Is there any difference between a public corporation and an open corporation?

[Kenny同志]

I am translating a paper on corporate governance from English into Chinese and in it I came across these two confusing terms. Aren’t they all in Chinese 上市公司？or there’s some difference implied?

Here’s another word, “service”, I am not very sure about in the context below.

Jensen and Meckling define the agency relationship in terms of “a contract under which one or more persons (the principal(s)) engage another person (the agent) to perform some service on their behalf which involves delegating some decision-making authority to the agent”.

Does the word here equate to work, duty or something? I doubt it’s something like cutting hair, or making a suit.

Your help would be greatly appreciated.

Kenny

[pancake]

From here

Are there different kinds of corporations?

The following major corporate structures exist under U.S. law:

Close Corporation (limited number of shareholders)

Open Corporation (unlimited number of shareholders)

Public Corporation (can sell shares on the exchanges)

Non-Profit corporation (such as churches or schools)

Professional Corporation (for professionals such as lawyers, doctors, architects)

If you need more info, you can also try this link.

EDIT: OK, on second thought, that last link was unnecessarily snarky. But the point still stands that Google is often an excellent tool for answering stuff questions like this. As for your question regarding "service," it does indeed have a broader definition than what you seem to have in mind. Typing "define:service" (again, into Google) yields the following:

work done by one person or group that benefits another; "budget separately for goods and services"

an act of help or assistance; "he did them a service"

the act of public worship following prescribed rules; "the Sunday service"

a company or agency that performs a public service; subject to government regulation

employment in or work for another; "he retired after 30 years of service"

military service: a force that is a branch of the armed forces

Canadian writer (born in England) who wrote about life in the Yukon Territory (1874-1958)

avail: a means of serving; "of no avail"; "there's no help for it"

tableware consisting of a complete set of articles (silver or dishware) for use at table

servicing: the act of mating by male animals; "the bull was worth good money in servicing fees"

(law) the acts performed by an English feudal tenant for the benefit of his lord which formed the consideration for the property granted to him

serve: (sports) a stroke that puts the ball in play; "his powerful serves won the game"

be used by; as of a utility; "The sewage plant served the neighboring communities"; "The garage served to shelter his horses"

the act of delivering a writ or summons upon someone; "he accepted service of the subpoena"

make fit for use; "service my truck"; "the washing machine needs to be serviced"

[fanglu]

I've never heard the term open corporation, but from google it seems to be an informal term for a public corporation.

I think your difficulty in the second question is in your definition, you should understand 'perform a service' to mean 'do something'. It could in fact be cutting someones hair! A hairdresser is an agent of their employer when cutting your hair.

[Kenny同志]

Thanks you two for your help. It’s all clear now.