Beyond the shareholder corporation: Alternative business forms and the contestation of markets

This article considers various, established and emerging, alternative business forms that differ categorically from the traditional corporation in terms of their governance, objectives, and/or ownership structures, including mission-led businesses, social enterprises, cooperatives, and co-owned firms. Notwithstanding their considerable diversity, the underpinning pattern of these alternatives points towards a stakeholder model of corporate governance that commits the firm to generating value by maximizing the positive impact on its (internal and external) stakeholders while limiting negative impacts, with trade-offs carefully balanced against each other. Through these commitments, the firm internalizes a process of democratic contestation: a procedure to mediate the different interests of these market actors is incorporated directly into the structure of the firm, through procedural mechanisms embedded within its internal constitution.