... of contracts underpinning agency theory which, it is argued, act as the platform for neo‐liberal corporate governance focusing on shareholder wealth creation. Findings The paper highlights the unaddressed critical challenge of why eighteenth century ownership structures are readily adopted in the twenty...

... In order to overcome the rather narrow focus on the shareholders of the firm, stakeholder views of corporate governance have been proposed (Jones and Goldberg, 1982 ; Freeman and Reed, 1983 ; Freeman and Evan, 1990). The idea that corporations have diverse stakeholders whose interests need...

... of corporate governance Forms of society Contingency Shareholders Stakeholders Agency theory Comparative approach Anna Grandori is a Professor of Organizational Theory at the Bocconi University (Italy). She has been the Co‐editor of Organization Studies. She is currently Editor‐in‐Chief...