The Profit Motive

The Profit Motive addresses questions of corporate purpose using historical, legal, and economic perspectives. It counters proponents of social corporate responsibility and defends the maximization of shareholder value and shareholder capitalism, as both what the law requires and what it ought to require.

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What responsibility, if any, does a corporation have to society? How should corporations balance environmental, social, and governance factors? The Profit Motive addresses these questions of corporate purpose using historical, legal, and economic perspectives. Stephen M. Bainbridge enters the debate around corporate social responsibility to mount an unabashed defense of shareholder capitalism and maximizing shareholder value. The book offers context for the current questions about corporate purpose, and provides a reference going forward. Direct and corrective, The Profit Motive argues that shareholder value maximization is not only required by law, but what the law ought to require.