliance. Gilbert D, Fiske S, Lindzey G, eds. The Handbook of Social Psychology, 4th ed. (McGraw-Hill, New York), 151–192.Google Scholar
  • Coffee J Jr (2020) EC Corporate Governance Initiative Series: The European Commission considers ‘short-termism’ (and ‘what do you mean by that?’). Accessed August 27, 2025, https://blogs.law.ox.ac.uk/business-law-blog/blog/2020/11/ec-corporate-governance-initiative-series-european-commission.Google Scholar
  • Conte M, Cotterlaz P, Mayer T (2022) The CEPII gravity database. http://www.cepii.fr/DATA_DOWNLOAD/gravity/doc/Gravity_documentation.pdf.Google Scholar
  • Crilly D, Schneider SG, Zollo M (2008) The psychological antecedents to socially responsible behavior. Eur. Management Rev. 5:175–190.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Crossland C (2007) National institutions and managerial discretion: A taxonomy of 24 countries. Acad. Management Proc. 2007(1):1–6.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Crossland C (2009) Why do CEOs matter more in some countries than others? Managerial discretion at the national level. Acad. Management Proc. 2009(1):1–6.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Crossland C, Hambrick DC (2011) Differences in managerial discretion across countries: How nation-level institutions affect the degree to which CEOs matter. Strategic Management J. 32(8):797–819.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Demirtaş G, Strenger C, Tröger TH (2024) Sustainability skills disclosure for boards: An essential prerequisite for assessing sustainability competence. Working Paper No. 427, Leibniz Institute for Financial Research SAFE, Frankfurt.Google Scholar
  • Desender KA, Epure M (2015) Corporate governance and corporate social performance: The influence of ownership, boards and institutions. Working paper, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain.Google Scholar
  • Djankov S, La Porta R, Lopez-de-Silanes F, Shleifer A (2002) The regulation of entry. Quart. J. Econom. 117:1–37.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Djankov S, La Porta R, Lopez-de-Silanes F, Shleifer A (2008) The law and economics of self-dealing. J. Financial Econom. 88:430–465.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Dodge v. Ford Motor Co., 170 NW 668 (Mich. 1919).Google Scholar
  • Duelmer H, Schwartz SH, Cieciuch J, Davidov E, Schmidt P (2023) Testing Schwartz’s model of cultural value orientations in Europe with the European Social Survey: An empirical comparison of additive indexes with factor scores. Survey Res. Methods 17(4):447–463.Google Scholar
  • El Ghoul S, Guedhami O, Kim Y (2017) Country-level institutions, firm value, and the role of corporate social responsibility initiatives. J. Internat. Bus. Stud. 48(3):360–385.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • European Commission (2020) Study on Directors’ Duties and Sustainable Corporate Governance: Final Report (European Commission, Brussels).Google Scholar
  • Fernández R (2011) Does culture matter? Benhabib J, Jackson MO, Bisen A, eds. Handbook of Social Economics, vol. 1A (North-Holland), 481–510.Google Scholar
  • Flammer C, Kacperczyk AJ (2016) The impact of stakeholder orientation on innovation: Evidence from a natural experiment. Management Sci. 62(7):1982–2001.LinkGoogle Scholar
  • Frijns B, Dodd O, Cimerova H (2016) The impact of cultural diversity in corporate boards on firm performance. J. Corporate Finance 41:521–541.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Gartenberg CM, Zenger T (2023) The firm as a subsociety: Purpose, justice, and the theory of the firm. Organ. Sci. 34(5):1965–1980.LinkGoogle Scholar
  • Giannetti M, Zhao M (2019) Board ancestral diversity and firm-performance volatility. J. Financial Quant. Anal. 54(3):1117–1155.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Giorgi S, Maoret M, Zajac EJ (2019) On the relationship between firms and their legal environment: The role of cultural consonance. Organ. Sci. 30(4):803–830.LinkGoogle Scholar
  • Giuliano P, Nunn N (2021) Understanding cultural persistence and change. Rev. Econom. Stud. 88(4):1541–1581.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Gorton GB, Zentefis AK (2023) Corporate culture as a theory of the firm. Working paper, Yale School of Management, New Haven, CT.Google Scholar
  • Gow ID, Kaplan SN, Larcker DF, Zakolyukina AA (2016) CEO personality and firm policies. NBER Working Paper No. 22435, National Bureau of Economic Research, Cambridge, MA.Google Scholar
