Stakeholder capitalism

The governance scores of family firms in the ESG (Environment, Social and Governance) rating, as per Reuters and Sustainalytics data, were found to be lower than those of other firms. (Photo by Akil Mazumder/Pexels) SOUGATA RAY, NUPUR PAVAN BANG & NAVNEET BHATNAGAR The debate whether companies should be governed with the sole objective of maximising shareholder value (shareholder capitalism as reflected in the shareholder primacy model advocated by Prof. Milton Friedman) or balancing the interests of multiple stakeholders (stakeholder capitalism as reflected in stakeholder primacy model advocated by Prof. R. Edward Freeman), including shareholders, has been raging for several decades. Climate disasters, rapidly rising inequalities and COVID-19 have perhaps put to rest the shareholder vs. stakeholder primacy debate and tilted the balance firmly in favour of the latter. Modern corporations, irrespective of ownership, have an obligation to act in the interests of … [Read more...] about Shareholder capitalism to stakeholder capitalism: Are Indian family firms prepared?

California's attorney general, Rob Bonta, is taking the fight to the oil and gas industry, but over plastics. His office announced an investigation and issued a subpoena to ExxonMobil over its role in the plastics crisis. Bonta said, "In California and across the globe, we are seeing the catastrophic results of the fossil fuel industry's decades-long campaign of deception. Plastic pollution is seeping into our waterways, poisoning our environment and blighting our landscapes," according to a press release from his office. He says the truth is the vast majority of plastic cannot be recycled and the recycling rate has never surpassed 9%. Every week we consume the equivalent of a credit card worth of plastic through the water we drink, the food we eat, and the air we breathe. According to the complaint, in the 1950s, 1.5 million tons of plastic were produced annually. Today, that number has skyrocketed to more than 300 million tons. Uber is stepping up its electric vehicle plans in the … [Read more...] about Responsibilities of Responsible Investing

Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin Often misunderstood, Redesign Health’s model is a very different way to create, fund and launch healthcare startups, but will it pay off over the long term? Typically, a story starts with what a company is. In the case of Redesign Health , perhaps it’s best to start with what it isn’t. Redesign Health is not a venture capital (VC) firm, despite the fact that it's often listed among other VCs in funding press releases . It’s not a startup studio or accelerator, even though it’s named as a partner in building many early-stage healthcare companies. Instead, Redesign Health styles itself as “a company that powers innovation in healthcare by developing technologies, tools, and insights that lower the barriers to change across the industry.” What does that mean? After conversations with Redesign Health CEO Brett Shaheen, in addition to other entrepreneurs in the Redesign Health family, the answer is seemingly … [Read more...] about Inside Redesign Health’s Bid To Change The Healthcare Innovation Cycle

Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin While some have appointed themselves the harbinger of doom where non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are concerned, the truth is that NFTs aren’t going away anytime soon. And neither is the evolving convention known as the metaverse in which NFTs live. Not to mention, there are some not-so-obvious ways to cash in on their recent popularity while also reaping the reward of building relationships along the way. NFTs are non-fungible tokens recorded onto the blockchain that may be mined, bought, and sold. They can include any number of items like art, music, video, and in-game items. And they can require increasingly less time to create while netting a significant profit. According to NFTMAY , a crypto digital agency, an art piece that took approximately 40 minutes to make can sell for upwards of 1 ether (ETH ETH ) or about $3,446.47 depending on the current exchange or market rate. And that’s just for the NFTs … [Read more...] about The Not So Obvious NFTs That Equal More Cash And Build Relationships

Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin By Jolyn Metro, Congressman Ben McAdams, Luke Tuttle In 2017, Former Utah Congressman and Salt Lake County Mayor Ben McAdams launched Pay For Success (PFS), a social impact model that incentivizes collaboration between government, service providers, and financial partners to problem-solve in real-time to achieve measurable results. After nearly six years of hard work and early promising outcomes, stakeholders of the Salt Lake County PFS projects have gained important takeaways and insights among Utah jails and homeless populations. This is the first article in a two part series examining lessons learned and recommendations for future success. Watch our contributor page for updates. Homelessness, recidivism, and an overburdened criminal justice system are not unique challenges for cities and counties. But when state and local leaders in Utah experienced alarming increases in rates of incarceration in 2014, they chose a … [Read more...] about Pay For Success: The Social Impact Model Mitigating Homelessness And Incarceration In Salt Lake County, Part Two

Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin By Jolyn Metro, Congressman Ben McAdams, and Luke Tuttle In 2017, Former Utah Congressman and Salt Lake County Mayor Ben McAdams launched Pay For Success (PFS), a social impact model that incentivizes collaboration between government, service providers, and financial partners to problem-solve in real-time to achieve measurable results. After nearly six years of hard work and early promising outcomes, stakeholders of the Salt Lake County PFS projects have gained important takeaways and insights among Utah jails and homeless populations. This is the first article in a two part series examining lessons learned and recommendations for future success. Watch our contributor page for updates. The rate of individuals incarcerated in Utah has historically been lower than the national average. So, when the state saw an 18 percent increase in its prison population between 2004 and 2014, officials were alarmed. The future … [Read more...] about Pay For Success: The Social Impact Model Mitigating Homelessness And Incarceration In Salt Lake County, Part One

While the average trend is negative, there are family firms across industries that have performed exceedingly well. (Photo by Mikhail Nilov/Pexels) By SOUGATA RAY, NUPUR PAVAN BANG, NAVNEET BHATNAGAR Concentrated ownership of a firm in the hands of a family presents unique opportunities and challenges that impact its performance. In India, family firms are a dominant force in the economy, contributing significantly to nation-building, the exchequer, creation of jobs and asset creation. Their footprints on the Indian economy are indelible. It is imperative for family firms to perform well, grow profitably, create value and contribute to economic progress if India has to realise its full potential. Researchers have argued that family firms have better monitoring and lower agency costs than non-family firms, have incentives to take long-term views of maximising firm value, and are value-driven organisations. Yet, many of them are found to be plagued by rent-seeking … [Read more...] about Family Firms in India: Performance and Relevance

Image: Shutterstock The India Open Super 500 tournament, one of the last three qualifying events for the Tokyo Olympics, was on Monday postponed due to raging COVID-19 pandemic in the country. The $400,000 India Open was scheduled to be held behind closed doors in the national capital from May 11 to 16. "Considering the current challenges, BAI is left with no option but to announce the postponement of the tournament for the time being," Badminton Association of India (BAI) general secretary Ajay Singhania said at a virtual press conference. "Several rounds of discussions were held with BWF as well as the Delhi government and other stakeholders and accessing the safety of players and officials BAI needed to take this decision." Follow our LIVE blog for latest updates of the novel coronavirus pandemic Close COVID-19 Vaccine Frequently Asked Questions View more How does a vaccine work? A vaccine works by mimicking a natural … [Read more...] about India Open postponed owing to COVID-19 pandemic

Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin Whether you’re a manager at a company with 3,000 employees or three, something that leaders across industries have learned in the past two years is that giving employees more flexibility is key to retention and recruiting of new hires. The pandemic forced the majority (~70%) of the US workforce to adapt in a plethora of different ways to keep everyone healthy while still continuing to work efficiently. Companies that previously had 0% of their employees working remotely had to figure out how to seamlessly transfer all operations to a 100% digital environment. While obviously a ton of bad things came from the pandemic, that’s not to say there weren’t learnings and lessons discovered across the board. The reality is that more talent in every part of the country, and the world, now has access to greater opportunities because of the increased normalization of remote work. Gone are the days where you have to live in San Francisco … [Read more...] about 30 Executives’ Perspectives On Remote, Hybrid, And In-Office Work

Representative Image| A hydropower plant being constructed along the Bhote Koshi River in Nepal. Image by Jonas Gratzer for Mongabay. The New Development Bank (NDB) has reached out to India Exim Bank with an offer to co-finance trade infrastructure across the world. While India remains a stakeholder in the multilateral NDB, any prospective partnership will mark the first time that it partners with China, considered to be a major global rival in all forms of multilateral finance, including export credit, and project exports in particular. "I invite India Exim Bank to identify some priority projects, in trade enabled infrastructure, which involves both the elements of physical infrastructure as well as of technology," NDB President Marcos Prado Troyjo said. Troyjo was virtually attending a summit on project exports organized by India Exim Bank on May 5. Formerly referred to as the BRICS Development Bank, the multilateral development bank was established by five nations … [Read more...] about New Development Bank seeks to co-finance trade infrastructure projects with India Exim Bank