Online seminar on New Corporate Forms

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Abstract
In various countries, new corporate forms have been introduced which explicitly broaden the legal purpose of the traditional shareholder-oriented and/or for-profit oriented firm. These new forms are still for-profit, but allow for different trade-offs between financial, social and environmental goals. In the US, many states have introduced so-called Benefit Corporations, in France the société à mission was introduced two years ago. In the Netherlands, a legislative trajectory is taking place to create a social enterprise form (the ‘BVm’, BV maatschappelijk). In this seminar, the speakers discuss the developments in these three jursidications. What are the promises and pitfalls of these new corporate forms? What do the first experiences teach us in terms of creating awareness among business about working on the basis of a societal mission? Do these forms have the potential to transform existing theories of the corporation or the capitalist landscape as a whole?

Speakers

Prof. Blanche Segrestin
Blanche Segrestin is Professor in Management Sciences at MINES Paris-Tech and Director of the Center of Management Science. Her research interests from the theory of the enterprise and responsible innovation to corporate governance and business law. Her book, with Armand Hatchuel, Refonderl’enterprise, received several awards. She holds the chair ““Theory of the Enterprise. Models of governance and Collective creation”, whose research program has inspired the introduction of the “société à mission” in the French corporate law in 2019. She recently  published in journals such as Journal of Business Ethics, European Management Review, or Journal of Management History

Prof. Janine Hiller
Janine Hiller is the R.E. Sorenson Professor in Finance and a Professor of Business Law at the Pamplin College of Business. Her research focuses on the intersection of law, ethics and technology in the context of the business environment. Her research on Benefit Corporations has appeared in the Journal of Business Ethics, and in the American Business Law journal, the flagship journal of the discipline.  In 2010, Hiller was a Fulbright Distinguished Professor at the Raoul Wallenberg Institute for Human Rights and Humanitarian Law at Lund University.

Prof. Tineke Lambooy
Tineke Lambooy is Professor of Corporate Law at Nyenrode Business University (Netherlands) and Research Fellow at the Utrecht University Centre for Water, Oceans and Sustainability Law (Netherlands). She conducts multidisciplinary research projects aimed at the implementation of sustainability goals by companies. Other research areas include social entrepreneurship (legal forms and innovative business models) and how business and public actors deal with ecosystems (natural capital). Lambooy has (co-)authored several books, among which are Corporate social responsibility: legal and semi-legal frameworks supporting CSR and CSR in Indonesia: legislative developments and case studies.