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The philosophical reflection on the essence of what we call the market has largely disappeared from the textbooks of the economic discipline. This paper intends to contribute to a renewal of this discourse by explicitly looking on basic concepts of mainstream market theory from an ethical point of view. There is not so much new information given; rather, a different, ethically conscious light is shed on the information we already have on the market. With its philosophical emphasis on the frame of reference, which is always normative in nature, the paper contributes to the new emerging approach of integrative economic ethics (integrative Wirtschaftsethik), introduced by Peter Ulrich. After touching the interrelationship of (descriptive) theory and (normative) ethics, the outlines of a brief and, as I claim, complete theory of the basic structure of the market are sketched. Central to this theory is the view of the market as a system. This systemic view permits us to explain phenomena like economic growth or unemployment as well as to discover ethical problems and to raise normative questions that are often overlooked and passed over.

The aim of this paper is to give theoretical and empirical arguments for new forms of communication and structure of organizations within the media and information society. Organizations must legitimate their “licence to operate” through social discourses and stakeholder communication. Possibilities to institutionalize ethics within organizations and possible barriers to such a programme are analysed.

First, some theoretical arguments as to why mediatisation challenges organizations to prove ethical commitment are depicted, using a rights‐based and social contract approach. Second, empirical examples for structural and communicational barriers in Austrian companies show possible practical constraints.

Theoretical findings refer to the usefulness of applying business ethical models (especially rights‐based, and social contract models) to reorganize mediatised organizations. Empirical findings concern the lack of institutionalized ethics management in companies and the corresponding problem of “PR‐style” communication instead of stakeholder discourses.

The research reported in one section of the paper relies on the qualitative survey of 14 experts in different branches of the Austrian economy. While interviews can give a picture on how respondents understand the relevant research question and construct the respective reality, they are far from providing a representative picture of communicative ethical problems in mediatised organizations.

Practical consequences should be possible, if companies understand the mediatised and communicative nature of their relationship with society and stakeholders and therefore react to that challenge by building up reputation through ethics management.

The paper gives new insights to the important relationship between organizations and the public and shows how, e.g. enterprises can legitimate their business models and secure their long‐term existence. New empirical research concerns cases from Austrian companies.

The links between moral communication and legal communication have long been studied in sociology of law. Little has yet been said about moral communication invoking when communication in the legal system is impossible, ineffective or uncertain. The paper fills this gap to demonstrate that systems theory-based sociology of law can effectively recognise the role of moral communication in such situations.

The paper presents an empirical study of moral communication in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). It focused on situations when SMEs' interactions with function systems, particularly the legal system, result in irremovable legal uncertainty. The data depict strategies of managing such uncertainty and were obtained in a paths-to-justice survey of 7,292 owners and managers of SMEs and 101 in-depth interviews. The findings are interpreted using the author's concept of “uncertainty translation”, rooted in Luhmann's systems theory. It suggests that business organisations such as SMEs deal with the ubiquitous uncertainty in their operations by translating it into a convenient type.

The study distinguishes between formative and absorbing moral communication and finds that both types play a role in steering the uncertainty translation mechanism in SMEs. Six scenarios of invoking moral communication are identified in SMEs dealing with legal uncertainty. In such scenarios, moral communication facilitates the translation of business uncertainty “away from law”. Under some circumstances, this, in turn, leads to latent systematic results, reflexively affecting the legal system, the economic system and the SMEs.

In its core argument, the study is based on qualitative material. While it identifies empirical scenarios of invoking moral communication, it does not report the prevalence of these scenarios due to methodological limitations.

The study results pose questions related to the staple theoretical issue in post-Luhmannian social systems theory: functional differentiation. If moral communication–a type of communication not linked to any social system–can produce far-reaching, systematic results that affect function systems, then the functional differentiation thesis should be less pronounced than Luhmann typically stressed. This said, the paper argues that the contradiction between the findings and Luhmannian theory of morality is only apparent and may be reconciled.

The disconnect between the corporate social responsibility (CSR) rhetoric and the practical reality experienced within companies calls for improved CSR evaluation systems that take into account the hypocrisy content of the firm's communication. The aim of this article is to contribute to the conceptual underpinning of a sincerity/hypocrisy index that positions an organization on a continuum from idealism to cynicism.

Starting with the analysis of the reasons for the dissonance between message and reality, the drivers of ethical corporate behavior, the intention of the actors and the intensity of effort and of corporate communication were analysed.

The analysis of the reasons for dissonance between message and reality sheds light on the role of communication in the perception of hypocrisy. An underlying model of a sincerity/hypocrisy index is proposed to position the firm on a continuum from idealism to hypocrisy in function of the degree of congruence or dissonance between communication and reality.

This concept of sincerity index could form a valuable basis for the development of new evaluation instruments for rating agencies, screening institutions and other evaluation bodies.

The instrument can help management to concentrate on the essence of CSR: the effective implementation of a corporate culture with attention for values and responsible business practices.

The newly developed market‐oriented system in Hungary requires new values, different abilities, and more sensitivity to a wide variety of issues on the part of corporate leadership. The nature of these values and abilities will more than likely vary depending on the industry. The purpose of this study was to examine the view of business ethics and social responsibility among Hungarian managers in both the business and non‐business sectors. The results indicate differences between the examined groups and diverse opinions among participants within each group.

This contribution suggests a preliminary, broad definition of responsibility and presents different dimensions of the concept. Next, the concept of shared responsibility is developed by combining different criteria to a number of typologies. These concepts and typologies are then illustrated with reference to the relationship between insurance customers and the insurance industry. The paper concludes with formulating some next steps for future empirical studies of interdependent insurance marketing and insurance consumer ethics.