Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-ndw9j Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-07T10:28:01.050Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

9 - Why Did the Business Roundtable CEOs Shift Their Position?

from Part II - The Merits

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 February 2023

Stephen M. Bainbridge
Affiliation:
University of California, Los Angeles
Get access

Summary

The 2019 shift in position by the Business Roundtable CEOs from their traditional embrace of shareholder value maximization to stakeholder capitalism attracted enormous attention. Oddly, however, the CEOs offered nothing but platitudes to explain their shift. This chapter explores possible explanations for their shift. Were the Business Roundtable CEOs woke? It is true that CEO activism leans left but the profit motive survives. Were the Business Roundtable CEOs responding to changes in consumer, investor, and labor demands? Were the Business Roundtable CEOs responding to Green Activist Investors? Were the Business Roundtable CEOs trying to fend off regulation? Were the Business Roundtable CEOs just cynical oligopolists? All of these prove possible but unlikely explanations. Two more plausible explanations are that the Business Roundtable CEOs were pining for the days of Imperial CEOs, because stakeholder capitalism inevitably means that CEOs are less accountable, and that the Business Roundtable CEOs were greenwashing.

Type
Chapter
Information
The Profit Motive
Defending Shareholder Value Maximization
, pp. 105 - 124
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2023

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×