York University

SOSC 2340

Understanding the roots of shareholder primacy: the meaning of agency theory, and the
conditions of its contagion
Oliver Weinstein
 The chapter also presents the results of research on the business objectives of
corporations, which provides insights into how corporations themselves define their
purpose
 The legal interpretations of the purpose of the corporations can then be contrasted with
interpretations based on directors’ views and what corporations themselves state in
their business objectives
 The shareholder primacy doctrine has become established over the last thirty years as
the inescapable foundation of corporate governance
 Today, the contractualist conception of the firm remains the fundamental point of
reference that, incorporated into a more general representation of economic relations in
a free market economy, shapes a