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{{Short description|Application of ethical principles to the area of business activities}}
{{Business administration}}

'''Business ethics''' (also known as '''corporate ethics''') is a form of [[applied ethics]] or [[professional ethics]] that examines ethical principles and moral or ethical problems that can arise in a business environment. It applies to all aspects of business conduct and is relevant to the conduct of individuals and entire organizations.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/ethics-business/|title=Business Ethics |publisher=Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy |date=2008-04-16|access-date=2013-06-04}}</ref> These ethics originate from individuals, organizational statements or the legal system. These norms, values, ethical, and unethical practices are the principles that guide a business.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Business ethics : ethical decision making and cases|last1=Fraedrich|first1=John|last2=Ferrell|first2=Linda|last3=Ferrell|first3=O.C.|isbn=9781305500846|edition= Eleventh |location=Boston, Massachusetts|oclc=937450119|date = January 2016 |publisher=Cengage Learning}}</ref>

Business ethics refers to contemporary organizational standards, principles, sets of values, and norms that govern the actions and behavior of individuals in a business organization. Business ethics has two dimensions: normative business ethics and descriptive business ethics. As a corporate practice and a career specialization, the field is primarily normative. Academics attempting to understand business behavior employ descriptive methods. The range and quantity of business ethical issues reflect the interaction of profit-maximizing behavior with non-economic concerns.

Interest in business ethics accelerated dramatically during the 1980s and 1990s, both within major corporations and within academia. For example, most major corporations today promote their commitment to non-[[economic value]]s under headings such as ethics codes and social responsibility charters.

[[Adam Smith]] said in 1776, "People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public, or in some contrivance to raise prices."<ref>Smith, A (1776/ 1952) An Inquiry Into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations. Chicago, Illinois: University of Chicago Press, p. 55</ref> Governments use [[law]]s and [[regulation]]s to direct business behavior in what they perceive to be beneficial directions. Ethics implicitly regulates areas and details of behavior that lie beyond governmental control. The emergence of large corporations with limited relationships and sensitivity to the communities in which they operate accelerated the development of formal ethics regimes.<ref>{{harvnb|Jones, Parker, et al.|2005|p=17}}</ref>

Maintaining an ethical status is the responsibility of the manager of the business. According to a 1990 article in the ''[[Journal of Business Ethics]]'', "Managing ethical behavior is one of the most pervasive and complex problems facing business organizations today."<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Stead |first1=W. Edward |last2=Worrell |first2=Dan L. |last3=Stead |first3=Jean Garner |date=March 1990 |title=An integrative model for understanding and managing ethical behavior in business organizations |journal=[[Journal of Business Ethics]] |volume=9 |issue=3 |pages=233–242 |doi=10.1007/BF00382649|s2cid=189901276 }}</ref>

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==History==
Business ethics reflect the norms of each historical period. As time passes, norms evolve, causing accepted behaviors to become objectionable. Business ethics and the resulting behavior evolved as well. Business was involved in [[slavery]],<ref>[http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4471479045063533294 Slavery and the Making of America—Episode 1] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110709152311/http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4471479045063533294 |date=2011-07-09 }}. Video.google.com. Retrieved on 2010-09-02.</ref><ref>Kingsolver, A. (2008). Capitalism. Encyclopedia of Race and Racism. J. H. Moore. Detroit, Macmillan reference {{ISBN|0-02-866021-8}} pp. 268–271.</ref><ref>Williams, E. (1994 [1944]). [https://books.google.com/books?id=Ns4ktOA-FxQC&pg=PA7 Capitalism and Slavery]. Chapel Hill, The University of North Carolina Press. "Slavery was not born of racism: rather, racism was the consequence of slavery. Unfree labor in the New World was brown, white, black, and yellow; Catholic, Protestant and pagan"</ref> [[colonialism]],<ref>[http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3146068175882284969 King Leopold II King of Belgium—King of the Congo] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110616220430/http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3146068175882284969 |date=2011-06-16 }}. Video.google.com. Retrieved on 2010-09-02.</ref><ref>Robotham, D. (2005). Political Economy. A Handbook of Economic Anthropology. J. G. Carrier. Northampton, Massachusetts, Edward Elgar {{ISBN|1-84376-175-0}} pp. 41–58</ref> and the [[Cold War]].<ref>Berger D., Easterly W, ''et al.'' (2010) [https://www.nber.org/papers/w15981 Commercial Imperialism? Political Influence and Trade During the Cold War]. NBER Working Paper No. 15981.</ref>

