**1. Introduction**

During the past few years, business leaders have been faced with the confluence of multiple challenges, the likes of which they had never seen before: the Covid-19 pandemic, systemic racism and the continued escalation of the climate crisis. These challenges forced companies to search for new ways to create value for their investors and other stakeholders; these challenges forced business leaders to think differently about the role that their companies play in the broader society.

Of course, corporations will have an enormous impact on what happens in the broader society in the days ahead. The past few years have been very chaotic - but they are in the past. The business opportunities we experienced in the past may or may not be the same opportunities we see in the future. Companies need to develop systems and strategies that are capable of creating economic value in the future, regardless

of the societal opportunities and challenges that come their way. Companies need to move beyond seeing social dynamics as short-term opportunities and incorporate them into long-term strategies.

Business leaders are paid to ensure that their companies survive in the short-term while attempting to thrive over the long-term. But getting this balance right, especially in times with enormous social turbulence, is never easy. As we think about how business leaders balance these short-term opportunities and long-term strategies, it is critical that they realize that he level of social responsibility expected by society has risen significantly in recent years. Some companies used to pursue corporate social opportunity (CSO) thinking about how companies engage with significant social shocks over the short-term. These actions are symbolic and empty gestures. The key to creating long-term economic value will be thinking beyond these short-term opportunities and developing strategies that align with what matters to stakeholders. In this study, we offer 6 rules for moving forward and for turning short-term social opportunities into long-term strategic value creation.

Milton Friedman [1] famously said that the only corporate social responsibility any business has is to maximize profits. But how does any business maximize profits? Alex Edmans [2] shows that profits are maximized but connecting a strategy with a what stakeholders are willing to pay for. Bielak et al. [3] show that employees are the stakeholder group that has the greatest influence on how a firm engages with social shocks and societal expectations. Other research, including Schiller [4] and Dai et al. [5], focus on the role that customers play in forcing firms to have more sustainable and socially responsible supply chain. Stakeholders matter, over both the short term and the long term. Anat Admati [6] warns that stakeholder influence can be muted if government regulations and social structures are not conducive to firms addressing such social shocks. And, Gillan et al. [7] provide empirical evidence that firms which have more embedded corporate social responsibility and ESG cultures have lower costs of capital, suggesting that investors and other stakeholders see the value in firms investing in environmental, social and governance imperatives. The challenge for firms is to get the balance right between short-term social opportunities – which may lead to fleeting profitability – and long-term responsibilities – which should lead to long-term and sustainable economic value creation.

This is a conceptual study aimed to help business leaders better understand their role in the decision-making process and what they need to do to ensure their business can survive in the short-term and thrive in the long-term. Doing so requires their business offering products, services and relationships that help their stakeholders improve their lives. We also connect various research streams - from stakeholder theory to resource dependency theory to Milton Friedman's perspective on social responsibility - to show how academics can think about their own research and where it fits in the broader literatures on social responsibility and value-creation. In doing this, we rely on both academic studies and case studies to show how moving beyond corporate social opportunity and towards value creation through social responsibility is the key to long-term corporate success.
