CONFERENCE CALL FOR PAPERS

The 4th international conference on Owners as Strategists, held online on November 21, 2024, aims to facilitate the development of new theory and stimulate novel discussions about how ownership shapes firm strategy. The goal of the conference is to bring together a diverse set of scholars with an interest in ownership, governance, and strategy to address the overarching question what the role of ownership is for firm strategy and governance, with particular focus on stakeholders.

This year’s conference topic will focus on owners as stakeholders. The landscape of corporate governance is undergoing a continuous evolution. While owner primacy has dominated corporate governance for the past decades, more and more scholars claim that the central problem in corporate governance today is to devise coalitional contracting solutions to the collective action problems inherent in team production. From a stakeholder perspective, we may ask whether the superior position of shareholders is justified? Various researchers have delved into this and related questions, and recent discussions about what has been called stakeholder capitalism has renewed this interest. Where do we stand in these debates? How should owners cooperate with other stakeholders? What is the role of the board when the primary focus is on resolving conflicts between stakeholders and who should appoint such a board of directors? Who should be the owners of the firm? Are there new legal forms and new ways of distributing control and cash-flow rights that help organize firms in efficient ways? This year’s conference aims to develop new theory and stimulate novel discussions about how firm owners integrate into a stakeholder-driven world.

Besides the special topic focus, we welcome submissions in the following fields: corporate governance, institutional investors, family firms, foundations, governmental ownership, venture capital and private equity.

The full Call for Papers can be downloaded here.