The term 'business ethics' came into common use in the United States in the early 1970s. By the mid-1980s, at least 500 courses in business ethics reached 40,000 students, using some twenty textbooks and at least ten casebooks supported by professional societies, centers and journals of business ethics. The Society for Business Ethics was founded in 1980. European business schools adopted business ethics after 1987, commencing with the European Business Ethics Network.<ref>Richard T. De George</ref><ref name="a1">[http://www.scu.edu/ethics/practicing/focusareas/business/conference/presentations/business-ethics-history.htmlA History of Business Ethics] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110629113032/http://www.scu.edu/ethics/practicing/focusareas/business/conference/presentations/business-ethics-history.htmla|date=2011-06-29}}. Scu.edu (2005-02-19). Retrieved on 2010-09-02.</ref><ref>Madsen, Essentials of Business Ethics</ref> In 1982, the first single-authored books in the field appeared.<ref>Richard De George, Business Ethics</ref><ref>Manuel G. Velasquez, Business Ethics: Concepts and Cases.</ref>

Firms began highlighting their ethical stature in the late 1980s and early 1990s, possibly in an attempt to distance themselves from the business scandals of the day, such as the [[savings and loan crisis]]. The concept of business ethics caught the attention of academics, media and business firms by the end of the [[Cold War]].<ref name="a1"/><ref>Moon, Chris et al.(2001) Business Ethics. London: The Economist:119–132</ref><ref>[https://www.coolavenues.com/bschools/xlri_jrdtata.php3 MBA Institutes & Business school networks: IIMA, IIMB, IIMC, IIML, IIMK, IIMI, ISB, Great lakes, XLRI, JBIMS, FMS]. Coolavenues.com. Retrieved on 2010-09-02.</ref> However, criticism of business practices was attacked for infringing on the freedom of [[entrepreneurs]] and critics were accused of supporting [[communist]]s.<ref>{{harvnb|Cullather|Gleijeses |2006|pp=16–37}} The entire book discusses unethical business practices and CIA collaborating with each other with appropriate documentary evidence.</ref><ref>[http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=808526880666247652 Confessions of An Economic Hit Man—What Really Goes on Behind Global Affairs] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100514102319/http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=808526880666247652 |date=2010-05-14 }}. Video.google.com. Retrieved on 2010-09-02.</ref> This scuttled the discourse of business ethics both in the media and academia.<ref>Chomsky, N. (1989). [https://archive.org/details/necessaryillusio00chom Necessary Illusions: Thought Control in Democratic Societies London], Pluto Press {{ISBN|0-89608-366-7}}.</ref> The Defense Industry Initiative on Business Ethics and Conduct (DII) was created to support corporate ethical conduct. This era began the belief and support of self-regulation and free trade, which lifted tariffs and barriers and allowed businesses to merge and divest in an increasingly global atmosphere.

===Religious and philosophical origins===
One of the earliest written treatments of business ethics is found in the ''[[Tirukkuṛaḷ]]'', a [[Tamil language|Tamil]] book dated variously from 300 BCE to the 7th century CE and attributed to [[Thiruvalluvar]]. Many verses discuss business ethics, in particular, verse 113, adapting to a changing environment in verses 474, 426, and 140, learning the intricacies of different tasks in verses 462 and 677.<ref>Management Thoughts in Thirukkural by K. Nagarajan, – ANMOL Publications PVT Ltd., 4374/4B Ansari Road, New Delhi 110 002.</ref><ref>Management MANTRAS from Thirukkural – SM Veerappan and T. Srinivasan – Vikash Publishing House Pvt Ltd., Jangpura, New Delhi 110 014</ref><ref>Thirukkural Pearls of Inspiration by M. Rajaram IAS, RUPA and Co, New Delhi 110 002</ref>

