Karin Jonnergård

Professor emerita

The dark-side of resource dependency theory : from economic democracy to financialization

Author

Karin Jonnergård
Ulf Larsson-Olaison
Anna Stafsudd

Summary, in English

The issue of the pro’s and coins with representatives from different interest group on corporate board is lively discussed. Will representatives from stakeholders work in the interest of the stake they represent or in the interest of the companies where they are a director? The issue has a renewed topicality as claim for e.g. consumer groups or experts on environmental issues have been raised. In this paper we invest the group that once started the discussion, i.e. the employees representatives on the board of directors. From a resource dependency perspective we are interested in two issues (i) are there significant differences between the perception of responsibility for the firm from owners representatives and employees representatives on the board? (ii) if so, do these differences sustain over time? We report a longitudinal investigation of board of directors in Swedish board indicated a convergence over the last twenty years between employees and owners representatives on corporate board. This convergence is mutual, indicating that it might be something else than the difference in whom you represent that drive the development.

Department/s