IHS Distinguished Fellow Siri Terjesen Explores Ethics, Practices, and Processes
One of the most important issues in business is corporate governance—defined as the rules, practices, and processes that govern how organizations are directed and managed. The growing complexity of the modern business environment necessitates a focus on understanding and exploring ideas around effective governance to ensure that companies operate ethically and responsibly.
In discourse around modern corporate governance the focus has primarily been on top-down solutions addressing diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI); environmental, social, and governance (ESG); and corporate social responsibility (CSR). However, questions about their effectiveness—along with concerns about potential negative implications—have started to emerge. In light of this, the quest for alternative solutions has never been more crucial.
The Institute for Humane Studies works with scholars who have taken an innovative approach to this pressing challenge. Teaming up with distinguished scholar and professor Siri Terjesen of Florida Atlantic University, IHS is fostering a network of classical liberal scholars whose focus is to critically analyze the current top-down policies and establish alternative, bottom-up solutions rooted in classical liberal principles.
As an advisor to numerous esteemed organizations like the World Bank and the Kauffman Foundation, Terjesen brings her wealth of knowledge and expertise in applying market principles to corporate governance issues to the Business and the Good Society initiative of IHS.
Terjesen has published over 80 peer-reviewed articles—in addition to several book chapters and other scholarly works—the sum total of her published research has been cited over 16,000 times, making her one of the world’s most-cited scholars.
In August of 2022, IHS hosted an Academic Research Symposium (ARS) in Seattle, bringing together top experts in areas related to corporate governance. The event was Siri’s brainchild and featured scholars from different disciplinary areas.
The symposium panel addressed a variety of questions related to corporate governance, including the role of stakeholders in relation to shareholders, the impact of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) and environmental, social, and governance (ESG) measures on corporate expectations, and whether there are free-market solutions that can satisfy all sides. By bringing together scholars for rigorous discussion, IHS is building an academic community that fosters freedom-based solutions to today’s pressing challenges.
As corporate governance continues to remain a critical issue that will shape the business world in the coming years, Siri’s partnership with IHS is slated to help build and bring together research communities to promote a freer and more humane society.
IHS supports a robust community of scholars who apply the principles and ideas of peaceful, prosperous, and pluralistic societies in their teaching and research, developing solutions that respect individual liberty, equality before the law, and the dignity of all people. Our hope is that by drawing scholarly attention back to intellectual liberalism through civil discourse, we will challenge presuppositions, sharpen ideas, and cultivate an open academic community.