==Overview==
Business ethics reflects the [[philosophy of business]], which one of those aims is to determine the fundamental purposes of a company. Business purpose expresses the company's reason for existing. Modern discussion on the purpose of business has been freshened by views from thinkers such as Richard R. Ellesworth,<ref name=":02">{{Cite book|last=Ellsworth|first=Richard R.|title=Leading with purpose : the new corporate realities|date=2002|publisher=Stanford Business Books|isbn=0-8047-4385-1|location=Stanford|oclc=49775350}}</ref> [[Peter Drucker]],<ref name=":1">{{Cite book |last=Drucker |first=Peter F. |title=Business Purpose and Business Mission, in "Management: tasks, responsibilities, practices" |publisher=Harper & Row |year=1985 |isbn=978-0060110925 |edition=1st |location=New York |pages=74–94 |chapter=7 |oclc=701417}}</ref> and [[Nikos Mourkogiannis]]:<ref name=":2">{{Cite book|last=Mourkogiannis|first=Nikos|title=Purpose : the starting point of great companies|date=2006|publisher=Palgrave|isbn=1-4039-7581-7|edition=1st|location=New York|oclc=70676637}}</ref> Earlier views, such as Milton Friedman's, held that the purpose of a business organization is to make a profit for shareholders.<ref>{{Cite news |date=1970-09-13 |title=A Friedman doctrine-- The Social Responsibility of Business Is to Increase Its Profits (Published 1970) |work=The New York Times |language=en |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1970/09/13/archives/a-friedman-doctrine-the-social-responsibility-of-business-is-to.html |access-date=2023-08-17 |last1=Friedman |first1=Milton }}</ref> Nevertheless, the purpose of maximizing shareholders' wealth often "fails to energize employees". In practice, many non-shareholders also benefit from a firm's economic activity, among them employees through contractual compensation and its broader impact, consumers by the tangible or non-tangible value derived from their purchase choices and society as a whole through taxation and/or the company's involvement in social action when it occurs.<ref name=":02" /><ref name=":1" /><ref name=":2" /> On the other hand, if a company's purpose is to maximize shareholder returns, then sacrificing profits for other concerns is a violation of its [[fiduciary responsibility]]. Corporate entities are legal persons but this does not mean they are legally entitled to all of the rights and liabilities of natural persons.

Ethics are the rules or standards that govern our decisions on a daily basis. Many consider "ethics" with conscience or a simplistic sense of "right" and "wrong". Others would say that ethics is an internal code that governs an individual's conduct, ingrained into each person by family, faith, tradition, community, laws, and personal mores. Corporations and professional organizations, particularly licensing boards, generally will have a written [[code of ethics]] that governs standards of professional conduct expected of all in the field.
It is important to note that "law" and "ethics" are not synonymous, nor are the "legal" and "ethical" courses of action in a given situation necessarily the same. Statutes and regulations passed by legislative bodies and administrative boards set forth the "law". Slavery was once legal in the US, but one certainly would not say enslaving another was an "ethical" act.

