literature Mainland China English original

On the Nature of the Company: An Analysis from Semantics to Function

Challenges the assumption that a company must be a profit-making limited-liability entity and uses semantic, functional, comparative, and economic analysis to rethink corporate forms.

Open source

Use It For

Use this article when students assume that corporate personality, profit purpose, and limited liability necessarily travel together.

Teaching Notes

The reading is useful for comparing ordinary companies with charitable companies, community-interest companies, and other functionally specialized corporate forms.