Law, Management, and Strategy: Collapsing Boundaries and Managing the Interstices

Abstract

Law undergirds the capitalist system and is “at the interface” of business and social relationships but remains largely walled off from many traditional approaches to management education, scholarship, and practice. Although a simple definition of law is “enforceable rules between individuals and individuals and society,” law is also a medium by which relationships among and obligations between management and internal and external stakeholders are negotiated and formalized. Law can also drive (or impede) innovation by creating new rights (or burdening new business models with undue regulation) and promote (or prevent) social change by setting the boundaries for acceptable corporate actions. Legal rules for disclosure and corporate governance can and have changed the rules of engagement between organizations and their internal and external stakeholders. Environmental regulations, complemented by responsible corporate decision-making, can profoundly affect the long-term viability of industries and of humans’ ability to coexist with the natural environment. Law, and management of legal dimensions of business, should be seen as inseparable from strategy, ethics, stakeholder engagement, and sustainability.

This interdisciplinary panel includes both legal and management scholars who focus in their teaching and research on these topics. As a matter of execution, this panel will also be at the interface: roughly half the time is budgeted for Q&A and conversation with attendees, moderated with a clear goal in mind. The goal is to stimulate awareness and actionable “take-away” ideas that (1) involve law and (2) relate to the teaching, research, and practice of strategy, business ethics, stakeholder engagement, and sustainability.

Keywords: law, management, strategy, interstices