Social phenomena are rarely, if ever, absolutely positive or absolutely negative. The same is true for social actors and their activities. A great part of dealing with social, political, economic, environmental issues, among many others, consists in managing negative externalities and, in turn, coping the externalities generated by the measures applied for the original ones, in an endless cycle. Yet political, economic, and social ideas and theories are sometimes taken as dogma, and this leads to a delusional approach where certain actors and/or activities become black or white. The current neo-liberal dogma has helped blinding companies and corporations, presenting them as limitless sources of richness, development, and jobs. While obvious benefits from corporations should not be denied, neither should their negative impacts on societies. Misdeeds from transnational corporations are well recorded, for instance those related to the use of poorly paid workforce in developing countries in a blatant abuse of the weak institutional context and loose regulations. Moreover, sometimes these corporations lobby to promote or protect measures that that actively violate socio-economic rights. Some scholars have already found strong correlations between the penetration of transnational corporations into economies and severe negative externalities for the host society. It is relevant to address these issues to effectively promote the efficiency and the usefulness of corporations and companies by bolstering their positive effects while minimizing the worst.
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