Research Department

In 2015, Prophil coined the term “shareholder foundation” during the first comparative European study, carried out in partnership with the ESSEC Philanthropy Chair and the support of Delsol Avocats and Mazars. This study reveals a model that is highly developed in Northern Europe but little known in France, which consists of a foundation holding all or part of the capital of a company. As a reference shareholder, the foundation carries out a dual economic and philanthropic mission, protects the company in the long term and the values attached to it, and supports public interest causes through the dividends it receives.

Prophil’s work and advocacy on shareholder foundations have contributed to the emergence of the concept and the model in France. Prophil is at the initiative of “DE FACTO” – European dynamics in favor of shareholder foundations – which brings together pioneering entrepreneurs in search of new models of governance and transmission and European expert correspondents.

Prophil forged the term “Mission-led companies” in 2017, when it published the first international comparative study, in collaboration with the Ecole des Mines ParisTech Chair in Corporate Theory and the support of Caisse des Dépôts, KPMG and Sycomore AM.

Companies with a mission define in their status a raison d’être extended to societal issues, transform their economic models and shape with their stakeholders new rules of governance and opposability.

In 2021, Prophil paves the way to post-growth in its third international study titled “Post-Growth for Business: Rethinking Accounting, Governance and Business Models”, created in partnership with HEC Paris’ Society & Organizations Institute, Audencia’s Integrated Multi-Capital Performance Research Centre and further education school Lumia, and with the support of AFIR family office, of the French Statutory Auditors Union (CNCC), of norsys and of the SeaBird Impact Foundation.

Post-growth calls for us to scale the economy back to an ecologically safe and socially just space. A company is committed to shifting to a post-growth model when it strives to be fully sustainable: environmentally, socially and economically. To be effective, this commitment needs to permeate all three pillars of change within the company: its governance, business model and accounting.