Today’s corporate governance conversations aim to ensure transparent, entrepreneurial, and wise business practices that facilitate the success of an organization. The belief that conscientious business practices lead to a more successful company in the long run has resulted in programs like Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI); Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG); and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR).
While these solutions are being used throughout corporations, their effectiveness in achieving these stated goals varies and needs further examination.
Scholars in the IHS network are exploring solutions and meticulously examining both their effectiveness and unintended consequences. Dr. Maria Minniti actively applies classical liberal principles to develop alternative corporate governance paradigms.
As the Bantle Chair in Entrepreneurship and Public Policy and current director of the Institute for an Entrepreneurial Society at Syracuse University, Dr. Minniti’s research interests range from barriers to entrepreneurship and economic growth to institutions and corporate governance. Having been a long-time member of the IHS scholarly community, Minniti participated in an IHS Academic Research Symposium entitled, “Contemporary Challenges to Corporate Governance,” where she discussed Ostromian models and shared her fresh take on corporate governance strategies with other scholars with similar research interests.
Minniti’s career has focused primarily on barriers to entrepreneurship and her research has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, Boston Globe, Financial Times, and Chicago Tribune, among others. Through her research, she has delved into the role of government policy in entrepreneurial activities and asks if it is productive, unproductive, or even destructive. Similarly, she’s taking a hard look at corporate governance issues like DEI, ESG, and CSR and trying to imagine a world where solutions don’t always have to come from the top down.
The Institute for Humane Studies believes that the best ideas are the ones that have undergone rigorous evaluation, challenge, and even debate. Our scholarly community is ready to respond to the challenges and inconsistencies within the sometimes conflicting policies of programs like ESG and DEI and offer alternate solutions.
Scholars like Dr. Maria Minniti are well-positioned to examine the tensions between affordability versus sustainability, governance needs versus social priorities, and even diversity in name versus true diversity. Approaches to corporate governance need to be examined from all ends and the conversation is only getting started.
Learn how you can help support the IHS community of scholars as they work to apply classical liberal approaches to real-world issues like corporate governance. For more information on our programs and academic funding opportunities, visit TheIHS.org.
