Definition
Shareholder theory equates to an influential view on the role of business in society which pushes the idea that the only responsibility of managers is to serve in the best possible way the interests of shareholders, using the resources of the corporation to increase the wealth of the latter by seeking profits. According to this theory, such behavior, done within the constraints of law and without deception or fraud, would be beneficial for society as a whole. Within this theory corporate social responsibility is defined in purely economic profit making terms.
Introduction
The many different ways according to which corporate social responsibility is conceptualized are related to differing views regarding the role of business in society. Within the literature there exist several points of view on the role of business in society which lead to different views on corporate social responsibility. Among the most...
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References and Readings
Branco, M. C., & Rodrigues, L. L. (2007). Positioning stakeholder theory within the debate on corporate social responsibility. Electronic Journal of Business Ethics and Organization Studies, 12(1), 5–15.
Carr, A. Z. (1968). Is business bluffing ethical. Harvard Business Review, January–February, 143–146, 148–149, 152–153.
Freeman, R. E., Wicks, A. C., & Parmar, B. (2004). Stakeholder theory and “the corporate objective revisited”. Organization Science, 15(3), 364–369.
Friedman, M. (1970). The social responsibility of business is to increase its profits. In L. B. Pincus (Ed.), Perspectives in business ethics (pp. 246–251). Singapore: McGraw-Hill.
Friedman, M., & Friedman, R. (1962). Capitalism and freedom. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Jensen, M. C. (2001). Value maximization, stakeholder theory, and the corporate objective function. Journal of Applied Corporate Finance, 14(3), 8–21.
Levitt, T. (1958). The dangers of social responsibility. Harvard Business Review, 36(5), 41–50.
Mcwilliams, A., & Siegel, D. (2001). Corporate social responsibility: A theory of the firm perspective. Academy of Management Review, 26(1), 117–127.
Porter, M. E., & Kramer, M. R. (2002). The competitive advantage of corporate philanthropy. Harvard Business Review, 80(12), 56–68.
Smith, H. J. (2003). The shareholders vs. stakeholders debate. MIT Sloan Management Review, 44, 85–90.
Sneirson, J. F. (2007). Article, doing well by doing good: Leveraging due care for better, more socially responsible corporate decision making. Corporate Governance Law Review, 3, 438–482.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2013 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this entry
Cite this entry
Castelo, B.M. (2013). Shareholder Theory. In: Idowu, S.O., Capaldi, N., Zu, L., Gupta, A.D. (eds) Encyclopedia of Corporate Social Responsibility. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-28036-8_31
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-28036-8_31
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-642-28035-1
Online ISBN: 978-3-642-28036-8
eBook Packages: Business and Economics