Final answer:
Business owners have responsibilities beyond shareholders, including employees, customers, and the community, forming part of the stakeholder theory. The debate on who decides these responsibilities involves ethical considerations, legal mandates like OSHA standards, and societal expectations.
Step-by-step explanation:
The question deals with corporate social responsibility and the ethical obligations of business owners towards various stakeholders, which extends beyond merely maximizing shareholder wealth. In the debate between shareholder primacy and stakeholder theory, some argue that businesses are only legally and morally responsible to their shareholders, as famously posited by Milton Friedman, who stressed the importance of maximizing shareholder wealth and placing the burden of social responsibility on governments through regulation. Yet, there's an evolving perspective, known as stakeholder theory, which argues that businesses have ethical responsibilities to a broader group which includes employees, customers, and the community, emphasizing that the interests of all stakeholders should be balanced.
An important dimension in the corporate social responsibility discussion is the role of government in regulating businesses to protect stakeholders such as requiring adherence to Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) standards. Additionally, the actions of modern multinational corporations further illustrate the significance of analyzing the moral obligations businesses hold towards their employees. The question of who decides a corporation's responsibilities is complex as it involves legal, ethical, and societal considerations.