  • Graham JR, Harvey CR, Puri M (2013) Managerial attitudes and corporate actions. J. Financial Econom. 109(1):103–121.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Griffin D, Guedhami O, Kwok C, Li K, Shao L (2017) National culture: The missing country-level determinant of corporate governance. J. Internat. Bus. Stud. 48:740–762.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Guiso L, Sapienza P, Zingales L (2016) Long-term persistence. J. Eur. Econom. Assoc. 14(6):1401–1436.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Gupta A, Nadkarni S, Mariam M (2019) Dispositional sources of managerial discretion: CEO ideology, CEO personality, and firm strategies. Admin. Sci. Quart. 64(4):855–893.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Hambrick DC (2007) Upper echelons theory: An update. Acad. Management Rev. 32(2):334–343.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Hambrick DC, Finkelstein S (1987) Managerial discretion: A bridge between polar views of organizational outcomes. Cummings LL, Staw B eds. Research in Organizational Behavior (JAI Press, Greenwich, CT), 369–406.Google Scholar
  • Hambrick DC, Mason PA (1984) Upper echelons: The organization as a reflection of its top managers. Acad. Management Rev. 9(2):193–206.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Harjoto M, Laksmana I, Lee R (2015) Board diversity and corporate social responsibility. J. Bus. Ethics 132:641–660.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Hart O, Zingales L (2017) Companies should maximize shareholder welfare not market value. J. Law Finance Accounting 2:247–274.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Holderness CG (2016) Law and ownership reexamined. Critical Finance Rev. 5(1):41–83.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Holderness CG (2017) Culture and the ownership concentration of public corporations around the world. J. Corporate Finance 44:469–486.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Inglehart R (1997) Modernization and Postmodernization: Cultural, Economic and Political Change in 43 Societies (Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ).CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Kaufmann D, Kraay A, Mastruzzi M (2007) Growth and governance: A reply. J. Politics 69:555–562.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Kirzner I (1973) Competition and Entrepreneurship (University of Chicago Press, Chicago).Google Scholar
  • Liang H, Renneboog L (2017) On the foundations of corporate social responsibility. J. Finance 72(2):853–910.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Licht AN (2004) The maximands of corporate governance: A theory of values and cognitive style. Delaware J. Corporate Law 29:649–746.Google Scholar
  • Licht AN (2012) State intervention in corporate governance: National interest and board composition. Theoretical Inquiries Law 13:597–622.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Licht AN (2015) Culture and law in corporate governance. Gordon J, Ringe G eds. Oxford Handbook of Law and Corporate Governance (Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK).Google Scholar
  • Liñán F, Fernandez-Serrano J (2014) National culture, entrepreneurship and economic development: Different patterns across the European Union. Small Bus. Econom. 42(4):685–701.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Liñán F, Jaén I, Martín D (2022) Does entrepreneurship fit her? Women entrepreneurs, gender-role orientation, and entrepreneurial culture. Small Bus. Econom. 58(2):1051–1071.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Liñán F, Jaén I, Ortega FJ (2015) Understanding the role of culture and economic conditions in entrepreneurship. Peris-Ortiz M, Merigó-Lindahl JM eds. Entrepreneurship, Regional Development and Culture: An Institutional Perspective (Springer, Heidelberg), 53–73.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Liu C (2018) Are women greener? Corporate gender diversity and environmental violations. J. Corporate Finance 52(C):118–142.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Masulis RW, Wang C, Xie F (2012) Globalizing the boardroom—The effects of foreign directors on corporate governance and firm performance. J. Accounting Econom. 53(3):527–554.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Matten D, Moon J (2008) “Implicit” and “explicit” CSR: A conceptual framework for a comparative understanding of corporate social responsibility. Acad. Management Rev. 33(2):404–424.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Mayer C (2019) Prosperity: Better Business Makes the Greater Good (Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK).Google Scholar
  • Mayer C (2023) The purpose of corporate purpose statements: A response to ‘Shareholder voice and corporate purpose: The purposeless of mandatory corporate purpose statements’ by Paul Davies. Working Paper No. 694/2023, ECGI Law, University of Oxford, Saïd Business School and Blavatnik School of Government Park End Street, Oxford, UK.Google Scholar
  • Miletkov M, Poulsen A, Wintoki MB (2017) Foreign independent directors and the quality of legal institutions. J. Internat. Bus. Stud. 48(2):267–292.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Nili Y, Shapira R (2024) Specialist directors. Yale J. Regulation 41:652–716.Google Scholar
