Say on Purpose: Lessons from Chinese Corporate Charters

Research output: Articlepeer-review

Abstract

What is the purpose of the corporation? The debate has continued for a long time without a clear answer partly because corporate law is often silent or ambiguous on the purpose of the corporation. The debate is largely academic and has limited dialogues with corporations that manage business in the real world. If corporations themselves articulate the purpose in their constitutive documents, it might be helpful to resolve the corporate purpose controversy. China offers a valuable empirical setting to examine how corporations formally state the purpose in their corporate charters. The empirical findings in this article show that the purpose clause in the articles of incorporation is not static but evolving with institutional and organisational demands. However, the purpose claus
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)251-275
JournalJournal of Corporate Law Studies
Volume19
Issue number2
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Mar 28 2019

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