Corporate governance and accountability - R C Warren

The book presents an analysis of the relationship between corporations and society as it has evolved from the past, into the present, and how it might change in the future. Business is now a much more complex institutional phenomenon in society with consequent social as well as economic ends. The corporate form has developed over the past two hundred years from the incorporation of property in joint stock companies to the complex muti-national organisations which exist today. These structural changes, together with increasing external pressures from a range of stakeholders -- customers, workers, investors, public opinion, etc., have led to a greater need for companies to demonstrate legitimacy and exercise accountability. Building upon some of the insights of the economist Joseph Schumpeter, a theory explaining the evolution of the company form is proposed to help make sense of the nature and course of these developments and to provide an insight into how companies may be expected to develop in the future.