Stakeholder Capitalism in the Time of COVID

Abstract

This Article tests the claims of supporters of stakeholder capitalism (“stakeholderism”) in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Supporters of stakeholderism advocate encouraging and relying on corporate leaders to use their discretion to serve stakeholders such as employees, customers, suppliers, local communities, and the environment. The pandemic followed and was accompanied by peak support for stakeholderism and broad expressions of commitment to it from corporate leaders. Nonetheless, and even though the pandemic heightened risks to stakeholders, we document that corporate leaders negotiating deal terms failed to look after stakeholder interests.

Some supporters of stakeholderism argue that corporate leaders should and do give weight to stakeholder interests because delivering value to stakeholders is a major element of corporate purpose. Other supporters maintain that corporate leaders considering a sale of the company should and do seek to benefit stakeholders, because fulfilling implicit promises to do so serves shareholders’ ex ante interest in inducing stakeholder cooperation, arguably essential to corporate success. We find that the evidence is inconsistent with both views.

We conduct a detailed examination of all the $1B+ acquisitions of public companies that were announced during the COVID pandemic, totaling 122 acquisitions with an aggregate consideration exceeding $800 billion. We find that deal terms provided large gains for the shareholders of target companies, as well as substantial private benefits for corporate leaders. However, although many transactions were viewed at the time of the deal as posing significant post-deal risks for employees, corporate leaders largely did not obtain any employee protections, including payments to employees who would be laid off post-deal. Similarly, we find that corporate leaders failed to negotiate for protections for customers, suppliers, communities, the environment, and other stakeholders.

After conducting various tests to examine whether this pattern could have been driven by other factors, we conclude that it is likely to have been driven by corporate leaders’ incentives to benefit stakeholders only to the extent needed to serve shareholders’ interests. While we focus on decisions in the acquisition context, we explain why our findings also have implications for ongoing-concern decisions, and we discuss and respond to potential objections to our conclusions.
Overall, our findings cast substantial doubt on the claims made by supporters of stakeholder capitalism. Those who seriously care about corporations’ external effects on shareholders should not harbor illusory hopes that corporate leaders would protect stakeholder interests on their own. Instead, they should concentrate their efforts on securing governmental interventions (such as carbon taxes and employee protection policies) that could truly protect stakeholders.


This paper is part of a larger research project of the Harvard Law School Corporate Governance on stakeholder capitalism and stakeholderism. Other parts of this research project include The Illusory Promise of Stakeholder Governance by Lucian A. Bebchuk and Roberto Tallarita, Will Corporations Deliver Value to All Stakeholders? by by Lucian A. Bebchuk and Roberto Tallarita, For Whom Corporate Leaders Bargain by Lucian A. Bebchuk, Kobi Kastiel, and Roberto Tallarita, The Perils and Questionable Promise of ESG-Based Compensation by Lucian A. Bebchuk and Roberto Tallarita, and Does Enlightened Shareholder Value Add Value? by Lucian A. Bebchuk, Kobi Kastiel, and Roberto Tallarita.

Keywords: Stakeholders, stakeholderism, stakeholder governance, stakeholder capitalism, corporate social responsibility, corporate purpose, COVID-19, employees, accountability, managerialism, mergers & acquisitions

JEL Classification: D21, G32, G34, G38, K22