Corporations and the Public Interest: Guiding the Invisible Hand [Hardcover]

Steven D Lydenberg (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 1, 2005

Private enterprise is rapidly taking hold as the world's dominant economic paradigm, but business scandals, environmental degradation, and rampant poverty are stark reminders that business alone - unregulated and unsupervised - will not solve the world's problems. Using a unique market-based approach and a socially inclusive definition of wealth, Corporations and the Public Interest offers a refreshing new system for assessing corporations' real commitment to the public. Steven Lydenberg's plan includes strategies for steering companies in socially responsible directions and imposing costs on those that neglect their responsibilities to the community.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Lydenberg has been involved in socially responsible investing and corporate social responsibility since the 1970s, when the terms were considered oxymoronic. With the rise of privatization and the domination of Western capitalism, the burden of sustaining public wealth is shifting from a government model to a corporate one. But debate rages on whether corporations are heartless machines driven to seek profit at any price or engines of wealth creation that can employ, feed, and sustain a growing population. As companies must publicly disclose their balance sheets today, Lydenberg believes that a more transparent disclosure of social and environmental impacts would help define value for socially conscious investors. Today, companies such as Organic Valley and Timberland are leading the way in showing that social responsibility and profitability are far from mutually exclusive. Lydenberg suggests a number of initiatives that would spur corporations to minimize public costs, preserve natural resources, and enrich stakeholders. He concludes that these initiatives, "although not necessarily in corporations' narrowly defined, short-term interests," would "create lasting societal value." David Siegfried
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

About the Author

Steven Lydenberg (Brookline, MA) is Chief Investment Officer for Domini Social Investments LLC. He has spent over 27 years in the social investment and corporate social accountability worlds.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 170 pages
• Publisher: Berrett-Koehler Publishers; Stated First Edition edition (February 1, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1576752917
• ISBN-13: 978-1576752913
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 6.1 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.9 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,154,119 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A clear and eloguent guide to a difficult subject, May 11, 2005

By 

Carol Holding (Seattle, WA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Corporations and the Public Interest: Guiding the Invisible Hand (Hardcover)

Corporations and the Public Interest is very helpful in understanding the structure of the investment side of CSR. I finished Corporations and the Public Interest understanding how to achieve CSR though pressure from shareholders and the investment community, quite an achievement in a single short read.

The book's contention that altering the balance between business and government to make companies more accountable grounded this reader in the author's underlying thesis, creating the tension that makes the book so absorbing while maintaining objectivity. The author makes a compelling case that the most efficient way to change behavior is by establishing government standards and measurement, with tangible penalties administered through the investment marketplace. Examples of successful re-balancing, as with CRA, show how effective that method can be. In addition, Corporations and the Public Interest cites European examples in government regulation, data collection and rating, and points out how remarkable their success with CSR has been.

The tone is optimistic while maintaining objectivity. I closed the book thinking that corporations doing the right thing was not only inevitable, but would happen in the very short term. As the author puts it in his very clear and eloquent style, "Distinctions between socially responsible investing and the mainstream financial world will blur, as will the lines between CSR and the responsible management of a firm."