Submitted by Colin Marks
This discussion group focused on what role, if any, corporations should play in addressing a variety of non-business issues. Of particular focus were efforts by corporations to nudge public policy through how and where it conducts business. The group quickly split into fiery and differing ideologies broadly represented by two camps. On the one side were those who adopted a viewpoint sympathetic to Milton Friedman, who famously asserted that the responsibility of a corporation is to maximize the wealth to the benefit of its investors. On the other were those who disagreed with this narrow view of corporate purpose. In truth, many of the discussants fell somewhere along a spectrum of beliefs, with many expressing concern about the consequences of corporate misbehavior and how best to curve such actions, be it through the free market, regulation or social pressure.