The Evolving Corporation

Abstract

The primary objective of this Handbook of the Corporation is to contribute to the development of the theory and practice of the corporation. The core rationale of the Handbook is to review and question how the debates on the corporation have evolved from Berle and Means onwards. The editors are convinced of the relevance of Berle and Means’ insights to contemporary corporate dilemmas. However the analysis must be set in a totally different context. Berle and Means were writing about American corporations that were becoming increasingly dominant in the US economy in the 1930s. It is now a different technologically transformed and interconnected world. To whom is the corporation responsible and to whom accountable among transient and competing interests? Who judges or should judge the ultimate performance of corporations and by what measures? This analysis maps the contours of the multidimensional impact of the innovative corporation, and how this is being negotiated.