Varieties of Capitalism and the Learning Firm: Contemporary Developments in EU and German Company Law - A Comment on the Strine-Bainbridge Debate About Shared Values of Corporate Management and Labor

Research in corporate governance and in labour law has been characterized by a disjuncture in the way that scholars in each field are addressing organizational questions related to the business enterprise. While labour has eventually begun to shift perspectives from aspirations to direct employee involvement in firm management, as has been the case in Germany, to a combination of \u27exit\u27 and \u27voice\u27 strategies involving pension fund management and securities litigation, it remains to be seen whether this new stream will unfold as a viable challenge to an otherwise exclusionary shareholder value paradigm. At the same time, recent suggestions made by Delaware Chancery Court Vice Chancellor Strine, to dare think about potentially shared commitments between management and labor - and UCLA\u27s Stephen Bainbridge\u27s response - underline the viability - and, the contestedness - of attempts at moving the corporate governance debate beyond the confines of corporate law proper. While such a wider view had already famously been encouraged by Dean Clarke in his 1986 treatise on Corporate Law (p. 32), mainstream corporate law does not seem to have endorsed this perspective. This paper takes the questionable divide between management and labor within the framework of a limiting corporate governance concept as starting point to explore the institutional dynamics of the corporation, hereby building on the theory of the innovative enterprise, as developed by management theorists Mary O\u27Sullivan and William Lazonick. Largely due to the sustained distance between corporate and labour law scholars, neither group has effectively addressed their common blind spot: a better understanding of the business enterprise itself. In midst of an unceasing flow of affirmations of the finance paradigm of the corporation on the one hand and \u27voice\u27 strategies by labour on the other, it seems to fall to management theorists to draw lessons from the continuing co-existence of different forms of market organization, in which companies appear to thrive. Exploring the conundrum of \u27risky\u27 business decisions within the firm, management theorists have been arguing for the need to adopt a more sophisticated organizational perspective on companies operating on locally, regionally and transnationally shaped, often highly volatile market segments. Research by comparative political economists has revealed a high degree of connectivity between corporate governance and economic performance without, however, arriving at such favourable results only for shareholder value regimes. Such findings support the view that corporate governance regimes are embedded in differently shaped regulatory frameworks, characterized by distinct institutions, both formal and informal, and enforcement processes. As a result of these findings, arguments to disassociate issues of corporate governance from those of the firm\u27s (social) responsibility [CSR] have been losing ground. Instead, CSR can be taken to be an essential part of understanding a particular business enterprise. It is the merging of a comparative political economy perspective on the corporation with one on the organizational features, structures and processes of the corporation, which can help us better understand the distribution of power and knowledge within the \u27learning firm\u27

Mountain people in Cameroon : «Kirdi» and Bamileke

Dans les massifs et plateaux du Nord et de l'Ouest du Cameroun, des populations ont trouvé un refuge facile à défendre et ont pu capitaliser des excédents démographiques. Les plateaux basaltiques de l'ouest sont nettement plus fertiles que les monts du Mandara et la pluviométrie y est aussi plus favorable. Les hommes n'ont pas tiré le même parti de ces deux milieux : à l'ouest on constate une monétarisation importante de l'économie et la réussite de beaucoup dans les affaires, au nord le milieu est menacé par manque d'entretien du système des terrasses et l'émigration vers les zones de colonisation ou les villes paraît le recours pour la survie de populations qui demeurent très pauvre

Les difficultés de l'expérimentation ; des solutions ou des substitutions ; plus de moyens ou plus de méthodes

Blanc Michel, Champaud Jacques, Dugrand Raymond, Englander J.L., de Feuce J., Imbert Maurice, Leroy Claude, Maximy René de, Peyon Jean-Pierre, Piron Marie, Querrien Anne. Les difficultés de l'expérimentation ; des solutions ou des substitutions ; plus de moyens ou plus de méthodes. In: Villes en parallèle, n°17-18, avril 1991. Acteurs et chercheurs dans la ville. pp. 129-143

Les difficultés de l'expérimentation ; des solutions ou des substitutions ; plus de moyens ou plus de méthodes

Blanc Michel, Champaud Jacques, Dugrand Raymond, Englander J.L., de Feuce J., Imbert Maurice, Leroy Claude, Maximy René de, Peyon Jean-Pierre, Piron Marie, Querrien Anne. Les difficultés de l'expérimentation ; des solutions ou des substitutions ; plus de moyens ou plus de méthodes. In: Villes en parallèle, n°17-18, avril 1991. Acteurs et chercheurs dans la ville. pp. 129-143