Shareholders vs stakeholders, once more

The debate resurfaced last month after JP Morgan's board rejected the switch to become a shareholder-focused entity

Have we been too early in celebrating the end of the profit-maximising corporation and the advent of stakeholder capitalism? Perhaps not. After all, some 50 years have passed since Milton Friedman writing in the New York Times had baldly stated that the social responsibility of business is to maximise profits—a long enough period for any theory to start to fray. Importantly, hadn’t the all-powerful US Business Roundtable defenestrated Friedman, stating that the purpose of a corporation is no longer maximising returns to shareholders but a commitment to all stakeholders? So why this question?

The debate resurfaced last month after JP Morgan’s