On Inventing the Purpose-Driven Enterprise

  • Kevin Levillain MINES ParisTech, PSL Research University
  • Blanche Segestrin MINES ParisTech, 
PSL Research University
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3384/VS.2001-5992.196187

Abstract

In this article we present the main lineaments for a reform of the business corporation introducing the purpose of the firm. In France, a report commissioned by the government recommends that two new concepts should be introduced in law: the raison d’être of the firm and “purpose-driven enterprises.” This reform partly originated in a research program carried out in France after 2009. The legal articulation of a so-called “purpose-driven enterprise” has now taken off, first in the US and now in France and elsewhere. It paves the way to introducing sustainability issues and new valuations processes in corporate governance.

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Author Biographies

Kevin Levillain, MINES ParisTech, PSL Research University

Kevin Levillain is Assistant Professor in management science at MINES ParisTech, PSL Research University. His research on corporate governance focuses on the emergence and creation of new models and legal statutes to support innovative design and sustainability in today’s organizations. In particular, he studies the emergence of “Profit-with-Purpose Corporations” as an organizational form dedicated to supporting innovative projects, through the analysis of legal corporate forms introduced in numerous countries globally. He published Les Entreprises à Mission (Vuibert, 2017), which received the FNEGE and Consult’in France prizes for the best research book on management in 2018, and now coordinates a research project funded by the French National Research Agency (ANR) on the Conditions of sustainability and management of Profit-with-Purpose Companies.

Blanche Segestrin, MINES ParisTech, 
PSL Research University

Blanche Segrestin is Professor at MINES ParisTech, where she holds the Chair “Theory of the Firm. Models of governance and Collective creation.” Her research focuses on theory of the firm, governance and corporate law, and management of innovative capabilities. She coordinated the research program “Governing the enterprise and creating commons” at the Collège des Bernardins (2016–2018). She has published several books on the history and theory of the modern corporation and on possible (re)-forms of corporate law. The book Refonder l’entreprise (Le Seuil, 2012), with Armand Hatchuel, has received several awards, including prize for the best book in management research in 2013.

Published
2019-02-01
How to Cite
Levillain, Kevin, and Blanche Segestrin. 2019. “On Inventing the Purpose-Driven Enterprise”. Valuation Studies 6 (1), 87-93. https://doi.org/10.3384/VS.2001-5992.196187.
Issue
Vol 6 No 1 (2019)
Section
Research Note

Copyright (c) 2019 Kevin Levillain, Blanche Segestrin

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