Corporation
A corporation is an artificial entity created by the state and existingapart from its owners. As a separate legal entity, the corporation is liable for its
actions and must pay taxes on its income .
Unlike other forms of ownership, the corporation
has a legal life of its own; it continues to existregardless of whether theowners live or die. And the corporation, not the owners, is sued in the case of liability.Thus, continuity and limits on owners’ liability are two principal advantages of forming
a corporation. For example, a physician can form a corporation so that liabilityfor malpractice will not affect his or her personal assets. The majordisadvantage ofthe corporation is that it is expensive and complex to do the paperwork required toincorporate the business and to keep the records required by law. When proprietorships
and partnerships are successful and grow large, they often incorporate to limitliability and to raise funds through the sale of stock to investors .
Over the course of the twentieth century, the public corporation took on four central functions in US society. The obvious ones are the production of goods and services and the provision of employment, which they share with corporations around the world. But the American corporation evolved additional functions that distinguished it from businesses elsewhere, prodded in part by the Progressive agenda. The corporation became a crucial source of social welfare services that were provided by the state in other industrialized economies, including health care for employees and their dependents and retirement security. After 1980, they also become the predominant vessel for individual retirement savings
⠀ Daft, R., Lane, P. (2010).Management(9th ed.). Cengage Learning (P. 611)
⠀ Davis, G. F. (2013). After the corporation. Politics & Society, # 41(2), Pp. 283-308 (p. 285)