The very idea that changing the design of a piece of cloth that flies on a flag pole is going to affect anyone's life, one way or another, is ridiculous. It is purely a media issue. Those in favor of the old flag, such as the Sons of Confederate Veterans, were planning a low-key campaign simply to let people know about the vote. Their only lame argument was that a new flag would attract new industry to the state. That in itself was plainly absurd to anyone who has had any involvement in industrial development.
Corporations look for tax breaks, cheap land and relatively cheap labor.
I've never heard a company ask about a state flag. As for race relations, they seem to be as good in Mississippi as they are in most places and better than in some, such as Cincinnati, for example. Southerners include blacks and whites and always have. In Georgia and South Carolina, politicians caved in to media pressure. In Georgia, they changed the flag, and, in South Carolina, they moved it from the state Capitol building to a Confederate monument nearby.