Steward ownership is a company ownership structure that separates economic rights, the claim on profits, from voting rights, the power to make decisions, so that control of the company is held by people committed to its mission rather than by outside shareholders seeking a financial return. It is presented as an alternative to shareholder primacy ownership and can be implemented through different legal forms depending on the company's type and jurisdiction, with steward-owned companies also described as self-owned, foundation-owned, or trust-owned. Companies that have used the structure include Mozilla in the United States, Novo Nordisk in Denmark, and Bosch in Germany.
Facts
Core MechanismSteward-ownership structures a company's ownership in a way that separates economic rights (related to money) from voting rights (related to decision-making power). 1 Connections
Associated With
Both models place ownership control outside pure shareholder profit-maximization.
Steward ownership separates a company control and voting rights from its cash-flow rights so profit cannot be extracted by outside shareholders, a goal it frequently pursues in combination with employee ownership of the underlying shares.
Sources
1. Wikipedia, Steward Ownership
WikipediaOpening definition paragraph
Steward-ownership structures a company's ownership in a way that separates economic rights (related to money) from voting rights (related to decision-making power).
Origins and intent section, German Purpose Foundation coinage
In 2017, the term "steward-ownership" was coined by the German Purpose Foundation, following a study of early steward-ownership models, such as Bosch and Zeiss.
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