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Corporations "souls" are only as good as their current leadership and "legal" obligations allow them to be. Mostly they are amoral, since the purpose of mostly all corporations is to make money. (Not books or widgets or software...)

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Yes but to make money they need to persuide others to cooperate with them. They're certainly no monopoly and don't posess the knowlegde and skills to create their products themselves.

Good points, but it seems the common failure is ignoring them and focusing entirely on the next quarterly results.

Having shareholders seems to be a magnifier of shortsightedness.

Agreed. Shareholders and Boards of Directors. Even if you have shareholders with a long-term view, if the Board of Directors is thinking short-term, then the senior managers fear for their corporate lives and will (re)act accordingly.

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