Institute for the Study of Employee Ownership and Profit Sharing at Rutgers SMLR, United States
This research proposes that a shared capitalism mode of compensation, or broad-based employee share ownership (ESO), affects corporate sustainability or corporate environmental performance (CEP). We theoretically propose that employees as owners adopt more favorable attitudes toward beneficial outcomes for corporate environmental sustainability. Because of its broad-based impacts, the ESO effect overwhelms the impact of CEO ownership, as the ratio of ESO to CEO ownership is associated with positive CEP. Also, these relationships are contingent upon employee-engaged culture, as trade union settings amplify the ESO influence on CEP. We analyzed U.S. publicly traded companies to find empirical support for proposed hypotheses. This study provides scholarly and practical implications for the effects of shared capitalist modes of ownership and an employee-as-owner aspect on corporate sustainability.
