Final answer:
A company may consider asymmetric risk and use strategic planning to mitigate potential catastrophic losses, like investing in cybersecurity, and market forces can incentivize businesses to act in a less discriminatory manner to avoid losing customers, face labor shortages, or undergo legal actions.
Step-by-step explanation:
In a scenario where a company acknowledges asymmetric risk, they may employ strategic decisions or take actions to mitigate potential catastrophes, even if they are of low probability. For example, investing in cybersecurity measures even without a history of significant breaches can save a company from a devasting loss if a breach were to happen. Similarly, a business might work towards reducing discriminatory practices to cater to a more diverse customer base or to access a wider talent pool, which are market forces that drive such strategic decisions.
Consider three cases of potential discrimination in businesses: a local flower delivery business run by a bigoted owner realizing that many customers are black, an assembly line needing to expand its hiring beyond traditionally employed men to find qualified workers, and a home health care services firm that wants to pay lower wages to Hispanic workers. In these cases, the flower business may lose customers if discrimination affects service quality, the assembly line may face labor shortages if it doesn't hire the best employees regardless of gender, and the home health care service risks legal action and a tarnished reputation, along with inefficiency, if it underpays certain employees, which are all incentives to reduce discriminatory practices.