Search results

The aim of this paper is to use Rawls's principles of justice to develop a system of global ethics that can be used to govern international business practices.

A critical synopsis of Rawls's political philosophy is provided, his application in prior business ethics literature is reviewed, and a Rawlsian‐inflected ethics for conducting international business practices is outlined.

This paper concludes that Rawls's philosophical insights have significant relevance for the conduct of contemporary international business; that through critical engagement of Rawls's ideas there emerges the potential for international business to be predicated on social justice values.

This paper offers the first substantive attempt to elucidate the conditions under which international business is rendered to be consistent with Rawls's principles of justice.

The purpose of this paper is to develop principles through which the global economic structure could become more equal and just; it begins by demonstrating that world poverty is pervasive, and that the global economic structure is very unequal.

The paper utilizes conceptual/theoretical arguments in welfare economics, utilitarianism, Sen's capability approach, and Rawlsian theories of justice to argue that none of those theories can lead to a more equal global economic structure. Thus, the development of more egalitarian principles is needed.

Arguing that the principles that Rawls developed in his 1999 The Law of Peoples are more egalitarian than the other theories, the paper still finds them less than adequate. However, the principles developed in the paper can lead the world toward a more just and much more egalitarian economic structure.

Since the principles developed in the paper are more egalitarian, helping toward ending world poverty and extreme inequality, the paper and its findings constitute an original and a valuable contribution.

The purpose of this paper is to comprehensively explore and propose solutions to global economic inequities and disparities, with a particular focus on healthcare. This paper also aims to explore whether drastic reductions of inequality are justified in terms of conventional economic theory, and whether ending inequality can be viewed as ethical through certain lenses.

To seek the response to those questions, the paper uses Pareto optimality; Hicks–Kaldor model; Millian utilitarianism; the ethical theories developed by John Rawls in his 1971 work on ethics as well as his 1999 Law of People; and the capability approach developed by Noble Laureate economists Amartya Sen. As demonstrated, those equalizing works cannot support a policy that would advocate an end to global inequities. Those theories also propose no practical solutions for the end of those extreme inequities. Thus, the paper attempts to present other solutions.

This paper discusses two theories that are very helpful in supporting those without much wealth. Mohammad Yunus’ Grameen Bank and its provision of small free-interest loans to poor businesses (in particular women) in Bangladesh has been very successful. Another alternative advocating interest-free banking that was proposed by the proponents of binary economics is discussed.

The author believes the arguments used to support the theses of this paper be unique and novel.

This article aims to explore the public evaluation of the ethics of marketing tobacco in Indonesia through the theoretical lens of normative ethics.

The present study adopted a symbiotic ethical approach which combined normative and positive ethical approaches. The data was collected in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, from six focus groups and thirty photo elicitation interviews with a total of 71 participants.

The thematic analysis has identified six main themes, economic contribution of the tobacco industry, harmful nature of tobacco products, tobacco marketing targeting vulnerable groups, covering the danger of smoking, intention and integrity of tobacco marketers and infringement of law and social norms. Adopting the theoretical lens of utilitarianism, deontology, contractarianism and virtue ethics, the analysis illustrates that most participants believed that tobacco marketing practices in Indonesia are unethical.

The findings of the study were disseminated in a public engagement event to stakeholders in Yogyakarta. The findings influenced the development of No Smoking Area monitoring instrument and the introduction of “Free from Tobacco Advertisement in No Smoking Area” policy in Sleman Regency, Yogyakarta.

Indonesia, with its lenient regulatory environment, provides a unique setting for investigating public evaluation of the ethics of tobacco marketing. This is one of the first studies that investigates public evaluation of tobacco marketing ethics in Indonesia through the theoretical lens of utilitarianism, deontology, virtue ethics and contractarianism.

The purpose of this paper is to show that given the dearth of literature on how firms in the African continent have embraced and practiced corporate social responsibility (CSR), this study contributes to the CSR literature by examining managers' perceptions about CSR, structural changes to enhance, its implementation, and the pattern of current CSR actions in Nigeria.

The study used quantitative approach and collected primary data through a three‐part structured questionnaire, from insurance firms operating in Nigeria. The 67 responses received were analysed descriptively and the results presented.

The overall results indicate a strong support for social responsibility and the translation of this support into action through involvement in some community based projects. Evidence from the study also suggests that social responsibility is still largely perceived as a philanthropic gesture.

The study only covers insurance firms operating in Lagos state. Furthermore, only one response represents the view of a firm, hence the need to exercise caution in generalizing the results.

Since the results suggest the readiness of the Nigerian insurance firms to go beyond the traditional view of profit and shareholders' wealth maximization, there must be a consistency between this posture and their actions.

The study provides an insight into perceptions about corporate social responsibility in the insurance industry, in a developing country and in Africa, which to the best knowledge of the author, have not been done before.

Justice is a traditional and central moral criterion in society, and is determined, expressed, and assessed differently in different social settings. The purpose of this paper is to propose a justice perspective from contemporary political philosophy in order to explore and prescribe ethical justice behavior in the context of entrepreneurial firms.

John Rawls' influential political theory of justice is examined and then discussed as a potential guide for the ethical decision making of founders of new organizations.

The empirical realities of entrepreneurs are curiously analogous to Rawlsian choosers in the original position as they operate under a similar veil of ignorance. As a development of the authors' argument, three entrepreneur‐inspired justice principles are suggested.

A society of entrepreneurs who value fairness with regard to their stakeholders is likely to shape the business environment in ways that figure into assumptions of business decisions for all organizations, which may in turn result in a society in which all organizational stakeholders are treated fairly.

The paper shows that a Rawlsian justice perspective is plausible, illuminating, and potentially useful when applied to the entrepreneurial context.

In recent times there have been attempts by well known economists towards integrating the questions of ethics and values in the body framework of economic theory. Yet their pursuits have remained subservient to one or the other of received economic doctrines. This has proven to be a drawback in the development of an independent inquiry into the possibility of treating the problem of ethical integration as an endogenous phenomen of the system. The idea of ethical endogeneity here means, that society is not merely a reflection of the social policies undertaken by the collective of members of a democratic and decentralized polity. It must also reflect multiple rounds of social transformation realized by the impact of the reverse relation of the ecological environment on the polity itself. Contrary to this concept, the view on ethics and values in the social system presented by the contemporary school of economists and philosophers has the essence of exogeneity. That means ethics and values are made to impact upon the economy but from outside the system. In the system itself they become irrelevant. Vickrey has the following words on the treatment of values by economists in the area of normative economics: “But it is only recently that economists have begun to probe into the systems of values that underlie their discussions, and indeed in many cases the judgements are implicit, rather than explicitly stated.”

John Rawls’ theory of justice has had a direct impact on public administration, especially work in new public administration. His theory has influenced the obligations of public administrators, the scope of citizen participation in public administration, and the equitable distribution of public services. It has also contributed to the development of administrative ethics. In addition, it suggests ways in which a mediating model of public reason might be developed for public administrators working on deeply divisive social and economic issues.