Overhauling multinationals for the Anthropocene: How a rogue subsidiary offers a blueprint for sustainable development

This research addresses the question of how multinational enterprises (MNEs) can be overhauled to reckon with the finite ecosystem services that characterize the Anthropocene epoch. A comparative mechanism-based methodology is employed to seek an answer in the class of entities that MNEs are benchmarked against the unorthodox organization of a recently dubbed Unilever's “rogue subsidiary,” i.e., Ben & Jerry's, which could evolve into a turning point in sustainable development if replicated on a sufficient scale. The findings are that this subsidiary has put exceptional mechanisms to work, turning around functions that typically bolster the capabilities of MNEs to cash in on natural resources and other non-equity stakeholders. In a nutshell, these mechanisms 1) reduce the cost that stakeholders bear when engaging with MNEs across the value chain; 2) put the wardens of the company mission in charge of the organizational drivers of environmental and social commitments; 3) prevent the conflict of interests inherent in making wardens accountable to shareholders; 4) appoint key MNE executives in good faith consultation with wardens; and 5) secure wardens' recourse to the courts in the case of a breach of contract. •Property rights can be altered to affect resource throughput in line with equality.•Ben & Jerry's is benchmarked against the class of entities that MNEs are.•Extrapolations pivot on mechanisms characterizing MNEs as a class of entities.•Mechanisms are entities that discharge powers to induce changes in other entities.•The commitments of Ben & Jerry's are off-limits to Unilever's equity holders.