“Morten: And what are we going to do, when you have made liberal-minded and high-minded men of us? Dr. Stockman: Then you shall drive all the wolves out of the country, my boys!” (Ibsen, An Enemy of the People, Act V) The theoretical and empirical research of this book describes how the traditional safeguards of the rights of minority shareholders have failed in their duty and how those shareholders have remained practically without any protection against the arbitrariness of the companies and majority shareholders. The law, the SEC, society, boards of directors, independent directors, auditors, analysts, underwriters and the press have remained in many cases worthless panaceas. Nevertheless, in the Ethics of 2000 new vehicles have been developed for the protection of minority shareholders, mainly the Internet, transparency, activist associations and ethical funds. Those vehicles give the shareholders at least the chance to understand the pattern and methods that are utilized to wrong them and give them a viable alternative for investment in ethical funds. The new vehicles will prevent minority shareholders from using the Armageddon weapon, by ceasing to invest in the stock exchange and causing the collapse of the system, that discriminates against them.
Business Ethics: The Ethical Revolution of Minority Shareholders is a pioneer and original work in the domain of ethics in the relations between companies and minority shareholders. The book puts into context the motives of the controlling shareholders, who operate in collaboration with the management of their companies, in order to maximize their profits, very often at the expense of the small shareholders who do not possess insider information.
This volume describes how the traditional safeguards of the rights of shareholders, namely the law, the SEC, boards of directors, independent directors, auditors, analysts, underwriters and the press, are inefficient in many cases toward minority shareholders.
New vehicles are needed for the ethical revolution of the minority shareholders, such as the Internet, Transparency and Activist Associations, enabling them to have at least the chance to understand the pattern and methods that wrong them and how they have for the first time an alternative to invest in Ethical Funds with 13% of all investments under professional management in the US and investments of billions of Euros in Europe. Ethical investing is screened to reflect ethical environmental, social, political or moral values.
The empirical part of the book presents four cases of US, French and Israeli companies, most of them in high-tech, in which the minority shareholders lose almost all of their investments. The cases are based on current events and try to find the common aspects and basic rules that govern the wrongdoing to minority shareholders.
The book concludes that once the minority shareholders, who are ultimately all of us, are assisted by the new vehicles of Ethics, and are properly organized, motivated and conscious of their strengths, they will be able to win their fight and safeguard their interests.
Business Ethics is primarily intended for the academic market and is particularly appropriate for academics in business administration, ethics and finance. It should also appeal strongly to a professional business/finance market, but to minority shareholders as well, who are aware of the wrongdoing committed to them and who want to remedy the situation by activist conduct.
