Does Shareholder Value Require a Revival of Corporate Culture?

Bachelor Thesis from the year 2012 in the subject Business economics - Business Ethics, Corporate Ethics, grade: 5 von 5, Free University of Bozen-Bolzano (School of Economics and Management), language: English, abstract: In recent years the problems created by shareholder value as a principle of corporate governance became topic of broad discussions. This thesis tries to answer the question if corporate culture could be able to prevent the problems and risks that emerge by shareholder value. In a first step the concepts of shareholder value and corporate culture are analyzed and defined in detail. For the purpose of this thesis the phenomenon of value is explained as sustainable long-term profit for investors. Secondly, the problems of shareholder value as a principle of corporate governance is examined and it is shown that the main issue in this context is the lack of mutual trust between interest groups within corporations and the moral dilemma resulting from this.

Thereafter by comparing corporate culture in different countries it is demonstrated that the German approach in corporate culture is the most convenient in order to create mutual trust. Nevertheless the results of this thesis yield that corporate culture has to be developed over time and cannot be introduced a priori by imposing a new corporate identity. In order to create a strong corporate culture which could solve the moral dilemma an environment of mutual trust between employees, executive officers and shareholders has to be established.