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Fourth Annual
Rutgers–Oxford Employee Ownership Research Conference

August 27-28, 2026

Kellogg College, 60-62 Banbury Road, Oxford University

Reception, Awards, Lecture, and Welcome Dinner
Thursday, August 27, 2026 

Employee Ownership Research Conference
Friday, August 28, 2026

Overview

The purpose of this conference is to assemble an interdisciplinary collection of global scholars and practitioners to present new theoretical and empirical writing and research on employee share ownership and profit sharing, and to encourage ongoing academic discussions and collaboration. 

Co-Hosts:

Jonathan Michie
President, Kellogg College and
Senior Fellow, Institute for the Study of Employee Ownership and Profit Sharing,
Rutgers University

Joseph Blasi
Professor, Institute for the Study of Employee Ownership and Profit Sharing,
Rutgers University, and Visiting Fellow, Kellogg College

Adria Scharf
Professor and Director, Institute for the Study of Employee Ownership and Profit Sharing,
Rutgers University (in absentia)

 

Moderator:

Christopher Mackin
Senior Fellow, Institute for the Study of Employee Ownership and Profit Sharing,
Rutgers University

Conference Agenda

> View the conference agenda as a PDF

Thursday Evening – August 27, 2026
5:30pm
 
 
 
7:30 PM
Reception, Lecture, Awards

Robert Oakeshott Lecture
Cocktails and Refreshments
Presentation of the Nigel Mason Award
The Hub Café at Kellogg College 60-62 Banbury Road 

Welcome Dinner

Dining Hall Kellogg College, 60-62 Banbury Road 

Friday, August 28, 2026
7:00 AM -
7:45 AM
Breakfast

Dining Hall Kellogg College, 60-62 Banbury Road
Conference Location: Mawby Room, Kellogg College

Main Reception Entrance of Kellogg College -
Oxford University, Kellogg College, 60-62 Banbury Road
8:00 AM
Welcome

Hosts:
Jonathan Michie, Kellogg College, Oxford University 

Joseph Blasi, Rutgers University School of Management and Labor Relations 

Moderator:
Christopher Mackin, Senior Fellow, Rutgers Institute for Employee Ownership and Profit Sharing 
8:30 AM -
9:30 AM
Session 1 – Underlying Assumptions 

Paper 1:
Joseph Blasi – Historical Perspectives on Employee Ownership in the United States: Preview of 2027 Re-Issue of The Citizen’s Share: Putting Ownership Back into Democracy 

Paper 2:
Nien-he Hsieh, (Tony Guidotti) – Employee Ownership and Status Inequality

Paper 3:
Christine Unterrainer – From Workplace Democracy to Civic Engagement: Democratic Practices in Economy for the Common Good Enterprises

Paper 4:
Anne Sophie-Halbertsma, (Erik Stam) – Firm Purpose and Employee Ownership

Lead Respondent: Christopher Mackin 
9:30 AM -
10:45 AM
Session 2 – Alternative Models

Paper 5: 
Niels Mygind – Barriers for the Internationalization of Employee-Owned Enterprises 

Paper 6:
Andrew Pendleton & Andrew Robinson – What Do EOTs Do? The Evolution of Employee-Owned Firms in the UK 

Paper 7:
Thomas Poulsen – Financial Consequences of EOT Adoption Over Time

Paper 8:
David Erdal – Perspectives on the EOT Model as Practiced in the UK 

Lead Respondent: David Ellerman 
10:45 AM - 11:00 AM
Break 1
11:00 AM -
12:30 PM
Session 3 – Data and Trends

Paper 9:
Derek Jones – The Nature and Effects of Ownership by Former Employees: Evidence from British Firms 

Paper 10:
Marc Salesina & Valentin Schmitt (Anne Stevenot) – Employee Share Ownership and Workplace Climate in French Firms 

Paper 11:
Guy Major (Graeme Nuttall, Jonathan Preminger) – An Examination of the Regional Variations and Other Components in the UK’s Exponential Growth in Employee Ownership in the Years 2014 to 2024

Paper 12:
Lisa Schur – How Does Employee Ownership Affect Workers with Disabilities?

