Revisiting the Companies’ Purpose and the Directors’ Fiduciary Duties

During the last twenty years, the perception that a company should primarily serve the interests of its shareholdersShareholder approach (Rolf H. Weber) (Valentin Jentsch) has increasingly been challenged. Now mainstream thinking supports a multistakeholder approachStakeholder approach (Rolf H. Weber) (Valentin Jentsch) (although to a different extent); consequently, the purpose of the companyPurpose of the company (Rolf H. Weber) should be understood in a broader sense. In parallel, the directors’ fiduciary dutiesFiduciary duties (Rolf H. Weber) (Dawn Zaiter) (Ann-Sophie Vandenberghe) must be reshaped to reflect these developments, i.e. directors are subject to adapted fiduciary dutiesFiduciary duties (Rolf H. Weber) (Dawn Zaiter) (Ann-Sophie Vandenberghe) that apply a social conscience perspective as a behavioural guideline.