[1]
After having finished reading the article of Milton Friedman (The Social Responsibility of Business is to Increase Profits) and watching the talk that explains stakeholder theory made by R. Edward Freeman, I lost in deep thought. I strongly agree with Friedman that corporate executive’s using the wealth of the company to contribute the society is a kind of violation to the Shareholders of the company. I also intensively subscribe with Freeman that if you just focus on financiers you miss what makes capitalism tick. The truth is that shareholders financiers, customers, suppliers, employers and communities can together create something that no one of them can create alone[2]. On one hand, I think stakeholder theory may add up social responsibilities, social liability and political responsibilities to enterprises, which may even become burdens of companies and their operations. On the other hand, I think that company managers should focus on their professions, business and create more benefits for shareholders to perfect the stakeholder theory.
Here is a link that helps us understand stakeholder theory better: https://mosaicprojects.wordpress.com/2014/07/11/understanding-stakeholder-theory/
[1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stakeholder_theory
[2] Friedman, M.(1970 September 13). The New York Time magazine. Retrieved from September 15, 2015 from http://site.ebrary.com/lib/ubc/reader.action?docID=10187339&ppg=171
I have also read two different com101 classmates’ blogs:
https://blogs.ubc.ca/mariaacosta/