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17 - Shareholder Primacy in Benefit Corporations

from Part IV - Stakeholders and Society

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 August 2021

Arthur B. Laby
Affiliation:
Rutgers University School of Law
Jacob Hale Russell
Affiliation:
Rutgers University School of Law
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Summary

The goal of the business corporation traditionally has been understood to be the maximization of shareholder wealth. A growing demand for social enterprise has led to the creation of various new forms of business organization, including the benefit corporation, that have the goal of creating both shareholder wealth and other public benefits. Although benefit corporations were developed to overcome the shareholder wealth maximization norm, it is not fair to say that they also overcome shareholder primacy. Properly understood, benefit corporations are shareholder-centric: they exist to allow shareholders to pursue altruistic goals rather than to require them to do so. This essay demonstrates this from the history and structure of the Model Benefit Corporation Act and argues that benefit corporation legislation ought to remain essentially enabling rather than mandatory in nature.

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Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

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