The International Review of Applied Economics (IRAE) in collaboration with the Southern Centre for Inequality Studies at the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa https://www.wits.ac.za/scis/invites papers for a Special Issue to be published in early 2020 on the theme ‘Alternative forms of corporations and business enterprise in the Global South in the context of globalisation and inequality’
The major themes that we wish to cover include topics related to forms of ownership, old and new; worker participation and co-determination; regulation of business and the role of the auditing and accounting profession; corporate governance, especially the role of remuneration committees and executive pay; trade union owned investment companies; small business sustainability; and co-operatives. Papers must focus on countries or regions in the Global South, and they must pay attention to the impact of these changing forms, structures, institutions, modes of operation, and regulation on income and wealth inequality. We would particularly welcome papers that focus on the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) and other emerging market economies (Kenya, Ghana, Ethiopia, Turkey, Mexico, Indonesia, Argentina).
Papers would be particularly welcome on the following topics:
What ownership forms do modern corporations take? What is the relationship between shareholders (owners) and the executive (the managers). What role if any do employees play in corporate governance: are they typically included or excluded from exercising power in these corporations? Are there regional differences, say comparing the Anglo-American models and German or Rhineland models?
New forms of corporations or ownership, referred to as benefit corporations in the US, new member-owned organizational forms: mutual, co-operative, and co-owned business – including what are referred to variously as ‘solidarity co-operatives’, employee-ownership (such as through Employee Stock Ownership Plans), and hybrid organisational forms emerging in the informal economy where unions form cooperatives.
The way in which large modern corporations are regulated, including matters such as the role of internal and external auditors, and what has been referred to as the role of ‘professional knowledge’ – these lines of inquiry attracted attention after the Enron scandal in 2001 and the Global Financial Crisis of 2008.
Trade union investment companies. How different, if at all, are such union investment companies from the standard modern corporation? How are they governed? In whose interest?
Employee participation and co-determination. Instead of following the path of institutionalized co-determination, the South African labour movements has opted for engagement with employers on the basis of a union agenda and union independence in order to transform and democratize the workplace. At the centre of this strategy is the shop steward as the instrument for worker participation at the plant level.
The state as employer of last resort (ELR) – as proposed by Hyman Minsky as an alternative approach to the War on Poverty in the USA in the 1960s, and adopted by India through the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) in the nineties. Are there examples of similar schemes elsewhere in the Global South? How successful have they been?
Very significantly especially for countries in the global South is the burgeoning set of activities around small and microenterprises (outside the survivalist economy) which occupy a complex and precarious – even ambiguous and fluid – position in the business sector. Issues of sustainability, class position and the like complicate debate around policy interventions to secure their sustainability. A consideration of how they sit in the debate around ownership, economic democracy, and participation will be especially welcome.
All proposals (maximum 1000 words) should be emailed to Professor Vishnu Padayachee, Guest Editor – [email protected] – by 30 April 2019. Those papers that are selected for the special issue must be submitted by 30 September 2019.
Papers must be no longer than 8500 words and must be submitted following the IRAE style guide. Papers must be submitted to the Guest Editor and not to the journal directly or via Scholar One.
All submissions will first be assessed by the Guest Editor and the IRAE Editor in Chief, Professor Jonathan Michie, and will then be subject to the normal review process of the International Review of Applied Economics, including two external blind reviews.
When submitting proposals for articles please include ‘Special Issue Proposal: Corporations in the Global South’ in your covering letter.