Business Ethics

This is an open access title available under the terms of a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 International licence. It is free to read on the Oxford Academic platform and offered as a free PDF download from OUP and selected open access locations.

In an increasingly globalized world, business ethics continues to gain importance as a field of study. This book provides a comprehensive overview of the essential concepts of business ethics related to the economy as a whole, as well as more closely understood corporate ethics related to the individual company. In contrast to more casuistic works on the topic, special emphasis is placed on a coherent theoretical foundation that puts economic analysis tools at the centre of the consideration. Both classical and experimental economic approaches and results are called upon. The importance of often-neglected dilemma structures and the resulting implications for an ethics of the modern age are given wide scope, while special attention is also paid to the value of empirical research for business ethics. A substantial portion of the book is devoted to corporate ethics and explores issues that encompass corporate responsibility in the context of compliance, corporate social responsibility, corporate citizenship, and creating shared value. This is intended to provide students and academics with an aid in the theoretical classification of the variety of concepts that often coexist incoherently in contemporary debate.

As the topic has evolved, it has extended far beyond narrow disciplinary boundaries. This book is intended for students in the social sciences, particularly economics, business, and psychology, as well as the computer sciences, engineering, and the natural sciences.