L'attitude des administrateurs vis-à-vis des parties prenantes: une étude empirique

L'équipe du Professeur Ramsay de l'Université de Melbourne continue de produire des travaux de qualité. Cette fois-ci, elle s'intéresse au débat entre la norme de la primauté des actionnaires et la théorie des parties prenantes, qu'elle aborde d'un point de vue empirique dans un document de travail intitulé "Company Directors' Views Regarding Stakeholders".

Voici le résumé de l'étude disponible intégralement sur SSRN ici:

This research report provides detailed analysis of data collected from a major survey into how company directors balance the competing and sometimes conflicting interests of stakeholder groups, including employees, creditors and shareholders. The findings have significant policy implications. The obligations of directors toward company stakeholders and whether the law of directors' duties needs to be changed have been the subject of much public debate. There have been government inquiries on this topic in a number of countries. However, there has been little empirical evidence of directors' attitudes and business practice.

The survey tested directors' understanding of their obligations under the law and their priorities in relation to stakeholders using simple ranking exercises and a more sophisticated 'salience' test in order to gain a more nuanced understanding of the extent to which directors prioritise particular interests. The survey revealed results which suggest that directors do not adhere to a simple 'shareholder primacy' corporate strategy.