Abstract:

This article advances a new perspective on corporate purpose, grounded in the institutional conditions under which corporate privileges are granted. Using a novel dataset of historical UK royal charters and a mixed-methods empirical strategy, the study shows that early corporations articulated specific, enforceable, and public-facing purpose clauses because incorporation was a scarce privilege that allowed the Crown to impose obligations as a “asking price” for the benefits of the corporate form. Machine-learning evidence demonstrates that clauses reflecting Crown leverage cluster systematically and decline over time as incorporation becomes more accessible. The findings reframe corporate purpose not merely as a normative contest among stakeholders but as the product of institutional bargaining at the point of corporate formation, offering a historical lens for contemporary purpose debates.

Please choose your submission type: Full Paper

Primary Track: Corporate Governance

Keywords: External Corporate Governance Mechanisms ;Sustainable governance (SDG goals) ;Cross-disciplinary Research on Corporate Governance, Including Law and Governance

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Mr. Fatjon Kaja