" Quelle gouvernance pour quelles valeurs ? " Aux sources du discours légitimant la structure de propriété du groupe Auchan

In the context of contemporary capitalism, the Auchan Group, one of France's major retail companies, features a very atypical ownership structure and governance system. To legitimize this model, the founder of this company refers to the catholic values he received through his education and which can be labeled as being those of the Church's social doctrine. This atypical case, where religious values are proclaimed in a very visible manner by the company's founder seems particularly well suited to make an exploratory enquiry into the ethical and moral foundations of a system of corporate governance. In fact, the dominant governance model, which has become largely institutionalized over the last two decades, is regularly presented as a purely technical solution to the agency problem in the context of supposedly efficient financial markets. The dominant governance model is hence widely perceived as neutral in terms of ethical and moral values. The high degree to which it has become institutionalized obscures, in fact, the value system on which it was founded. Its confrontation with a firm that features a very unique governance system, justified in terms of a highly visible religious value system, reveals that the supposed neutrality of the mainstream approach to corporate ownership and governance is a myth.