Economist [[Milton Friedman]] wrote that corporate executives' "responsibility&nbsp;... generally will be to make as much money as possible while conforming to their basic rules of the society, both those embodied in law and those embodied in ethical custom".<ref name=mf1970>{{cite news|first=Milton|last=Friedman|title=The Social Responsibility of Business is to Increase Its Profits |date=1970-09-13|work=[[The New York Times Magazine]] |access-date=March 11, 2011 |url=http://www-rohan.sdsu.edu/faculty/dunnweb/rprnts.friedman.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110317042848/http://www-rohan.sdsu.edu/faculty/dunnweb/rprnts.friedman.html |archive-date=March 17, 2011 }}</ref> Friedman also said, "the only entities who can have responsibilities are individuals&nbsp;... A business cannot have responsibilities. So the question is, do corporate executives, provided they stay within the law, have responsibilities in their business activities other than to make as much money for their stockholders as possible? And my answer to that is, no, they do not."<ref name=mf1970/><ref>Friedman, M. (1984). "Milton Friedman responds—an interview with Friedman." Business and Society 84(5)</ref><ref>Bevan, D. (2008).[http://www.hec.edu/var/fre/storage/original/application/71f5e725c1015bc11af86fc6d7e2b8bb.pdfContinental Philosophy: A Grounded Theory Approach and the Emergence of Convenient and Inconvenient Ethics. Cutting Edge Issues in Business Ethics] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190120043146/http://www.hec.edu/var/fre/storage/original/application/71f5e725c1015bc11af86fc6d7e2b8bb.pdfContinental |date=2019-01-20 }} M. Painter-Morland and P. Werhane. Boston, Springer. 24: 131–152.</ref> This view is known as the [[Friedman doctrine]]. A multi-country 2011 survey found support for this view among the "informed public" ranging from 30 to 80%.<ref>{{cite news|newspaper=[[The Economist]]|title=Milton Friedman goes on tour|url=https://www.economist.com/business/2011/01/27/milton-friedman-goes-on-tour|date=Jan 27, 2011|access-date=March 12, 2011}}</ref> Ronald Duska and Jacques Cory have described Friedman's argument as [[consequentialist]] or [[utilitarian]] rather than [[pragmatic ethics|pragmatic]]: Friedman's argument implies that unrestrained corporate freedom would benefit the most people in the long term.<ref>{{harvnb|Duska|2007|p=46}} and {{harvnb|Cory|2004|pp=7–34}}</ref> Duska argued that Friedman failed to differentiate between two very different aspects of business: (1) the ''motive'' of individuals, who are generally motivated by profit to participate in business, and (2) the socially sanctioned ''purpose'' of business, or the reason why people allow businesses to exist, which is to provide goods and services to people.<ref name=Duska>{{harvnb|Duska|2007|pp=8–11}}</ref> So Friedman was wrong that making a profit is the only concern of business, Duska argued.<ref name=Duska/>

[[Peter Drucker]] once said, "There is neither a separate ethics of business nor is one needed", implying that standards of personal ethics cover all business situations.<ref>Drucker, P. (1981). "What is business ethics?" The Public Interest Spring(63): 18–36.</ref> However, Drucker in another instance said that the ultimate responsibility of company directors is not to harm—''[[primum non nocere]]''.<ref>{{harvnb|Cory|2004|p=9}}</ref>

Philosopher and author [[Ayn Rand]] has put forth her idea of [[rational egoism]], which also applies to business ethics.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Kirkpatrick |first=Jerry |date=1992 |title=Ayn Rand's Objectivist Ethics As the Foundation of Business Ethics |url=https://philarchive.org/archive/KIRARO }}</ref> She stresses that the position of the [[Entrepreneurship|entrepreneur]], who has to be responsible for his own happiness and the business is a means to said happiness, where the entrepreneur is not required to serve the interest of anyone else and no one is entitled to his/her work.

Another view of business is that it must exhibit [[corporate social responsibility]] (CSR): an umbrella term indicating that an ethical business must act as a responsible citizen of the communities in which it operates, even at the cost of profits or other goals.<ref>Pinnington, A. H. and Lafferty, G. (2002). Human Resource Management in Australia. Melbourne: Oxford University Press {{ISBN|0-19-551477-7}}</ref><ref name=program>{{cite book|title=Business Ethics: A Manual for Managing a Responsible Business Enterprise in Emerging Market Economies|year=2004|author=Good Governance Program|pages=93–128|chapter=5|location=Washington DC|publisher=US Department of Commerce|quote=Responsible management defines the enterprise's core beliefs: its purpose beyond profit, its core values, and its envisioned future|chapter-url=http://trade.gov/publications/abstracts/business-ethics-2004.asp|access-date=2017-01-19|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161222210757/http://trade.gov/publications/abstracts/business-ethics-2004.asp|archive-date=2016-12-22|url-status=dead}}</ref> In the US and most other nations, corporate entities are legally treated as persons in some respects. For example, they can hold title to property, sue and be sued and are subject to taxation, although their [[free speech]] rights are limited. This can be interpreted to imply that they have independent ethical responsibilities.{{Citation needed|date=April 2018}} Duska argued that stakeholders expect a business to be ethical and that violating that expectation must be counterproductive for the business.<ref name=Duska/>

