Shareholder vs. Stakeholder capitalism
Shareholder Value and Social Responsibility Are Not At Odds
Being socially responsible can, and frequently does, make good business sense. There are plenty of opportunities for companies to do well by doing good.
Editor’s...
A Challenge for Stakeholder Capitalism: Solving the Paradoxes of Voting
If corporations are to maximize shareholder welfare, managers need to discover what shareholders value; political theory shows how difficult this can be.
Editor’s note: To...
Corporations Are Governance Mechanisms, Not Shareholder Toys
Milton Friedman’s shareholder credo is simple and catchy but has shaky foundations. Corporate directors and officers are not agents of shareholders and have no...
Beyond Friedman’s Doctrine: The True Purpose of the Business Corporation
The pandemic and the renewed focus on inequality and injustice arising in the wake of the death of George Floyd have accelerated the conversation...
Market Forces Already Address ESG Issues and the Issues Raised by Stakeholder Capitalism
When do market forces push firms toward stakeholder goals, rather than just shareholder goals? When do market forces push firms toward ESG goals? When...
Missing in Today’s Shareholder Value Maximization Credo: The Shareholders
Today’s corporate world is very different from the one Milton Friedman wrote in. In a world where the question of whether managers should only...
Which Problems Should Companies Try to Solve?
It is true that capitalism needs to be inclusive in its benefits, but 50 years on, Friedman’s shareholder primacy remains the right place to...
“50 Years Later, It’s Time to Reassess”: Raghuram Rajan on Milton Friedman and Maximizing Shareholder Value
The biggest problem with shareholder value maximization is that it completely turns a tin ear to politics. The alternative is to maximize the value...
It Is Time to Move on From Friedman’s View of the Corporation
The anti-CSR position defended by Friedman would be acceptable only under conditions that have never been met by any real-world economy. Furthermore, the notion...
Corporations Are Already Plenty Powerful. Stakeholder Capitalism Could Make Them More So
Encouraging corporations to further step into the role of governments and civil society groups by becoming more "socially focused" risks greater depreciation of our...
