ABSTRACT
In June 2001, U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan addressed the U.S. Chamber of
Commerce with an impassioned plea for business to ‘‘take concerted action against
the unparalleled nightmare of AIDS.’’ After discussing the dimensions of the global
AIDS crisis, the Secretary General went on to argue that business leaders should
get involved in the campaign to stop the spread of AIDS ‘‘because AIDS affects
business . . . the business community needs to get involved to protect its bottom line . . . there is a happy convergence between what your shareholders pay you for, and what is best for millions of people the world over.’’1 Similar calls urging
corporations to promote social welfare are repeatedly made. For instance, Pre-
sident Bush and Former Secretary of State Powell have also asked companies to
contribute to a global AIDS fund, while former President Clinton also urged
companies to attend to social problems (Margolis and Walsh 2003: 268, 269).
