The Profit Motive

Stephen M. Bainbridge is the William D. Warren Distinguished Professor of Law at UCLA School of Law.

• Introduction; Part I. The Law: 1. The Battle of River Rouge; 2. Fireplug Funding For Princeton; 3. Why Didn't the Cubs Have to Play Night Baseball? 4. Defending Dodge; 5. To Make Stakeholder Capitalism the Rule, You Would Have to Change Most of Corporate Law; 6. What About the Benefit Corporation? Part II. The Merits: 7. Possible Merits of the Business Roundtable's Embrace of Stakeholder Capitalism; 8. Was There a Business Case for the Business Roundtable's Embrace of Stakeholder Capitalism? 9. Why did the Business Roundtable CEOs Shift Their Position?10. Why the Business Roundtable CEOs Should Have Stayed the Course; Conclusion.

'The Profit Motive is both a brilliant defense of the principle at the heart of capitalist prosperity and a clinical demolition of 'stakeholder' theory. A true master of his craft, Bainbridge not only knows everything worth knowing about his subject but expresses it with vigor, grace and, a wry sense of humor. A must-read for anybody who wants to understand what makes corporations thrive--and how to preserve them from death by good intentions.' Adrian Wooldridge, Bloomberg Opinion