Employee Incentive ESOPs: An Equity Tool to Promote Engagement and Performance

Employee stock ownership plans (ESOPs) are experiencing renewed interest in America. In recent years, new ESOP formation was largely driven by the aging of the Baby Boomer generation (widely defined as those born between 1946 and 1964), and their desire to liquify their ownership in closely held businesses while rewarding their employees. There are other new forces driving this trend—the quest for equitable solutions for the growing divide between have and have-nots, the need for employers to retain and reward employees in a competitive talent market, and succession planning. In this article, I will discuss how an Employee Incentive ESOP can be used to promote performance and engagement in a broad-based manner.

Dealing With COVID-19 Through Employee Stock Ownership Plans

In this chapter, the authors argue that far from the shocking decision of firing employees to leverage their short-term liquidity, organizations may draw other innovative options such as giving company shares to their employees. Employee stock ownership (ESO) plans have the potential to secure financial liquidity for firms while simultaneously providing social inclusion as well as empowerment to people, relating their efforts directly to firms' performance and driving the economic system into a shared capitalism. However, while companies may be solving their financial constraints through ESO, the authors identified a trade-off related to the traditional position of hegemony of firms. They argue that the decision to share the risk through paying wages using firms' stock options derives in a progressive detriment of power and control that some organizations would not be willing to suffer.

Employee Stock Ownership Plans for Tobacco Concept Stock Listed Companies and Corporate Innovation Investment

In this study, we discussed the influence of employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) on innovation investment in Chinese tobacco concept stock listed companies. Methods: we firstly performed empirical research method to investigate the differences in innovation investment between companies implementing ESOPs and companies not implementing ESOPs by using the panel data of tobacco concept stock listed companies from 2014 to 2020. Secondly, we further performed case study method to test the changes in innovation investment of tobacco concept stock listed companies before and after implementing ESOPs by choosing Hengfeng Paper as a research subject. Results: In tobacco concept stock listed companies, companies implementing ESOPs had higher level of innovation investment than companies not implementing ESOPs. After implementing the ESOP, Hengfeng Paper significantly increased its investment in innovation. Conclusion: In tobacco concept stock listed companies, the implementation of ESOP with ordinary employees as the main incentive object helps to promote innovation investment.

The Role of Broad-Based Employee Ownership Opportunities in Prisoner Reentry

This research investigates the relationship between Employee Stock Ownership Plans (ESOPs) and criminal participation as measured by arrests, conviction, and incarceration among formerly incarcerated individuals. Using the 1997 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, I find that formerly incarcerated individuals with ESOP employment are significantly less likely to be arrested, convicted, and incarcerated. This effect likely operates through improvement in labor market outcomes: formerly incarcerated ESOP employees earn approximately 25 percent more in annual income and work roughly 8.8 percent more hours per week than formerly incarcerated workers who are employed but not working for an ESOP firm.

Mainstreaming Energy Communities in the Transition to a Low-Carbon Future: A Methodological Approach

Innovations in technical, financial, and social areas are crucial prerequisites for an effective and sustainable energy transition. In this context, the construction of a new energy structure and the motivation of the consumer towards a change in their consumption behaviours to balance demand with a volatile energy supply are important issues. At the same time, Consumer Stock Ownership Plans (CSOPs) in renewable energies sources (RESs) have proven to be an essential cornerstone in the overall success of energy transition. Indeed, when consumers acquire ownership in RES, they become prosumers, participating in the phase of production and distribution of energy. Prosumers provide benefits by (1) generating a part of the energy they consume, (2) reducing their overall expenditure for energy, and (3) receiving a second source of income from the sale of excess production. Supporting Consumer Co-Ownership in Renewable Energies (SCORE) is an ongoing Horizon 2020 project with the aim of overcoming the usage of energy from fossil sources in favour of RES, promoting the creation of energy communities (EC) and facilitating co-ownership of renewable energies (RE) for consumers. SCORE hereby particularly emphasises the inclusion of women, low-income households, and vulnerable groups affected by fuel poverty that are as a rule excluded from RE investments. In this framework, the main goal of the present study is to illustrate the general procedure and process of EC creation. In particular, this paper focuses on the description of the methodological approach in implementing the CSOP model which consists of three main phases: the identification and description of selected buildings (preparation phase), the preliminary and feasibility analysis phase, and finally the phase of target group involvement. SCORE first started in three pilot regions in Italy, Czech Republic, and Poland, and later, with the aim of extending the methodology, in various other cities across Europe. In this study, Italian pilot study sites were chosen as a case study to develop and test the methodology.