Corporate Purpose and Firm Ownership

Claudine  Gartenberg; George  Serafeim

Working Paper | HBS Working Paper Series | 2019

Corporate Purpose and Firm Ownership

by Claudine Gartenberg and George Serafeim

Abstract

Analyzing data from approximately 1.5 million employees across 1,100 established public and private US companies, we find that the strength of employee beliefs about their firm’s purpose is lower in public companies. This difference is most pronounced within the salaried middle and hourly ranks, rather than senior executives. Among public companies, purpose becomes progressively lower with more concentrated shareholders, especially among firms with high hedge fund ownership. These patterns can be partly explained by differences in CEO backgrounds and compensation: public firms, particularly those with strong shareholders, choose outsider CEOs at higher rates and pay them more relative to their employees. Our analyses suggest that these results are not driven solely by sorting effects, but appear attributable in part to the impact that firm owners have on their employees. In summary, shareholders appear to influence the strength of corporate purpose deep within organizations via the leadership and corporate practices they enable at the top.

Keywords: purpose; corporate purpose; culture; corporate culture; public and private organizations; hedge fund; executive pay; Organizational Culture; Mission and Purpose; Employees; Attitudes; Ownership; Leadership; Executive Compensation;

Language: English

Format: Print

74 pages

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Citation:

Gartenberg, Claudine, and George Serafeim. "Corporate Purpose and Firm Ownership." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 20-024, August 2019.

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Corporate Purpose and Firm Ownership

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