Nope. A CEO can't essentially steal from shareholders, but otherwise they have extremely broad latitude in how they engage in business.
There is no legal or moral imperative to make antisocial, unethical, or short term decisions that "maximize shareholder value."
This is something that morally weak people tell themselves (and others) to justify the depravity they're willing to sink to in order to satiate their greed.
The concept doesn't even make sense: different shareholders have different priorities and time horizons. A businessperson has no way to know what it objectively means to maximize their returns. They must make a subjective determination, and they have extremely broad latitude to do that.
There is no legal or moral imperative to make antisocial, unethical, or short term decisions that "maximize shareholder value."
This is something that morally weak people tell themselves (and others) to justify the depravity they're willing to sink to in order to satiate their greed.
The concept doesn't even make sense: different shareholders have different priorities and time horizons. A businessperson has no way to know what it objectively means to maximize their returns. They must make a subjective determination, and they have extremely broad latitude to do that.