Profits vs Social Responsibility of Business

This is an extremely important debate, initiated by Friedman, where he argued that business should only worry about making profits, and not act in socially responsible ways. There has been a lot of debate on this issue. Many of the key references are listed below. Islam offers a different and unique perspective which could be used to add to this debate; we come in firmly against Friedman, but the case has to be argued carefully. All of the readings below are available on my yahoo group: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/islamicecon/files/Pursuit%20Of%20Profits/

A newspaper article on the Pursuit of Profits and its harmful consequences

Milton Friedman, “The Social Responsibility of Business Is to Increase Its Profits,” New York Times Magazine (September 13, 197O)

Thomas Mulligan, A Critique of Milton Friedman's Essay 'The Social Responsibility of Business Is to Increase Its

Profits' Journal of Business Ethics, Vol. 5, No. 4 (Aug., 1986), pp. 265-269

Bill Shaw, A Reply to Thomas Mulligan's "Critique of Milton Friedman's Essay 'The Social Responsibility

of Business to Increase Its Profits'" Journal of Business Ethics, Vol. 7, No. 7 (Jul., 1988), pp. 537-543

Colin Grant: Friedman Fallacies, Journal of Business Ethics, Vol. 10, No. 12 (Dec., 1991), pp. 907-914

Dwight R. Lee and Richard B. McKenzie: Corporate Failure as a Means to Corporate Responsibility, Journal of Business Ethics, Vol. 13, No. 12 (Dec., 1994), pp. 969-978

Thomas M. Mulligan, Justifying Moral Initiative by Business, with Rejoinders to Bill Shaw and Richard Nunan

Journal of Business Ethics, Vol. 9, No. 2 (Feb., 1990), pp. 93-103

Cosans, Christopher: Does Milton Friedman Support a Vigorous Business Ethics?Journal of Business Ethics, Issue Vol 87 3 July, 2009

Andrew and Michelle Casad, Discussion Paper on Friedman

Roemer, John E. (2009) "Changing Social Ethos is the Key," The Economists' Voice: Vol. 6 : Iss. 7, Article 4. DOI: 10.2202/1553-3832.1581 ...

Robert Bellah: Taming the Savage Market