Table of contents

Tackles one of the most enduring and contentious issues of positive political economy: common pool resource management.

The corporate business enterprise is a core institution of capitalism. It holds immense political, economic, and cultural power in society. It mobilizes social and planetary resources to its utility in pursuit of private profit maximization and with little regard for social concerns. Its influence over so much of societal life and effects on the natural environment raise critical questions about the firm and its governance in democratic society. Various voices seek reforms of regulation and corporate governance practices to those shaped by the neoliberal policies persisting in the current decades. But prospects for amelioration within our current horizons of thinking appear elusive. This book contributes a distinctly social theoretical approach to the social problem of governing the firm. Its discussions complement debates in economics, politics, and law. Its critical social theorizations challenge conventional understandings of the firm and neoliberal legitimacies of its governance and posit alternatives. The book explores the social relations and moral fabric of the firm and the creativity of human action at work. It proposes a reimagined corporate governance premised on just recognition of that social vitality. It invites unprecedented collaboration for a robust participatory democracy for governing the firm and market action oriented to ecological and social sustainability.

The corporate business enterprise is a core institution of capitalism. It holds immense political, economic, and cultural power in society. It mobilizes social and planetary resources to its utility in pursuit of private profit maximization and with little regard for social concerns. Its influence over so much of societal life and effects on the natural environment raise critical questions about the firm and its governance in democratic society. Various voices seek reforms of regulation and corporate governance practices to those shaped by the neoliberal policies persisting in the current decades. But prospects for amelioration within our current horizons of thinking appear elusive. This book contributes a distinctly social theoretical approach to the social problem of governing the firm. Its discussions complement debates in economics, politics, and law. Its critical social theorizations challenge conventional understandings of the firm and neoliberal legitimacies of its governance and posit alternatives. The book explores the social relations and moral fabric of the firm and the creativity of human action at work. It proposes a reimagined corporate governance premised on just recognition of that social vitality. It invites unprecedented collaboration for a robust participatory democracy for governing the firm and market action oriented to ecological and social sustainability.

This guide is a practical resource for those firms that want to provide better client service and at the same time, improve the working environment for both lawyers and staff. It provides strategies to change the climate of the law firm, boost morale, and effectively and efficiently manage the firm. Issues discussed range from leadership and partnership issues to the basics of running the office. Includes a companion CD-ROM with more than 25 model forms, agreements, worksheets, questionnaires, policy forms, and more.

"George Clooney and Mark Wahlberg lead a talented cast in this harrowing special-effects adventure intercutting the plight of seafarers struggling to reach safe harbor with the heroics of air/sea rescue crews"--Container.

In the current period of globalization, Governing Interests presents new research on the impact of internationalization on the organization and representation of business interests through trade and employer associations. By exploring ongoing, gradual, but nevertheless profound changes in the structures and functions of business interest associations, the book develops a precise understanding of the relationship between the national and the international. Both conceptual and empirical, some papers included in this significant volume adopt a ‘bird's eye view’ of the topic, whilst others concentrate on individual industries or countries, and several, through examination and analysis, consider the effects on interest representation and the repercussions on effective governance. Contributed to and edited by leading academics, the diversity of research questions and methods used in this volume provide the reader with an excellent understanding of the subject and, importantly, caution against rash simplifications. Comprehensive and scholarly, this text will be of particular relevance to political scientists and sociologists.

Recent scandals involving large firms, in the USA and elsewhere, have brought into focus the role and conduct of major multinationals. This text looks at issues surrounding the organisation of such companies, and the ways in which it impacts on corporate governance.

The relationship between ownership structure and firm performance has been studied extensively in corporate finance and corporate governance literature. Nevertheless, the mediation (path) analysis to examine the issue can be adopted as a new approach to explain why and how ownership structure is related to firm performance and vice versa. This approach calls for full recognition of the roles of agency costs and corporate risk-taking as essential mediating variables in the bi-directional and mediated relationship between ownership structure and firm performance. Based on the agency theory, corporate risk management theory and accounting for the dynamic endogeneity in the ownership–performance relationship, this book develops two-mediator mediation models, including recursive and non-recursive mediation models, to investigate the ownership structure–firm performance relationship. It is demonstrated that agency costs and corporate risk-taking are the ‘missing links’ in the ownership structure–firm performance relationship. Hence, this book brings into attention the mediation and dynamic approach to this issue and enhances the knowledge of the mechanisms for improving firm’s financial performance. This book will be of interest to corporate finance, management and economics researchers and policy makers. Post-graduate research students in corporate governance and corporate finance will also find this book beneficial to the application of econometrics into multi-dimensional and complex issues of the firm, including ownership structure, agency problems, corporate risk management and financial performance.