On the other hand, scholars have argued that adopting environmental and social policies can destroy shareholder wealth (., Friedman 1970; Clotfelter 1985; Navarro 1988; Galaskiewicz 1997). In its simplest form the argument goes that sustainability may be just another type of agency cost where managers receive private benefits from embedding environmental and social policies in the company, but doing so has negative financial implications (Baloti and Hanks 1999; Brown, Helland, and Smith 2006). More broadly, according to this argument, management might lose focus by diverting attention to issues that are not core.
