For a long time, a significant potential impediment for sustainability initiatives that required investment of resources in activities that may appear to be unrelated to the traditional focus of corporations on maximizing profits for the stockholders was the fiduciary duties of the directors of the corporation. However, as time has gone by, support has developed and increased for expanding the beneficiaries of the directors' fiduciary duties beyond shareholders to other constituencies, or stakeholders, such as employees, customers, members of the local communities in which the corporation operates and society. One of the byproducts of this evolution has been the decision of politicians in a majority of the states and the District of Columbia to endorse and formalize what has been referred to as the constituency theory of the corporation by adopting statutes that permit the formation of "benefit corporations", a new form of for-profit corporation that explicitly expands the fiduciary duties of directors beyond maximizing shareholder value, which is still one of the primary goals of a corporation, to include consideration of whether or not the corporation's activities have an overall positive impact on society, their workers, the communities in which they operate and the environment. As benefit corporations have emerged, other strategies for structuring social enterprises have been proposed, with varying degrees of success and acceptance, and companies are experimenting with hybrid structures that integrate different for-profit and non-profit legal entities to pursue an environmental or social objective along with financial viability. This book discusses the driving forces behind, and the costs and challenges associated with, social enterprises; the various legal structures that have been suggested for social enterprises; the key elements of benefit corporations and the issues that must be considered when organizing such entities; the relationship of social enterprises to certification and reporting frameworks; social enterprises recognized in jurisdictions outside of the United States; and the relationship between social enterprises and impact investing.
Sprache
ISBN-13
979-8-223-03349-3 (9798223033493)
Schweitzer Klassifikation
This book was written by Alan S. Gutterman, whose prolific output of practical guidance for legal and financial professionals, entrepreneurs and investors has made him one of the best-selling individual authors in the global legal publishing marketplace. His cornerstone work, Business Transactions Solution, is an online-only product available and featured on Thomson Reuters' Westlaw, the world's largest legal content platform, which includes almost 200 book-length modules covering the entire lifecycle of a business. Alan has also authored or edited over 100 books on sustainable entrepreneurship, leadership and management, business transactions, international business and technology management for a number of publishers including Thomson Reuters, Practical Law, Kluwer, Oxford, Quorum, ABA Press, Aspen, Euromoney, Business Expert Press, Harvard Business Publishing and BNA. Alan has extensive experience as a partner and senior counsel with internationally recognized law firms counseling small and large business enterprises in the areas of general corporate and securities matters, venture capital, mergers and acquisitions, international law and transactions and strategic business alliances, and has also held senior management positions with several technology-based businesses including service as the chief legal officer of a leading international distributor of IT products headquartered in Silicon Valley and as the chief operating officer of an emerging broadband media company. He has been an adjunct faculty member at several colleges and universities, including Berkeley Law, Santa Clara University and the University of San Francisco, teaching classes on corporate finance, venture capital and law and economic development, He has also launched and oversees projects relating to sustainable entrepreneurship and civil and human rights of older persons. He received his A.B., M.B.A., and J.D. from the University of California at Berkeley, a D.B.A. from Golden Gate University, and a Ph. D. from the University of Cambridge. For more information about Alan and his activities, please contact him directly at alangutterman@gmail.com, follow him on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/alangutterman/) and visit his website at alangutterman.com.