Ethical issues include the rights and duties between a company and its [[stakeholder theory|employees, suppliers, customers and neighbors]], its [[fiduciary]] responsibility to its [[shareholder]]s. Issues concerning relations between different companies include [[takeover|hostile takeovers]] and [[industrial espionage]]. Related issues include [[corporate governance]], [[corporate social entrepreneurship]], [[Campaign finance|political contributions]], legal issues such as the ethical debate over introducing a crime of [[corporate manslaughter]], and the marketing of corporations' ethics policies.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Mironescu|first=Roxana|title=Business Ethics, Between the Theoretical Concepts and the Romanian Firms' Practices|journal=Studies and Scientific Researches. Economics Edition|date=2014-12-25|url=https://sceco.ub.ro/index.php/SCECO/article/view/280|language=en|issue=20|doi=10.29358/sceco.v0i20.280|issn=2344-1321|doi-access=free}}</ref> According to research published by the [[Institute of Business Ethics]] and [[Ipsos MORI]] in late 2012, the three major areas of public concern regarding business ethics in Britain are executive pay, corporate tax avoidance and bribery and corruption.<ref>[http://www.ibe.org.uk/userfiles/attitudes_to_be2012.pdf For a summary of the study see] [[Institute of Business Ethics]] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131203091256/http://www.ibe.org.uk/userfiles/attitudes_to_be2012.pdf |date=2013-12-03 }}</ref>

The ethical standards of an entire organization can be damaged if a [[psychopathy in the workplace|corporate psychopath]] is in charge.<ref>Boddy C, Ladyshewsky RK, Galvin PG ''Leaders without ethics in global business: corporate psychopaths'' Journal of Public Affairs Vol10 June 2010 P121-138</ref> This will affect not only the company and its outcome but also the employees who work under a corporate psychopath. The way a corporate psychopath can rise in a company is by their manipulation, scheming, and bullying. They do this in a way that can hide their true character and intentions within a company.

==Functional business areas==
===Finance===
Fundamentally, finance is a social science discipline.<ref name="Dobson, p. xvii">{{harvnb|Dobson|1997|p=xvii}}</ref> The discipline borders [[behavioral economics]], [[sociology]],<ref>Cetina, K. K., & Preda, A. (Eds.). (2005). The sociology of financial markets. Oxford University Press {{ISBN|0-19-929692-8}}</ref> [[economics]], [[accounting]] and [[management]]. It concerns technical issues such as the mix of debt and [[equity (finance)|equity]], [[dividend policy]], the evaluation of alternative investment projects, [[options strategies|options]], [[futures exchange|futures]], [[swap (finance)|swaps]], and other [[derivative (finance)|derivatives]], [[portfolio (finance)|portfolio]] [[diversification (finance)|diversification]] and many others. Finance is often mistaken by people to be a discipline free from ethical burdens.<ref name="Dobson, p. xvii"/> The [[2008 financial crisis]] caused critics to challenge the ethics of the executives in charge of U.S. and European financial institutions and financial regulatory bodies.<ref>Huevel, K. et al., (2009). Meltdown: how greed and corruption shattered our financial system and how we can recover. New York: Nation Books {{ISBN|1-56858-433-4}}.</ref> Finance ethics is overlooked for another reason—issues in finance are often addressed as matters of law rather than ethics.<ref name="a153">Boatright, J. R. [https://books.google.com/books?id=PDXVnfyKHBIC&pg=PA153 Finance ethics]{{harvnb|Frederic|2002|pp=153–163}} {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130510023456/https://books.google.com/books?id=PDXVnfyKHBIC&pg=PA153 |date=May 10, 2013 }}</ref>

