Business Commons^™

Positive Effects Of Sustainability In Buisness, Matt Westman

Undergraduate Voices

This study aims to look at various businesses and address how they view and deal with the idea of making their practice more environmentally friendly and sustainable. More specifically, it will focus on how businesses spend money to make sure they are “green.” It will show whether or not businesses are more focused on earning money and making profit or about making the transition to being more environmentally concerned even if that includes spending more money to do so. This study also explores the benefits for businesses that choose to “go green” to see if the investment of being more …

Creating Stability In The International Fashion Industry By Using Corporate Structures And Conglomerates, Joyce Boland-Devito Esq.

DePaul Business & Commercial Law Journal

Abstract:

This paper will analyze the challenges currently facing the global fashion industries as consumers change their shopping habits. During these tumultuous times, retailers should re-evaluate their organizational structures. According to the Forbes Global 2000, apparel companies make up 29 of those top businesses. For instance, a corporate structure helps businesses like TJX Companies (headquartered in Framingham, Massachusetts) – which owns TJ Maxx, Marshalls, HomeGoods and Sierra Trading Post – to operate efficiently and maintain over 1000 stores in the U.S., Canada, U.K., Ireland, Germany, Poland, Austria, The Netherlands and Australia. It sells apparel and home fashions (sheets, pillows, …

The New Bond Workouts, William W. Bratton, Adam J. Levitin

All Faculty Scholarship

Bond workouts are a famously dysfunctional method of debt restructuring, ridden with opportunistic and coercive behavior by bondholders and bond issuers. Yet since 2008 bond workouts have quietly started to work. A cognizable portion of the restructuring market has shifted from bankruptcy court to out-of-court workouts by way of exchange offers made only to large institutional investors. The new workouts feature a battery of strong-arm tactics by bond issuers, and aggrieved bondholders have complained in court. The result has been a new, broad reading of the primary law governing workouts, section 316(b) of the Trust Indenture Act of 1939 (“TIA”), …

The Shifting Tides Of Merger Litigation, Matthew D. Cain, Jill E. Fisch, Steven Davidoff Solomon, Randall S. Thomas

All Faculty Scholarship

In 2015, Delaware made several important changes to its laws concerning merger litigation. These changes, which were made in response to a perception that levels of merger litigation were too high and that a substantial proportion of merger cases were not providing value, raised the bar, making it more difficult for plaintiffs to win a lawsuit challenging a merger and more difficult for plaintiffs’ counsel to collect a fee award.

We study what has happened in the courts in response to these changes. We find that the initial effect of the changes has been to decrease the volume of merger …

Governance By Contract: The Implications For Corporate Bylaws, Jill E. Fisch

All Faculty Scholarship

Boards and shareholders are increasing using charter and bylaw provisions to customize their corporate governance. Recent examples include forum selection bylaws, majority voting bylaws and advance notice bylaws. Relying on the contractual conception of the corporation, Delaware courts have accorded substantial deference to board-adopted bylaw provisions, even those that limit shareholder rights.

This Article challenges the rationale for deference under the contractual approach. With respect to corporate bylaws, the Article demonstrates that shareholder power to adopt and amend the bylaws is, under Delaware law, more limited than the board’s power to do so. As a result, shareholders cannot effectively constrain …

Corporate Outsourcing To Take Advantage Of Cheap Labor In Developing Countries, Cecily Schenimann

Senior Honors Theses

Corporate outsourcing is a common practice for many large corporations, and a primary reason that corporations outsource is financial: production in other countries, especially those that are developing is significantly less expensive. There are various reasons corporations use outsourcing and this choice often results in subpar and unhealthy labor conditions for those individuals working in developing countries. Reviews of China, Bangladesh, and El Salvador reveal that operations in developing countries often result in harmful working atmospheres. A call for increased corporate responsibility and accountability for corporations who choose to take their manufacturing and production elsewhere, but specifically to developing nations, …