Virtue signalling?

Serious response here. Some corporate stuff is clearly just marketing, whether it’s characterized as virtue signaling or something else. But I’ve new struck for a long time at how serious business that are focused on growth and profits also realize the strong economic case for supporting diversity in their employee and customer base.

As one example, It was corporations on their own who introduced domestic partner benefits—a precursor to gay marriage—because it helped them attract and retain talented employees.

As another example, Donald Trump had set up an economic advisory group is some kind early in his administration with leaders of big corporations, mostly Republican. But it fell apart overnight after Charlottesville and the president’s problematic positions on race and immigration. That’s not because Republican CEOs were virtue signaling—believe me they wanted access to that level of power and prestige. It’s because they realized the economic threat to their businesses from damaging their customer base and employee population.

I don’t think business is about morality—it’s about economics. But it’s interesting that economic reality can sometimes also mean doing the right thing socially.