What are corporations for? Why do corporations exist? Is the corporate purpose to solve the problems of people and planet profitably or just to make money for shareholders? Is the Friedman doctrine still relevant? What role should or could a sustainable corporate governance and the interests of the stakeholders play? For whom is the corporation managed?
Never before has the debate over corporate purpose been so heated. It is now one of the hottest legal and - more in general - public policy issues and the coronavirus crisis is making it even more crucial. This book is placed firmly in the middle of this debate.
The underlying issue is the relationship between "corporate power" (e.g. management power) and stockholders/stakeholders "conflicting interests" involved in the large modern corporation.
More in general, the book shed new light on the evolution of the large corporation from the Corporate Law historical-comparative perspective and proposes a new vision of corporate purpose, looking at the corporation as an organizational model which can be "functionally oriented".
