Questions we ask about ethics in a global marketplace

Citation

Fernandes, J.J. (2008), "Questions we ask about ethics in a global marketplace", Management Decision, Vol. 46 No. 8. https://doi.org/10.1108/md.2008.00146haa.001

Questions we ask about ethics in a global marketplace

Article Type: Introduction From: Management Decision, Volume 46, Issue 8

“One who asks a question is a fool for five minutes; one who does not ask a question remains a fool forever.” We can learn a lot from this ancient Chinese proverb, for the simple truth about ethics in practice is that sometimes we don’t ask enough questions – about ourselves, our decisions, and their impact on others. And when it comes to scholarship about ethics, nothing is more important than asking questions, whether they are theoretical, empirical, or philosophical. That’s why I am especially pleased to introduce this volume of articles focused on the questions we ask about ethics in a global marketplace.

AACSB International issued a report in 2004 calling for, among other things, business schools to elevate the level of achievement in ethics education. In the report, we defined the scope of business ethics broadly to include the relationship of business to society, ethical leadership and decision-making, and governance. In these areas, in particular, I believe that an effective way to improve ethics education is through scholarship and intellectual contributions that challenge conventional thinking. Emerald and the editorial team supporting Management Decision are to be commended for bringing together a collection of papers that do exactly that.

There are two other interesting aspects about this publication that deserve special attention. First, the articles demonstrate a consistent emphasis on the global marketplace, which has not been emphasized in recent ethics research, despite its growing importance to business and society. Second, the articles benefit from a broad range of perspectives, from philosophy to economics to strategy, which illustrates that research in the area of business ethics has not been constrained by narrow definitions and functional silos that characterize some research agendas. This intersection of global and multidisciplinary perspectives has resulted in a series of papers that address provocative questions, such as:

• •

  How does CSR impact business performance among international companies?

• •

  Is there a role for “sustainable value chains” in international business?

• •

  Do philosophical and theological conceptions of justice help us to understand the implications of international business and guide decision and policy-making?

• •

  Can current bureaucratic approaches to ethics be effective within the new organizational structures brought on by globalization?

• •

  Is it possible to reconcile the motivation to pursue profits with genuine concern for advancing humankind?

• •

  How will growing mistrust of corporations affect the balance of public vs. private governance in a global environment?

• •

  What impact does business ethics and corruption have on global economic competitiveness?

The difficulty in practice is that ethical questions rarely have concrete answers. We should not expect anything more from academic research in ethics. Alfred Marshall said of economics that it is “not a body of truth, but an engine for the discovery of concrete truth”. The same can be said of our scholarly work in the area of business ethics, which includes social responsibility and governance. Actively exploring our conceptualization and understanding of business ethics in a global environment cannot help but be more interesting, enlightening, and ultimately more useful than resting on the foundations of the past.

John J. FernandesPresident and CEO, AACSB International – The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business, Tampa, Florida, USA