European Management Review最新文献

In this contribution, we present the recent reform of corporate law in France (2017–2019) and discuss its implication at two levels. So far, “purpose” was mainly a managerial concept, and most efforts to make corporations responsible have not changed the legal constitution of the corporation. By contrast, the French reform first revises corporate law and introduces the purpose in the constitution of the corporation; it thus prompts a reexamination of former approaches of the purpose of the corporation. Second, with its two components, a duty of vigilance and the possibility for any company to become “société à mission,” it brings into corporate law some principles to manage the future corporate activities. We argue that it is based on a conceptualization of management that deeply differs from traditional legal representations of management. We show that this shift calls for new research at the intersection of law and management.

This article develops a new method for (re)analyzing data from a single disaster case to identify the temporal chain of collections of factors that was sufficient to lead to a disaster. The method combines elements of existing process methods with Mackie's (1965) interpretation of causal complexity; the INUS concept: An Insufficient but Necessary factor from a collection of factors that is Unnecessary but Sufficient for the effect. By systematically analyzing the factors that have changed shortly before the occurrence of the disaster, the method identifies not only the (collection of) factors that are sufficient for the disaster but also—by logical transformation—the collection of reversed factors that enable and ensure “normal” functioning without similar disasters and can be acted upon by management. We provide step-by-step guidelines for the graphical representation of the complexity of the disaster and the related “normal” functioning by showing the temporal relationships between collections of factors. The method may help develop an impact in two ways: first, in eliciting the factors necessary to avoid similar disasters, and second, in allowing dialogical sensemaking with practitioners at each step of the process.

Artificial intelligence (AI) offers new possibilities to augment human decision-making under radical uncertainty. This viewpoint commentary explores how AI can relax limits of bounded rationality. It offers a framework for analyzing how AI can support human decision-makers confronted with deep uncertainty by bolstering key decision-making sub-processes. Specifically, AI can help set agendas by scanning environments, formulate problems by providing contextual insights, identify creative alternatives through combinatorial abilities, select options by modelling scenarios and enable rapid experimentation cycles. Connecting the role of AI with the contributions in this special issue, this viewpoint commentary concludes by outlining directions for future research regarding the function of AI and augmented human intelligence in decision-making under conditions of radical uncertainty.

The European Management Review is pleased to host this Dialogue on an important theme, gaining increasing attention in the academic debate on both sides of the Atlantic, as well as in the policy initiatives of European institutions. The theme is the role of “purposes” in driving the conduct of enterprises. This Dialogue develops and articulates the argument that a debate on purposes not considering the role of law is destined to remain weak in consequences and imprecise in conceptualization.

The Dialogue comprises three pieces centered, in different ways, on that role. The pieces are developments of some of the presentations offered by the authors at a EURAM 2023 Symposium, of which EMR invited submission, for potential transformation in short articles to compose a Dialogue.

The contribution by Colin Mayer offers a set of broad interdisciplinary reflections on corporate purposes, in the context of contemporary challenges, in relation to economic theory and practice, to the evolving corporate law, and to performance and policy implications.

Livia Ventura mobilizes her juridical background for offering a much needed map for orienting in the complicated territory of emerging legal provisions; especially with reference to Europe, but including many comparative law observations with respect to the United Kingdom and the United States.

The analysis by Blanche Segrestin and Kevin Levillain reflects and draw general lessons and implications from an important European experience: the French reform instituting the form of société à mission, that the author themselves contributed in promoting. Those implications include how those developments in the law can suggest broadening and renewing the conceptualization of the role of management.

Thanking the authors for having considered EMR as a possible outlet, we hope the Dialogue can contribute useful inputs for strengthening the discussion on purposes in management, as well as for illuminating public policy regulation, in Europe and elsewhere.

Anna Grandori

Editor-in-Chief, European Management Review

We are encountering growing crises that derive from a misconception of the nature of business. A revised understanding of profit should lie at the heart of the purpose of the corporation, namely, that it derives from producing solutions not problems for others. Firms should not profit from producing problems for others. There is a limit to the extent to which either competitive markets or regulation can ensure that. Instead, it must be intrinsic to the purpose of the business and, in the absence of this, both markets and regulation fail. Furthermore, public policy in the form of corporate taxation and public expenditure can be used to promote problem-solving common purposes around shared prosperity. This has significant implications for business practice as well as policy.