The Netherlands has quietly become one of the world's most consequential laboratories for reimagining business. It hosts a remarkable concentration of firms deliberately structured to subordinate profit to purpose Tony's Chocolonely handing its cocoa network to competitors, Dopper working to end the market for its own product, Triodos Bank locking every share inside a mission-guarding foundation and many more — firms that not only survive but often thrive. Prevailing theories of the firm either mischaracterize them as cleverly profit-seeking (long-run "win-win" strategies) or bracket them as exceptions.

This talk presents two connected projects on these topics. The first, a paper in revision at a leading journal, develops a theory of purpose-dominant firms — a distinct organizational form whose superordinate end is societal and that treats economic viability as a constraint to satisfy, not an objective to maximize — and the arrangements that make this ordering durable; I am looking forward to feedback on the revision in process. The second, a general-audience book in progress, Wealth From Limits, asks what firm-level theory cannot answer: what societal structures, culture and policy does it take to make such firms ordinary? The Netherlands offers in part a unique living answer, and I will preview its themes to invite your feedback and recommendations of Dutch organizations to study and people to interview while I am based in Amsterdam.