New Corporate Governance Paradigms for Transnational Enterprises – Shell and strategic futures for big oil

This paper comments on and positions within the issues of corporate governance the process by which Shell, one of the world’s largest and most successful corporations, first committed important errors in its environmental, community and communications strategies and then responded. It forecasts some of the cultural and structural issues which need to be investigated in order to offset future likelihood of Shell committing similar errors in future. In exploring recent episodes in corporate governance, Shell’s company culture is seen as one of the ‘7 sisters’ of the world energy oligopoly.1 Alongside OPEC, the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries, the oil giants of America and Europe provide the underpinning for a world system of economic supremacy. In terms of ethics and environmental performance, this hegemony is potentially benign. However, given their dependence on carbon‐based fossil fuels, these giants of the global economy may also tip the biosphere towards deterioration. The commentary is aimed at a strategic evaluation of Shell’s recent problems. Ethical or societal issues on which the critical events reflect requires separate consideration. An attempt to contribute to cultural dimensions of corporate governance theory concludes the paper.