“the Corporate Social Responsibility of Business Is to Maximise Shareholder Wealth” Discuss.

828 Words4 Pages
“The Corporate Social Responsibility of Business is to Maximise Shareholder Wealth” Discuss. Definition of corporate social Responsibility Conclusions Introduction Maximising benefit means maximising wealth. It is safe to assume that maximising the increase in the owner’s wealth is the only way in which management decisions can benefit owners. David Nickle controller for Intel Communications Group, Intel Corporation has been quoted as saying “Finances primary role is to try to drive the right business decisions to increase shareholder value”. However it is certainly possible for shareholders to gain benefit from a company other than by increases in wealth. The best example of this would be The Body Shop. As a business they were able to gain benefit from ownership in terms of pride in the way that the company has a proactive stance towards protecting the environment. This is also reflected in various investment vehicles such as ethical unit trusts. There will always be individuals in business seeking short-term gains from unethical activities. But, for the huge majority of businesses, such activity in the longer term is counterproductive. Lumby and jones state that ; Increase in wealth is the main, if not the sole source of benefit from company ownership. Pike, neale and linsley state in their book this quote “As far back as 1776, Adam Smith recognised that, in a market-based economy, the wider needs of society are met by individuals pursuing their own interests: “It is not from he benevolence of the butcher, the brewer or the baker, that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest.” It is their opinion that financial decisions can be treated as having nothing to do with morality. They believe that morality, the law and other things might act as constraints on what a company does but that they are entirely different issues to those

More about “the Corporate Social Responsibility of Business Is to Maximise Shareholder Wealth” Discuss.

Open Document