Discussion: View Thread

Panelist: Edward Zajac; Northwestern U.; 
Panelist: Robert E. Hoskisson; Rice U.;
Panelist: Mike Wright; Imperial College London; 

Organizer: Maria Goranova; U. of Wisconsin, Milwaukee; 
Organizer: Lori Verstegen Ryan; San Diego State U.

Shareholder empowerment has become an increasingly thorny issue. On one hand, empowering shareholders is expected to rein in self-serving managers, improve corporate accountability, and constrain corporate wrongdoing. On the other hand, critics argue that shareholder empowerment may compound the problem of managerial self-serving with shareholder self-serving, contribute to corporate myopia, or facilitate the transfer of value from some shareholders to others. With this symposium, we seek to address the disparate views of shareholder empowerment as a solution to the crisis of public confidence in corporations versus as a contributing factor to the decline of publicly traded firms. The panel discussion will address: (1) the implications of shareholder empowerment for corporate governance; (2) the role of "conflicting voices" and heterogeneous shareholder interests; (3) shareholder empowerment as it relates to the practice of management and organizational life-cycle; and (4) future research directions.