Alaska Native Corporations (ANCs) were established under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act in 1971 to extinguish Indigenous land claims in the state of Alaska, as well as to provide for the economic and social wellbeing of Alaska Natives. However, ANCs’ governance practices and performance record offer a mixed record of their ability to incorporate the voice of their Indigenous shareholders and to fulfill a broad mandate for economic and social wellbeing among Alaska Natives. This exploratory, sequential, mixed methods study examines the relationship between shareholder participation, purpose, and performance in ANCs. Synthesizing theories from multiple domains, this study clarifies what is meant by inclusive governance. Additionally, it offers a new understanding of individual-level and firm-level benefits of shareholder participation, as well as an emergent model of the antecedents of inclusive governance, centered on shareholder participation. It advances an understanding of the motivations for stakeholder participation embedded in the context of Indigenous organizations. For a practitioner audience, this study offers advice to enable a more inclusive, participatory governance process in Indigenous and non-Indigenous businesses alike. It describes how a participatory process may help to allay the concerns of some shareholder groups and may maximize both the objective and perceived benefits of corporate social responsibility practices
