Capitalism at Risk

7

Leading Through Institutional Activism

IN CHAPTER 4, we proposed a systemic view of the challenge of sustaining market capitalism. We argued that forces within and outside market capitalism itself—its good and not-so-good outcomes, the antecedents that allow it to function successfully (or, indeed, at all), and the disruptions that threaten it—are related to one another, often in self-reinforcing cycles that can either buttress or undermine capitalism’s sustainability. We then outlined alternative roles business might play in ensuring the overall system’s ongoing success and explored in greater depth the role of business as innovator. We looked at examples of innovations by companies that show how business might contribute significantly to ...