Case 23: What Have You Done for Me Lately? The Case of Amazon in South Carolina
1. Who is helped and who gets hurt in the use of tax incentives? Draw a stakeholder map for
Amazon and the governments involved. Who was excluded or who could have been included?
2. Did Amazon, the South Carolina State Legislature, and the county of Lexington, S.C., manage
to create shared value for the greatest number of stakeholders?
A central issue within the cases is the comparative value of the 1,500 jobs created via the
3. What is the nature of the various stakeholder stakes? Are they owners or community
members? Analyze their legitimacy, power, and urgency characteristics.
The stakeholders are: the government of South Carolina, the individual taxpayers of South
Carolina, business owners in South Carolina, and Amazon.
The South Carolina government (South Carolina Legislature, Governor Haley, and the county of
Lexington). Certainly the government’s legitimacy would be difficult to question. The urgency
centers on the evaluation of the relative value of needed jobs and needed state income tax as well
as the perception that they are favoring big business (Amazon) over smaller brick-and-mortar
businesses.
4. Was Amazon abusing its power when it canceled procurement contracts and job postings if it
did not get its way?
It’s difficult to say whether Amazon’s actions are an abuse of power or just part of doing
business. Amazon owes it to its shareholders to get the best deal possible. However, that Amazon
5. Could the state of South Carolina, or Lexington County, have asked for more, or were they
fortunate to get what they got?
South Carolina and Lexington County gave up quite a bit—to incentivize Amazon to move to
Lexington, they granted them 90 acres of land, a 5-year exemption from charging state sales tax
6. Do “corporate welfare” deals like this give Amazon an unfair advantage over other
businesses that do not receive tax breaks? What are the ethical issues involved in this decision?
Corporate welfare deals do give unfair advantages to large businesses like Amazon over other
businesses. The ethical issue regards weighing the positive impact for all stakeholders. In this
7. What updates can you find about this tax break issue in South Carolina or in other states?