Lead Respondent: Oliver Browne 
12:30 PM - 1:15 PM
Lunch

Guest Speaker: 
Robert Hockett, Cornell University, Author, A Republic of Producers: Completing Our Jeffersonian Economy with 
Hamiltonian Finance (2026)
1:15 PM -
2:30 PM
Session 4 – Productivity and Performance

Paper 13:
David Ellerman – Comments on Robert Hockett’s A Republic of Producers  

Paper 14:
Fidan Kurtulus & Eric Hoyt (Joseph Blasi, Doug Kruse, William Castellano, Paige Ouimet) – Employee Share Ownership, Management Practices, and Firm Outcomes: An Analysis Using Establishment Level Micro-Data from the U.S. Census 

Paper 15:
Richard May – Implications of Kurtulus, et al. Productivity Data for Investors

Paper 16:
Kyle Farmbry – Stabilizing and Enhancing African-American Ownership

Paper 17:
Steven van Berkel & Kristof van Gucht – Sustaining Employee Ownership in Low Growth Environments 

Lead Respondent: Joseph Blasi  
2:15 PM -
3:15 PM
Session 5 – Culture and Governance

Paper 18:
Oliver Browne – Beyond the Transaction: Lived Experiences and the First Cohort Problem in Employee Ownership Transitions

Paper 19:
Shelley Poole – Hearing the Employee Owner’s Voice: An Appraisal of Mechanisms for Hearing the Employee Owner’s Voice in the Growing Sector of UK Employee-Owned Businesses

Paper 20:
John Hoffmire – Employee Ownership and the Natural Environment  

Paper 21:
Doug Kruse (Adriane Clomax) – Critical Success Factors in ESOP Companies 

Lead Respondent: Anne-Sophie Halbertsma 
3:15 PM -
3:45 PM
Break 2
3:45 PM -
4:45PM
Session 6 – Culture and Practice

Paper 22:
Ermanno C. Tortia – External and Internal Distributive Equity in Worker Co-Operatives: A Rawlsian Perspective?

Paper 23:
Fabio Landini – Democracy at Work: Employee Involvement and Organizational Well-Being in Worker Buyouts

Paper 24:
Jonathan Preminger (Dimi Stoyanova Russell) – Ownership and Confusion in Employee-Owned Firms 

Lead Respondent: Christopher Mackin
4:45 PM -
5:00 PM
Wrap-Up – Concluding Remarks

Jonathan Michie

Joseph Blasi

Christopher Mackin
Hotel Information
  • Rooms at Kellogg College (may be full) - at this link. Address your emails to Emilia at this address: accommodation@kellogg.ox.ac.uk  
  • The next closest hotel is Cotswold Lodge - at this link, one block away, at the Corner of Banbury and Norham Road.  
  • The next closest is the Old Parsonage Hotel which is 3 blocks away - at this link
  • The next closest is the Old Marlborough Hotel - at this link 
  • Oxford has a University Rooms website  at this link: 
  • Rhodes House also has rooms  at this link:  
  • The Randolph Hotel in Oxford at this link is 1 KM from Kellogg College (Mackin and Blasi billeting there) 
  • Individual Oxford Colleges may offer accommodations, at their websites. List of colleges  at this link. 
Questions?

Contact Christopher Mackin 

Invited Guests

Joseph Blasi, Rutgers University

Oliver Browne, Cork University Business School

David Ellerman, Institute for Economic Democracy - Ljubljana

David Erdal, Rutgers University

Kyle Farmbry, George Washington University

Richard Freeman, Harvard University

Anne-Sophie Halbertsma, Utrecht University

Robert Hockett, Cornell Law School

John Hoffmire, Center on Mutual and Co-owned Business

Eric Hoyt, University of Rhode Island

Nien-he Hsieh, Harvard Business School

Derek Jones, Hamilton College (Ret.)

Douglas Kruse, Rutgers University

Fidan Kurtulus, University of Massachusetts-Amherst

Fabio Landini, University of Parma

Christopher Mackin, Rutgers University

Guy Major, Cardiff University

Richard May, American Working Capital

Jonathan Michie, Kellogg College-Oxford

Thibault Mirabel, Equalis Capital

Niels Mygind, Copenhagen Business School

Andrew Pendleton, University of New South Wales

Shelly Poole, Wellington HR

Thomas Poulsen, Copenhagen Business School

Jonathan Preminger, Cardiff University

Andrew Robinson, Leeds University

Marc Salesina, IAE-Université de Lorraine

Valentin Schmitt, IAE-Universite de Lorraine

Lisa Schur, Rutgers University

Ermanno Tortia, University of Trento

Steven van Berkel, Bluetrees Belgium

Kristof van Gucht, Bluetrees Belgium

Christine Unterrainer, University of Innsbruck