A collective labor of vision and determination by 38 contributors in six countries, three continents, this volume shows how solidarity, innovation, and conviction forge sustaining local and global social economy practices on behalf of the greater common good; recipient of Honorable Mention from 2024 Joyce Rothschild Book Prize.
This paper, presented at the Rutgers-Oxford Employee Ownership Research Symposium in 2023 held at Kellogg College, University of Oxford, discusses the current state of employee ownership research and where it needs to go. The paper is written in an informal manner where the authors write in the first person.
Wages don’t cover the bills. Wealth inequality is growing. Social trust is eroding. There are endless debates about what to do, but one key factor is inexplicably left out: who owns the companies that drive the economy? Ownership matters. Ownership by a few means benefits for a few. But if you spread ownership around, you … Read More
An urgent and deeply resonant case for the power of workplace democracy to restore balance between economy and society. What happens to a society—and a planet—when capitalism outgrows democracy? The tensions between democracy and capitalism are longstanding, and they have been laid bare by the social effects of COVID-19. The narrative of “essential workers” has … Read More
Employee ownership has attracted growing attention for its potential to improve economic outcomes for companies, workers, and the economy in general, and help reduce inequality. Over 100 studies across many countries indicate that employee ownership is generally linked to better productivity, pay, job stability, and firm survival—though the effects are dispersed and causation is difficult … Read More
Free market capitalism is one of the great achievements of humankind, bringing prosperity and economic freedom to billions of people and contributing to a flowering of individual freedom and possibility that would have been unimaginable to our ancestors. Today, however, increasing global crises are posing the greatest threat this economic system has faced. Growing income … Read More
Platform cooperatives make possible a more democratic digital economy. They offer an alternative to extractive “platform capitalism,” one based on cooperative principles such as democratic ownership and governance.
Huawei Technologies, the Chinese telecommunication technology giant that was put into the U.S. government’s Entity List from May 2019, has become a contested issue in the emerging U.S.-China technology rivalry. In particular, the U.S. government and Western academics have viewed Huawei’s unique employee ownership as an opaque structure subject to the influence of the Chinese … Read More
As KKR, a private equity firm, prepared to take Gardner-Denver, one of its portfolio companies, public in mid-2017, a discussion arose on the Gardner-Denver board about the implications of granting approximately $110 million in equity to its global employee base as part of its innovative “broad-based employee ownership program.” KKR (formerly known as Kohlberg Kravis … Read More
Pallak Seth, Group CEO of PDS Multinational Fashions, is contemplating options to bring better collaboration across his global apparel supply chain platform. PDS, a group of 50-plus subsidiary companies, each led by its own CEO and with different apparel industry specialties, has grown rapidly over the past decade, yet the industry is increasingly competitive and … Read More
In spite of the rich body of evidence on the effects of HPWS, there are at least two relatively unexplored yet potentially important questions: (i) The conditions under which the HPWS is best introduced and best sustained; and (ii) in what way the HPWS will need to evolve when external environments change. Our findings fill … Read More
Led by CEO Zhang Ruimin, Haier in 30 years has gone from a money-losing, rigid hierarchy, state-owned, local firm to a profitable, flexible structure, collectively-owned, multinational enterprise. This transformation has been done in well-defined steps. In 2012, it was moving toward operating as a platform for microenterprises. The platform was to be open to both … Read More
In this paper, we first examine whether Huawei has an advantage over ZTE following the strategic restructurings in 2011, and then retest the hypothesis on the positive effect of an ESOP on Huawei’s competitive position…
Profit-sharing plans are one way to address the global issues of income inequality and uneven wealth distribution while increasing employee engagement. One company, the Chinese telecom Huawei, has a successful employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) that demonstrates such incentives can be good for both employees and the business.
How could the managing director maintain the firm’s cooperative structure, address the nutritional needs of all Indians, make use of emerging technology, and navigate the country’s dairy policies in the coming years?
This case study describes Huawei, a Chinese telecommunications equipment company, which heavily utilizes ESOP ownership, and applies Huawei’s results to describe ESOPs as a powerful tool for achieving corporate efficiency and growth.
Roy Weber met Cheng Wang, a business consultant and Chinese entrepreneur, at Cheng’s hotel bar in Silicon Valley. Although Roy was slightly familiar with Chinese business practices, he welcomed more advice from a Chinese national. Could Roy transplant Silicon Valley’s model of employee ownership to China, and what would this process entail for a technology startup?
Jittra Cotshadet coordinates the Try Arm Worker Collective in Thailand which manufactures ladies’ lower undergarments. She described the trials her collective faces in the current Thai political climate…
The case focuses on the vice-president and regional head of corporate banking for Noor Islamic Bank in Dubai as she arrives in the United States to promote the first global network for women in Islamic banking and finance, known as Durra.
This paper brings into focus the impact of employee buyouts on corporate governance in transition ten years after the large-scale privatization took place in Russia.
This paper provides an overview of existing data on employee share ownership (ESO) in Australia. It is concerned with broad-based employee share ownership plans.
This paper presents finding from our most recent research on the transformation of participatory employment practices of Japanese firms in the 1990s, during which the Japanese economy slowed down considerably. The operation appears to be of particular public policy interest for many countries considering participatory employment practices as a way to improve their productivity performance and thus competitiveness.
This paper examines wider employee share ownership in developing and newly industrializing countries with particular emphasis on Africa and Asia. The first section reviews the available evidence on the extent of wider employee share ownership. The second identifies the key issues relating to the implementation of wider employee share ownership: the objectives for employee ownership, … Read More
Using data for various years, including new data for 1973 through 1984, the scope, nature, determinants, and effects of employee stock ownership plans (ESOP) in Japan are examined.