Original scientific paper
https://doi.org/10.1080/1331677X.2017.1311230
Corporate purpose in a small post-transitional economy: the case of Slovenia
Igor Stubelj
Primož Dolenc
Roberto Biloslavo
Matjaž Nahtigal
Suzana Laporšek
Abstract
Firms are driving forces of economic and social development;
therefore it is important to understand what is their primary goal or
purpose. The aim of the paper is twofold. First, the paper presents
baseline theoretical concepts on the firms’ purposes. Secondly, the
paper presents the results of the empirical study in Slovenia with
which we tried to determine how firms’ purposes are perceived by
their managers and how they see their responsibility to owners
and other stakeholders. The empirical study was based on a survey
that was sent to the management of 1400 Slovenian mediumsized
and big companies, of which about one third responded. The
survey questionnaire was pre-tested through interviewing five top
managers in five Slovenian firms with different ownership structure.
On the basis of the empirical study it is possible to conclude that, on
average, Slovenian firms put the interests of all stakeholders before
the interests of only shareholders. So it seems that the majority of
managers follow the stakeholder approach in the governance model.
Keywords
Firm purpose; stakeholders theory; post-transition; empirical study; Slovenia
Hrčak ID:
182570
URI
Publication date:
1.12.2017.
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