Corporate Governance and Climate Paradoxes: The Case of Alaska Native Corporations

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Abstract

Arctic Indigenous people share a deep cultural connection to land and heightened vulnerability to the health, biodiversity, and cultural identity consequences of climate change. Yet in Alaska, the Indigenous community, through their ownership of Alaska Native Corporations (ANCs), balance these concerns against a competing economic interest to develop resources on Indigenous-owned land. Combining semi-structured shareholder interviews with archival data documenting ANC governance practices, financial performance, and stated objectives, this paper develops an understanding of how climate-vulnerable individuals and businesses perceive and frame their changing and competing interests in the face of rapid ecological, social, and economic change. It explores how corporate governance mechanisms, particularly to the extent that they foster perceived inclusion and shareholder participation, can influence this sense-making process.

Biography

Kimberly (Kim) McGinnis is an Assistant Professor at the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF) College of Business Security and Management. Kim’s research interests include understanding how organizations can better support the social and economic well-being of the Indigenous communities of the Circumpolar North. This includes forging multi-year partnership with Tanana Chiefs Conference, a tribal consortium of the 42 Indigenous tribes of Interior Alaska, to develop and provide relevant vocational training; as well as conducting research on subsistence rights, food sovereignty and regenerative business practices in Alaska.

Kim holds a B.A. in Political Science from Vanderbilt University, a Master of International Affairs from Columbia University, a M.B.A. from the University of California Berkeley, and recently earned her Doctorate of Business Administration from Pepperdine University. Before joining UAF, Kim spent eight years working at the nexus of business and public policy at GE Capital, HSBC, and the American Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai.