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Summary of the articles of the BSS course 2020/2021 8,5 GPA
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1Table of Contents
Week 1 ............................................................................................................................ 2
Friedman, M. 1970. .................................................................................................................. 2
Crane, A. & Matten, D. 2006. .................................................................................................... 3
Bansal, P. & Roth, K. 2000. ....................................................................................................... 6
Porter, M.E. & Kramer, M.R. 2006. ......................................................................................... 10
Week 2 ...........................................................................................................................14
Mitchell et al. 1997 ................................................................................................................ 14
Hoffman 2009 ........................................................................................................................ 17
Spar & La Mure 2003 .............................................................................................................. 20
Freeman & Elms 2018 ............................................................................................................ 22
Week 3 ...........................................................................................................................23
Porter, M.E., & Kramer, M.R. 2011. ........................................................................................ 23
Barnett & Salomon, 2012. ...................................................................................................... 25
Ambec & Lanoie, 2008............................................................................................................ 26
Marcus, A. A., & Fremeth, A. R. 2009. ..................................................................................... 27
Lankoski & Smith, 2018. ......................................................................................................... 29
Week 4 ...........................................................................................................................32
Hardin, 2020 .......................................................................................................................... 32
Bhattacharya, C.B., & Polman, P. 2017. ................................................................................... 33
Week 5 ...........................................................................................................................35
Hoffman, A. J. 2018. ............................................................................................................... 35
King, A. A., & Toffel, M. W. 2009............................................................................................. 37
Griskevicius, V., Cantú, S. M., & van Vugt, M. 2012. ................................................................ 40
Cohen, B., & Winn, M. 2007. .................................................................................................. 43
S. Hill. 2020. ........................................................................................................................... 46
Georgallis P. & Lee, B. (2020). ................................................................................................. 47
, 2
Week 1
Friedman, M. 1970.
The social responsibility of business is to increase its profits. New York Times, September
13.
Friedman’s classic critique of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has been extremely
influential. Try to list the main arguments provided in the article. Think about how these
arguments relate to broader ideologies about the role of business.
The social responsibility of business is to increase its profits
What is the meaning of social responsibility of business?
Often the goal is to make high profits, conforming to basic rules of the society (law and
ethical custom).
Most businessmen own responsibility to the owners of a company, not to society
Social responsibilities: personal responsibilities that a businessman recognizes or assumes
voluntarily. → acting as a principal instead of an agent (own time or energy)
Social responsibility: acts in a way that is not in the best interest of his employers, but for a
generic social interest.
He decides what happens with the money of customers or stockholders.
Political principle: the imposition of taxes are governmental functions, not corporate. Now the
businessman no longer acts as an agent for the company (principal).
Friedman: if they want to act as civil servants this should be done through politics, not
through business → supports a socialist view (political mechanism > market mechanism)
Consequences: Is the businessman qualified to do this?
Those who affected to trade for the public good → those who want more taxes and doing so
by conducting business, are seeking their solution in undemocratic procedures
Social responsibility is used as an cloak
, 3
Crane, A. & Matten, D. 2006.
Business ethics: managing corporate citizenship and sustainability in the age of
globalization (1st ed.). Oxford University Press.
Often the arguments in favour of corporate social responsibility and sustainability revolve
around ethics or morality. This book chapter summarizes some of the most influential ethical
theories. Try to understand the main principle behind each of these theories.
Evaluating business ethics: Normative ethical theories
This book chapter summarizes some of the most influential ethical theories. Try to
understand the main principle behind each of these theories. P 75-95
Ethical theories are rules and principles that determine right and wrong for any given
situation.
Two extreme positions:
- Ethical absolutism: there are eternal, universally applicable moral principles. Right
and wrong are objective qualities that can be rationally determined (traditional).
- Ethical relativism: morality is context dependent and subjective. Depends on the
personal making the decision and their culture (contemporary).
Pluralism: middle ground which accepts different moral convictions and backgrounds while
suggesting that some rules and principles should be reached.
Morality is foremost a social phenomenon. Morality is all about harm and benefit (avoiding
harm, providing benefits).
US (Anglo-American view) Europe
Individualistic perspective Institutional perspective
Consequences of actions → pleasure or Focus on duties.
pain of the outcomes (success oriented)
Sees ethical problems occurring within the Question ethical justification of capitalism
capitalist system and treats it as a given
Focus on the application of morality to Challenge: justification and ethical
business situations legitimization of norms for addressing
ethical dilemmas in business situations
Traditional ethical theories – absolutist
They start with an assumption about the nature of the world, and more specific
assumptions about the nature of human beings.
Can be specified into two groups:
- Consequentialist theories: if the outcome of an action is desirable, the action is
morally right → teleological (Greek for goal)
- Non-consequentialist theories: base moral judgement on the underlying principles.
An action is right or wrong because the underlying principles are morally wrong or
right → deontological (Greek for duty).
Consequentialist theories:
, 4
1. Egoism → outcomes for the decision maker
An action is morally right if the decision-maker freely decides in order to pursue
either their (short-term) desires or their (long-term) interests.
o Influenced by Adam Smith: egoist practices for utilitarian outcomes
o Egoism not the same as selfishness (insensitive)
o Enlightened egoism is egoism based on interests approached as the idea of
objective value → that one way of acting is objectively better or more ethical
than another
o The market should cause that everyone pursues their own interests, but not
at the expense of another. But the market does not operate in a perfect way
→ egoism can lead to unfavourable results
o Sustainability debate: the victims of today’s resource depletion are the future
generation which are not yet present to talk part in any kind of market →
limitation of the egoist theory
2. Utilitarianism → social outcomes within a community
An action is morally right if it results in the greatest amount of good for the greatest
amount of people affected by the action.
“greatest happiness principle” → focus on the collective welfare that is produced by
a certain decision.
o Underlying idea is the notion of utility → ultimate goal in life
o Ultimately it is a cost-benefit analysis by quantifying the utility
o The choice with the greatest utility is the morally right one
Problems:
o Subjectivity → perspective of analyser
o Problems of quantification → difficult to assign costs and benefits to every
situation
o Distribution of utility → interests of minorities can be overlooked (children)
Solution: act utilitarianism → whether just in that single situation the collective
pleasure exceeded the pain inflicted (child labour)
Rule utilitarianism → does it in principle produce more pleasure than pain for society
in the long run?
Non-consequentialist theories
1. Ethics of duties
Kant: morality not dependent on particular situation/consequences of an action but
a question of certain unchangeable principles humans should apply to all ethical
problems. Humans as rational actors who could decide these principles for
themselves.
Categorical imperative: this framework should be applied to every moral issue
regardless of who is involved, who profits, and who is harmed by the principles once
they have been applied in specific situations.
o Maxim 1: act only according that that maxim by which you can at the same
time will that it should become a universal law → consistency
o Maxim 2: act so that you treat humanity, whether in your own person or in
that of another, always as an end and never as a means only → human
dignity
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