Wealth Maximization
Finance teaches that managers' primary goal should be to maximize the wealth of the firm's owners-the stockholders.
The simplest and best measure of stockholder wealth is the firm's share price, so most textbooks (ours included) instruct managers to take actions that increase the firm's share price.
A common misconception is that when firms strive to make their shareholders happy, they do so at the expense of other constituencies such as customers, employees, or suppliers.
This line of thinking ignores the fact that in most cases, to enrich shareholders, managers must first satisfy the demands of these other interest groups.