Abstract
This chapter offers a case study on the curious development of ‘good’ corporations and accompanying hybrid business law to reflect on the difficulties – and necessities – of transdisciplinary study and the methodological challenges in the application of theory to practice. The chapter first delves into past US debates on shareholder primacy and the global convergence of corporate governance models, exploring the disproportionate amplification of American scholarship and solutions, and the proliferation of self-proclaimed good businesses and accompanying legal frameworks. It then identifies some of the public-private tensions and risks of regulatory capture that arise from legal forms spurred by industry and the American neoliberal context in which certain reforms arrive within other nation states. In revisiting past debates and weak proposals in hybrid business law by parties seemingly committed to upholding the status quo, it is apparent that transdisciplinary understandings in law and business are needed to fully understand and grapple the existential social and environmental emergencies facing humanity. The chapter concludes by outlining the transdisciplinary futures of new economic and legal thought which firmly situate themselves within the natural sciences, offering foundational support within the emerging and dynamic new field of corporate law and sustainability.
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Notes
- 1.
See numerous replies to tweets from the BC Green Party announcing the benefit company legislation: https://twitter.com/BCGreens
- 2.
Matten and Moon observed in 2008 how corporations around the world were beginning to adopt the language and practice of CSR – particularly in Europe, but also in Africa, Australasia, South America, and South, East, and Southeast Asia (p. 404). Canada has been no exception
- 3.
See, for example, B Corporation Champions Retreat, https://bcorporation.net/2019-champions-retreat
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Liao, C. (2023). The Questionable Rise of ‘Good’ Corporations and Hybrid Business Law: Theoretical Trappings, Methodological Challenges, and Transdisciplinary Futures. In: Sjåfjell, B., Russell, R., Van der Velden, M. (eds) Interdisciplinary Research for Sustainable Business. Strategies for Sustainability. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-06924-6_7
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