6. Is spending corporate funds on nonrequired socially responsible activities an unjustified expenditure, or a recognition that in the long run companies must exercise social responsibility in order to avoid societal or government actions that will damage them? Explain. The Ford Motor Company issues a Corporate Citizenship Report each year. The first, Connecting with Society, was issued at its annual shareholders’

meeting held in Atlanta, Georgia in May 2000. That report was unique in its recognition that the company face a dilemma because its most profitable products, sports utility vehicles, contribute to environmental problems and may be considered not socially responsible.

In spite of these recognized problems the company stated that it intended to continue to manufacture and sell these vehicles. In an interview, Chairman William C. Ford, Jr. cited the Ford Explorer as an example: ‘If we didn’t provide that vehicle, someone else would, and they wouldn’t do it as responsibly as we do.’