Challenging Milton Friedman

Wed, 17 Apr 2019

By Nikki Mandow April 17 (BusinessDesk) - It’s been almost 50 years since American economist Milton Friedman wrote his groundbreaking essay in the New York Times arguing that the social responsibility of business is to increase its profits. Directors should focus solely on maximising shareholder value, Friedman argued. But this ‘shareholder primacy’ model may now be under serious challenge, according to a 2019 corporate governance trends report from law firm Chapman Tripp. The report points to two recent developments as evidence of...

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