====Finance paradigm====
<!--"finance paradigm" needs a definition -->
[[Aristotle]] said, "the end and purpose of the polis is the good life".<ref>Aristotle 1948 Politics E. Barker, trans. Oxford: Clarendon, p. 38.</ref> [[Adam Smith]] characterized the good life in terms of material goods and intellectual and moral excellences of character.<ref>{{harvnb|Smith|1759|p=Virgin Islands.i.15}}{{Dead link|date=March 2011|There is no Book Virgin Islands!}}</ref> Smith, in his ''[[The Wealth of Nations]]'', commented, "All for ourselves, and nothing for other people, seems, in every age of the world, to have been the vile maxim of the masters of mankind."<ref>{{harvnb|Smith|1759|p=III.iv.448}}</ref>{{Wikiquote|Adam Smith}} However, a section of economists influenced by the ideology of [[neoliberalism]] interpreted the objective of economics to be the maximization of [[economic growth]] through accelerated [[consumption (economics)|consumption]] and [[Manufacturing|production]] of [[goods and services]]. Neoliberal ideology promoted finance from its position as a component of economics to its core.{{Citation needed|date=March 2011}} Proponents of the ideology hold that unrestricted financial flows, if redeemed from the shackles of "financial repressions", best help impoverished nations to grow.{{Citation needed|date=March 2011}} The theory holds that open financial systems accelerate economic growth by encouraging foreign capital inflows, thereby enabling higher levels of savings, investment, employment, productivity and "welfare",<ref>{{cite news|url=https://ipezone.blogspot.com/2007/07/fts-wolf-in-defense-of-neoliberalism.html|date=July 24, 2007|newspaper=[[The Financial Times]]|last=Wolf|first=Martin|title=Wolf: In Defense of Neoliberalism|access-date=March 11, 2011}}</ref><ref>welfare in terms of preference satisfaction {{harvnb|O'Neill|1998|p=56}}</ref><ref>Hayek F.A. 1976 Law, Legislation and Liberty: Volume 2 London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, pp. 15–30.</ref> along with containing corruption. Neoliberals recommended that governments open their financial systems to the global market with minimal regulation over capital flows.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Lewis|first1=P.|first2=H.|last2=Stein|year=1997|title=Shifting fortunes: the political economy of financial liberalization in Nigeria|journal=World Development|volume=25|issue=1|pages=5–22|doi=10.1016/S0305-750X(96)00085-X}}</ref><ref>Grabel, Ilene (2003), 'International private capital flows and developing countries', in Ha-Joon Chang (ed.), Rethinking Development Economics, London: Anthem Press, pp. 325–45</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Eichengreen|first1=B.|title=Capital Account Liberalization: What Do Cross-Country Studies Tell Us?|journal=The World Bank Economic Review|volume=15|page=341|year=2001|doi=10.1093/wber/15.3.341|issue=3|citeseerx=10.1.1.551.5658}}</ref><ref>Valdez, J. G. (1995). [https://books.google.com/books?id=-oJq_Rpcs_AC Pinochet's Economists: The Chicago School in Chili] Cambridge University Press {{ISBN|0-521-45146-9}}</ref> The recommendations, however, met with criticisms from various schools of ethical philosophy. Some [[pragmatism|pragmatic ethicists]] found these claims to be unfalsifiable and a priori, although neither of these makes the recommendations false or unethical per se.<ref>Samuels, W., J (1977). Ideology in Economics In S. Weintraub (Ed.), Modern Economic Thought (pp. 467–484). Oxford: Blackwell.</ref><ref>Charles, W., & Wisman, J. ([1976] 1993). [https://books.google.com/books?id=PqpBdykSrEEC&pg=PA79 The Chicago School: Positivism or Ideal Type] In W. J. Samuels (Ed.), The Chicago School of Political Economy New Brunswick Transaction Publishers {{ISBN|1-56000-633-1}}</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Duska|2007|pp=51–62}}</ref> Raising economic growth to the highest value necessarily means that welfare is subordinate, although advocates dispute this, saying that economic growth provides more welfare than known alternatives.<ref>{{harvnb|O'Neill|1998|p=55}}</ref> Since history shows that neither regulated nor unregulated firms always behave ethically, neither regime offers an ethical [[panacea]].<ref name=salinger>Salinger, L. M., Ed. (2005). Encyclopedia of White Collar Corporate Crime. California, Sage Reference {{ISBN|0-7619-3004-3}}.</ref><ref>Dembinski, P. H., Lager, C., Cornford, A., & Bonvin, J.-M. (Eds.). (2006). Enron and World Finance: A Case Study in Ethics. New York: Palgrave.</ref><ref>Markham, J. W. (2006). [https://books.google.com/books?id=Z7qTGiF8FCgC A financial history of Modern US Corporate Scandals]. New York: M.E. Sharpe {{ISBN|0-7656-1583-5}}</ref>

