AOE's are firms that significantly shift economic value and decision-making power toward the non-investor stakeholders they impact, such as workers, producers, consumers, community members, or even a non-financial purpose. They structurally shift away from shareholder primacy
AOEs differ from conventional enterprise models primarily by changing the economic and governance rights that are tied to company ownership, and by changing who has access to that ownership. They can do this in one or more ways: shifting ownership to non-investor stakeholders, such as workers; splitting economic and governance rights into different share classes held by different groups; providing economic or governance rights to stakeholders regardless of their ownership stake; or choosing legal forms that limit the rights traditionally granted to outside investors. These strategies shift incentives and the way surplus is used such that AOEs operate very differently from conventional enterprises, where outside investors provide capital for a high growth, profit maximizing enterprise with the goal of ultimately selling their ownership stake to another buyer.