For several years now, there has been a vigorous debate about the purpose of the firms, aimed at answering a central question: “In whose interest should firms be governed and managed?” In the literature, there are primarily three theories of corporate objective that have received the most attention: shareholder theory, stakeholder theory, and real entity theory. These theories are based on different concepts of firm. The first two theories consider the firm as a legal fiction that is owned by shareholders. However, for the first theory, the firm exists to maximize the profit for shareholders, while for the second theory, the objective is to create value for all stakeholders. The third theory, on the other hand, views the firm as a real entity (or a social institution, a community of people) that, as such, cannot be owned by anyone and has its own distinct interest separate from that of all other stakeholders. Its interest includes contributing to the well-being of society. The concept of ownership is referred to the title obtained in exchange for the invested capital (e.g., shares in a corporation). The paper aims to examine whether, how, and when this different understanding of the concept of “owners of the business” can influence the survival and development of the business, in order to evaluate the opportunity to abandon, as suggested by several scholars, the idea that a business can be owned by anyone. To this end, a review of the literature on the concept of ownership within the context of theories of corporate objective is conducted, particularly focusing on the shareholder, stakeholder, and real entity theories, as well as on the thoughts of some Masters of the Italian doctrine Economia Aziendale. The analysis reveals the need to move from “being owners of the firm” to “being responsible for taking care of its well-being”. In other words, who genuinely takes care of the company’s well-being can be considered as a “owner”.
Keywords: Objective of the firm, Real entity theory, Shareholder theory, Stakeholder theory
