The Profit Motive
Defending Shareholder Value Maximization

The Profit Motive offers a legal and economic defense of shareholder capitalism against proponents of corporate social responsibility.

Stephen M. Bainbridge (Author)

9781009012157, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 9 February 2023

300 pages
22.8 x 15.2 x 1.3 cm, 0.35 kg

'… having put a stake through the heart of stakeholder capitalism, Bainbridge provides a powerful moral rationale for shareholder primacy … Samuel Gregg, Law & Liberty

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.

Introduction
Part I. The Law: 1. The Battle of River Rouge
2. Fireplug Funding For Princeton
3. Why Didn't the Cubs Have to Play Night Baseball? 4. Defending Dodge
5. To Make Stakeholder Capitalism the Rule, You Would Have to Change Most of Corporate Law
6. What About the Benefit Corporation? Part II. The Merits: 7. Possible Merits of the Business Roundtable's Embrace of Stakeholder Capitalism
8. Was There a Business Case for the Business Roundtable's Embrace of Stakeholder Capitalism? 9. Why did the Business Roundtable CEOs Shift Their Position?10. Why the Business Roundtable CEOs Should Have Stayed the Course
Conclusion.

Subject Areas: Commercial law [LNCB], Corporate governance [KJR], Business ethics & social responsibility [KJG]