  • Osborne JW (2015) What is rotating in exploratory factor analysis? Practical Assessment Res. Evaluation Assessment 20(2):1–8.Google Scholar
  • Pan Y, Siegel S, Wang TY (2017) Corporate risk culture. J. Financial Quant. Anal. (Oxford) 52(6):2327–2367.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Park SS, Zhang Y (2020) Cultural entrepreneurship in corporate governance practice diffusion: Framing of “independent directors” by U.S.-listed Chinese companies. Organ. Sci. 31:1313–1620.LinkGoogle Scholar
  • Parke v. Daily News Ltd., Ch 927 (1962).Google Scholar
  • Podsakoff PM, MacKenzie SB, Podsakoff NP (2012) Sources of method bias in social science research and recommendations on how to control it. Ann. Rev. Psych. 63(1):539–569.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Robinson W (1950) Ecological correlations and the behavior of individuals. Amer. Sociol. Rev. 3:351–357.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Roccas S, Sagiv L (2010) Personal values and behavior: Taking the cultural context into account. Soc. Personality Psych. Compass 4:30–34.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Rudnev M, Magun V, Schwartz SH (2018) Relations among higher order values around the world. J. Cross-Cultural Psych. 49:1165–1182.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Sagiv L, Schwartz SH (2022) Personal values across cultures. Ann. Rev. Psych. 73:517–546.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Schnyder G, Siems M, Aguilera R (2018) Twenty years of ‘Law & Finance’: Time to take law seriously. Working paper, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK.Google Scholar
  • Schumpeter JA (1934) The Theory of Economic Development (Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA).Google Scholar
  • Schwartz SH (1992) Universals in the content and structure of values: Theory and empirical tests in 20 countries. Zanna M, ed. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology (Academic Press, New York), 1–65.Google Scholar
  • Schwartz SH (2014) National culture as value orientations: Consequences of value differences and cultural distance. Ginsburgh V, Throsby D, eds. Handbook of the Economics of Art and Culture, 2nd ed. (Elsevier, North Holland), 547–586.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Schwartz SH (2016) Basic individual values: Sources and consequences. Brosch T, Sander D eds. Handbook of Value: Perspectives from Economics, Neuroscience, Philosophy, Psychology and Sociology (Oxford University Press, New York).Google Scholar
  • Shafer WE, Fukukawa K, Lee GM (2007) Values and the perceived importance of ethics and social responsibility: The U.S. versus China. J. Bus. Ethics 70:256–284.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Shlensky v. Wrigley, 237 NE 2d 776 (Ill. App (1968)).Google Scholar
  • Siegel JI, Licht AN, Schwartz SH (2013) Egalitarianism, cultural distance, and FDI: A new approach. Organ. Sci. 24:174–1194.LinkGoogle Scholar
  • Siems M (2024) “Corporate purpose” as a false friend: A bibliometric analysis. Working Paper No. 815/2024, European Corporate Governance Institute, Brussels, Belgium.Google Scholar
  • Smith PB, Bond MH, Kagitcibasi C (2006) Understanding Social Psychology Across Cultures (Sage, London).Google Scholar
  • Strine LE Jr (2015) The dangers of denial: The need for a clear-eyed understanding of the power and accountability structure established by the Delaware general corporation law. Wake Forest Law Rev. 50:761–801.Google Scholar
  • Tetley W (2000) Mixed jurisdictions: Common law v. civil law (codified and uncodified). Louisiana Law Rev. 60:677–738.Google Scholar
  • Tetlock PE (2000) Cognitive biases and organizational correctives: Do both disease and cure depend on the ideological beholder? Admin. Sci. Quart. 45:293–326.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Wangrow DB, Schepker DJ, Barker VL (2015) Managerial discretion: An empirical review and focus on future research directions. J. Management 41(1):99–135.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Westphal JD, Zajac EJ (2013) A behavioral theory of corporate governance. Acad. Management Ann. 7(1):605–659.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Williamson OE (2000) The new institutional economics: Taking stock, looking ahead. J. Econom. Literature 38:595–613.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Wooldridge JM (2002) Econometric Analysis of Cross Section and Panel Data (MIT Press, Cambridge, MA).Google Scholar
INFORMS site uses cookies to store information on your computer. Some are essential to make our site work; Others help us improve the user experience. By using this site, you consent to the placement of these cookies. Please read our Privacy Statement to learn more.