An answer to your question depends on what sort of "modern
corporation" you have in mind and on exactly what you mean by
"ownership".
In the most basic, classic sense, the owners of a for-profit
corporation in the USA are those who own its common stock. The owner
of each common share gets one vote in every issue that is presented
for vote of the common shareholders, and is entitled to any dividend
that is declared by the corporation's board of directors. If the
business of the corporation is terminated and it is "wrapped up", the
owner of each share is entitled to a proportional share of whatever is
left over after everybody who is owed something is paid off.
A person might purchase a share of common stock directly from the
corporation, if it happens to be issuing common stock at that time, or
from someone else who owns a share who wants to sell it. That latter
case is what the "stock market" is all about.
Beyond that, it gets fuzzy.
In the USA, a corporation is created in a specific state. The laws of
that state are important in defining what the corporation is and who
has rights with respect to the corporation. Corporation laws differ
from state to state.
A corporation may issue multiple classes of common stock. Owners of
shares in different classes may have different rights.
In a broader sense, owners of other securities issued by the
corporation are "owners" because they have legal rights with respect
to the corporation. Such other securities include preferred stock,
secured debt, and unsecured debt. Even employees and ordinary
creditors who don't own any securities issued by the corporation have
rights relative to the corporation and are stakeholders in some sense.
Even an owner of shares of common stock need not be consulted in most
issues the corporation faces; most operating decisions are left to the
corporation's management.
And some kinds of corporations don't even issue common stock. For
example, nonprofit corporations are generally organized under a
different set of state laws. One might say that a nonprofit
corporation's "owners" are the people who donate money to it, or
perhaps the citizens of the state in which it is incorporated, or
perhaps the people who benefit from its programs. |
