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@@ -1,37 +1,43 @@
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# Ownership
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-<!-- brief summary of the medium, no more than a handful of sentences
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+Ownership is an umbrella term for a varying series of legal rights over particular entities. In the case of private corporate entities, ownership is a mechanism for claiming and clarifying governance rights.
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-(delete these comments as you fill in the sections) -->
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+**Input:** Corporate entity, specified rights of ownership
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-**Input:** <!-- what is required to use it? -->
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-
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-**Output:** <!-- what results does it produce? -->
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+**Output:** Specified owner involvement in corporate governance
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## Background
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-<!-- brief historical reference points -->
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+Modern corporate ownership emerged during the rise of colonial and industrial economies, as a means of managing the complex financial arrangements necessary to capitalize those endeavors.
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+
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+Lawyers frequently refer to ownership as a "bundle of rights," suggesting that it is not a fixed or stable phenomenon but one that varies based on design and context.
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## Feedback loops
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### Sensitivities
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-<!-- what does this medium capture especially well? -->
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+* Clarifies in precise legal terms the governance claims of owners
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+* Typically organizes influence according to stake in the entity to prevent free-riding
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### Oversights
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-<!-- what does this medium overlook? -->
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+* Does not recognize the voices of important non-owning stakeholders
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+* May obscure important externalities, such as social and environmental considerations
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+* Inapplicable to non-ownable entities, like nonprofit organizations, information commons, and public-sector resources
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## Implementations
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### Communities
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-<!-- what are some real-world examples in practice? -->
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+* The [cooperative business tradition](https://www.ica.coop/en/cooperatives/what-is-a-cooperative) tends to employ ownership rights on a one-person-one-vote basis, rather than the one-share-one-vote model of most other corporate practice
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### Tools
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-<!-- what software, methodologies, or organizations are available to facilitate implementation -->
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+* [Encode](https://encode.org/) offers "integrations of proven models, legal rules, and methodologies for fully distributing authority and ownership in a purpose-driven business"
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+* [Upstock](https://upstock.io/) "creates tools and shares knowledge that aligns founders, investors, and team members" through equity compensation
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## Further resources
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-<!-- where should people look first if they want to learn more? -->
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+* Chassagnon, V., & Hollandts, X. (2014). "[Who Are the Owners of the Firm: Shareholders, Employees, or No One?](https://doi.org/10.1017/S1744137413000301)" _Journal of Institutional Economics_, 10 (1), 47–69.
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+* Hansmann, H. (1996). _The Ownership of Enterprise_. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
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+* Kelly, M. (2012). _Owning Our Future: The Emerging Ownership Revolution_. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler Publishers.
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