Journal of Business Ethics

Peace through Commerce literature has discussed how business can engage in more responsible behavior in order to mitigate conflict risk and promote conflict resolution. However, in many conflict situations, the question arises at what point does it become impossible for a firm to remain engaged on the ground and still function as an ethical business? This article discusses the role of divestment activist groups in changing institutional norms among MNCs operating in conflict situations. Institutional norms shift from firms conducting “business as usual” without heed to conflict impact, to engagement policies promoting more responsible business practices, to divestment from conflict zones when circumstances are seen to preclude ethical business conduct. Engagement and divestment are explored as tools for discouraging unethical and promoting ethical business activity, considering conflict situations in South Africa and Sudan as case examples.

Nghiên cứu này dựa trên cuộc tranh luận xoay quanh giá trị được cảm nhận của trách nhiệm xã hội môi trường (ESR). Áp dụng Lý thuyết Quản lý Doanh nghiệp, các cuộc phỏng vấn sâu đã được tiến hành để xác định động lực, nhận thức và giá trị cảm nhận về ESR của các nhà quản lý. Sử dụng các cơ sở thể thao và hội họp công cộng làm bối cảnh nghiên cứu, thông tin về trách nhiệm môi trường đã được thu thập từ các nhà quản lý cơ sở là thành viên của Hiệp hội Quốc tế các Nhà Quản lý Cơ sở. Tổng cộng có 15 cuộc phỏng vấn kéo dài một giờ với các nhân sự chính của cơ sở cho thấy rằng (1) áp lực từ các bên liên quan nội bộ, (2) văn hóa tổ chức, (3) chi phí-lợi ích tài chính, (4) tính cạnh tranh, và (5) động lực đạo đức là những yếu tố thúc đẩy việc tham gia ESR. Tổng thể, các phát hiện gợi ý rằng việc thiết lập một văn hóa ESR, “lợi ích kinh doanh” cho trách nhiệm môi trường, và các mối quan ngại về đạo đức đã mang lại giá trị lớn nhất cho các nhà quản lý cơ sở thể thao và hội họp công cộng.

The paper is concerned with the potential or actual impact that free-market governmental principles and policies might have, or might have had, in helping to create a more crisis-prone world. It is concerned with organizationally-induced crises where organizations and their environment interact to create disasters. The nature of the crisis-prone organization is discussed in the context of the relevant management literature. It is argued that the disastrous interaction of such an organization with its environment is promoted by a laisser-faire attitude on the part of the authorities. This is illustrated in the context of two recent British disasters involving the King's Cross Underground fire and the sinking of the Herald of Free Enterprise.

As the market share of Fair Trade food products in countries of the North grows, understanding consumer preferences with regard to this recent label is becoming increasingly important. This article reports on a test of the consistency of consumers’ stated preferences, for which a survey was conducted at the place and time of actual purchase decisions. The aim of the survey was to further improve the understanding of consumers’ stated motivations for buying ‘Fair Trade’ and ‘organic Fair Trade’ bananas in Switzerland. Hypothetical questions with double dichotomous choices were used to compare two types of bananas – conventional and labelled – and to assess the average stated willingness-to-pay (WTP) for Fair Trade-labelled bananas. The results show that Fair Trade is largely accepted in Switzerland and that the premium for purchasing such products is influenced by age, the number of young children and the perception of the Fair Trade label. I then used a comparative test of field observations and stated preferences for bananas to measure inconsistency in choices. This comparison reveals that less than one-fifth of the answers are in principle inconsistent. These results point to the importance of confidence in the Fair Trade labels if consumers’ purchases are to increase.

The objective of this paper is to explore how the various stages of consciousness development of top managers can influence, in practical terms, their abilities in and commitment to environmental leadership in different types of SMEs. A case study based on 63 interviews carried out in 15 industrial SMEs showed that the organizations that displayed the most environmental management practices were mostly run by managers at a post-conventional stage of consciousness development. Conversely, the SMEs that displayed less sustainable environmental management practices were all run by managers at conventional stages of development. Drawing upon diverse examples of environmental leadership, this paper analyzes the reasons why the stages of post-conventional consciousness development of top managers seem to foster corporate greening in SMEs. The study also sheds light on the key values and abilities associated with both environmental leadership and the upper-stages of consciousness development, which include a broader and systemic perspective, long-range focus, integration of conflicting goals, collaboration with stakeholders, complexity management, collaborative learning, among others.

Social practices of quantification, or the production and communication of numbers, have been recognized as important foundations of organizational knowledge, as well as sources of power. With the advent of increasingly sophisticated digital tools to capture and extract numerical data from social life, however, there is a pressing need to understand the ethical stakes of quantification. The current study examines quantification from an ethical lens, to frame and promote a research agenda around the ethics of quantification. After a brief overview of quantification research and its uses in state and market organization, I discuss quantification in terms of three core subprocesses—capture, specification, and appropriation, illustrating and identifying ethical concerns around each process. Linking these processes to the performative effects of measures, I present a working model of quantification from which the discussion builds ideas for developing a research agenda around quantification.