The dark-side of resource dependency theory: from economic democracy to financialization

The issue of the pros and cons with representatives from different interest group on corporate board is lively discussed. Will representatives from stakeholders work in the interest of the stake they represent or in the interest of the corporations where they are a director? The issue has a renewed topicality as claim for e.g. consumer groups or experts on environmental issues have been raised. In this paper we investigate the group that once started the discussion, i.e. the employee representatives on the board of directors. From a resource dependency perspective we are interested in two issues (i) are there significant differences between the perception of responsibility for the firm between owner representatives and employee representatives on the board? (ii) if so, are these differences sustained over time? We report a longitudinal investigation of board of directors in Swedish board indicated a convergence over the last twenty years between employees and owners representatives on corporate board. This convergence is mutual, indicating that it might be something else than the difference in whom you represent that drive the development.