444 By Susan Ariel Aaronson and David Deese With a reaction by ...

interest in the sustained financial performance and brand value of companies, which aredirectly affected by their social performance. Is it possible, then, that shareholder valuecan actually be an ally in achieving the global “stakeholdership” that the essayadvocates?Oil Companies and Diversification of Energy SupplyAnother common complaint is that oil companies do not invest enough inalternative energies and conservation. However, are IOCs truly the best candidates forthis task? Major oil companies are notoriously bad at diversifying their business. In the1970s and 80s, they were also pushed to diversify their portfolios beyond oil and gas.They famously failed in mining (everybody), office technology (Exxon), departmentstore (Mobil), and biotechnology (Chevron). Conversely, other major corporationsdiversified into oil and gas, such as Dupont’s acquisition of Conoco and USX by buyingMarathon; they ultimately abandoned the ventures as being too different from their corebusinesses.Are there really inherent comparative advantages that make oil companies betterinvestors in alternative energy and energy efficiency? There is no reason to assume thatoil and gas companies will be effective or efficient in harnessing other forms of energy.In other words, society has valid reasons for wanting to invest in alternative energies andconservation, but is the oil industry the best vehicle for doing so? Indeed, the argumentflies in the face of what we know about business innovation. Telephone companies withlandline monopolies were not the first companies to popularize mobile phone services,even though Bell Lab may have invented the early technology. IBM did not createMicrosoft, nor did Microsoft create Google, nor did Google create Facebook or469