The Routledge Companion to Business Ethics

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Alternative business organizations and social enterprise

Dana Brakman Reiser^*

Despite Milton Friedman’s famous quip that “the social responsibility of business is to increase its profits” (Friedman 1970), many businesses seek to improve society, help the less fortunate, and be responsible corporate citizens (CECP 2014; Brakman Reiser 2009). These efforts have a long history; the earliest corporations were chartered with social or community-oriented goals at their center (Rana 2013). Some foundations created with wealth generated by large companies have become household names, like the Ford, Rockefeller and Gates Foundations. But corporate charitable activity is not limited to these legendary scions.

Businesses pursue social and environmental ...