Employee Ownership Around the World (in Oxford)
Employee Ownership Around the World (in Oxford)
A brief on two research conferences on employee ownership last week, including one where Dr. Hand presented on EOTs
Last week, Oxford was home to two employee ownership conferences. The Oxford Symposium on Employee Ownership took place August 30th-31st, and The Rutgers-Oxford Employee Ownership Research Symposium came the next day, on September 1st. Here’s what you need to know:
The Oxford Symposium on Employee Ownership
This global gathering of leaders, stakeholders, and governmental decision-makers in the field of employee ownership, gathered for the annual event where challenges to participatory capitalism and employee ownership were discussed. In past years the event has focused on other topics such as financial and regulatory barriers to the formation of employee stock ownership plans.
This year, The 2023 Oxford Symposium focused on the development of a common understanding of the major types, key and common elements, and necessary government policies that lead to success. The event took place in the Examination Schools and Sheldonian Theatre as Professor Jonathan Michie, President of Kellogg College welcomed all attendees to Oxford. There were at least 21 countries that were represented at the event which took place over two days with a pre-symposium occurring the day before, in the London offices of FieldFisher.
The agenda: After an introduction by Graeme Nuttall, the first panel discussion looked at the best uses of profits when there are no external shareholders to pay. After lunch, the session looked at the importance of government-supported regional centers for employee ownership. There was also a meeting for governmental officials and in the meantime, others gathered for “Around the World of Employee Ownership in 80 minutes.” This gathering consisted of getting a brief history of employee ownership in each country from different attendees.
Day 2 opened with a conversation on increasing international collaboration followed by the relationship between Employee Ownership and Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) criteria. These sessions with vast information continued until the final panel that discussed what would make a perfect Employee Ownership Business Succession Solution. To learn more about the information presented click here.
The Rutgers-Oxford Employee Ownership Research Symposium
Jointly co-sponsored by the Institute for the Study of Employee Ownership and Profit Sharing at the School of Management and Labor Relations, Rutgers University, and the Centre for Mutual and Co-Owned Business at Kellogg College, Oxford University. The Rutgers-Oxford Employee Ownership Research symposium took place on September 1st, 2023. The purpose of this symposium was to gather global scholars from several countries in order to present new empirical research on employee share ownership and profit sharing. The co-hosts were Jonathan Michie, President of Oxford’s Kellogg College and Joseph Blasi, Director of the Rutgers Institute.
The agenda: This research symposium included 6 sessions and several discussions. The first session dived into answering whether workers are better off owning firms. The last session included EO+WD lead Dr. Mark C. Hand, where he talked about employee ownership trusts! To read more about the agenda and presentations, click here.