Neoliberal recommendations to developing countries to unconditionally open up their economies to transnational finance corporations were fiercely contested by some ethicists.<ref>Escobar, A. (1995). [https://books.google.com/books?id=mK2bzANQ4_gC Encountering Development: The Making and Unmaking of the Third World]. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press {{ISBN|0-691-00102-2}}.</ref><ref>Ferguson, J. (1997). [https://books.google.com/books?id=NueOngvzwK0C&pg=PA150 Anthropology and its Evil Twin: ''Development'' in the Constitution of a Discipline]. In F. Cooper & R. Packard (Eds.), International Development and the Social Sciences: Essays on the History and Politics of Knowledge (pp. 150–175). Berkeley: University of California Press {{ISBN|0-520-20957-5}}.</ref><ref>Frank, A. G. (1991). [http://www.druckversion.studien-von-zeitfragen.net/The%20Underdevelopment%20of%20Development.htm The Underdevelopment of Development]. Scandinavian Journal of Development Alternatives(10), 5–72.</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last=Graeber|first=David|title=The Anthropology of Globalization (with Notes on Neomedievalism, and the End of the Chinese Model of the Nation-State): Millennial Capitalism and the Culture of Neoliberalism. Consumers and Citizens: Globalization and Multicultural Conflicts. The Anthropology of Globalization: A Reader|journal=American Anthropologist|volume=104|page=1222|year=2002|doi=10.1525/aa.2002.104.4.1222|issue=4}}</ref><ref>Smith, D. A., Solinger, D. J., & Topik, S. C. (Eds.). (1999). [https://books.google.com/books?id=oxK58B5zTdUC States and Sovereignty in the Global Economy]. London: Routledge {{ISBN|0-415-20119-5}}.</ref> The claim that deregulation and the opening up of economies would reduce corruption was also contested.<ref>Fisman, R., & Miguel, E. (2008). [https://books.google.com/books?id=AFdIJh1Z7roC Economic Gangsters: Corruption, Violence and the Poverty of Nations]. Princeton: Princeton University Press {{ISBN|0-691-13454-5}}.</ref><ref>Global Corruption Report 2009: Corruption and Private Sector. (A Report by Transparency International) (2009). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press {{ISBN|0-521-13240-1}}.</ref>

Dobson observes, "a rational agent is simply one who pursues personal material advantage ad infinitum. In essence, to be rational in finance is to be individualistic, materialistic, and competitive. Business is a game played by individuals, as with all games, the object is to win, and winning is measured in terms solely of material wealth. Within the discipline, this rationality concept is never questioned, and has indeed become the theory-of-the-firm's sine qua non".<ref>{{harvnb|Dobson|1997|p=ix}} "Experts of finance tend to view business firm as, 'an abstract engine that uses money today to make money tomorrow'</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|doi=10.1086/296380|author=Miller, M. H. |year=1986|title=Behavioral Rationality in Finance: The Case of Dividends|journal=Journal of Business|volume=59|pages=451–468|id=see p. 452}}</ref> Financial ethics, is in this view, a mathematical function of shareholder wealth. Such simplifying assumptions were once necessary for the construction of mathematically robust models. However, [[signalling (economics)|signalling theory]] and [[Principal–agent problem|agency theory]] extended the paradigm to greater realism.<ref>{{harvnb|Dobson|1997|pp=xvi, 142}}</ref>

====Other issues====
[[Justice|Fairness]] in trading practices, trading conditions, financial contracting, sales practices, consultancy services, tax payments, internal audit, external audit and [[executive compensation]] also fall under the umbrella of finance and accounting.<ref name="a153"/><ref>Armstrong, M. B. (2002). Ethical Issues in Accounting. In N. E. Bowie (Ed.), [https://books.google.com/books?id=CHtbwX11oUIC&pg=PA145 The Blackwell guide to business ethics] (pp. 145–157). Oxford: Blackwell {{ISBN|0-631-22123-9}}</ref> Particular corporate ethical/legal abuses include: [[creative accounting]], [[earnings management]], misleading financial analysis, [[insider trading]], [[securities fraud]], [[bribery]]/kickbacks and [[facilitation payment]]s. Outside of corporations, [[bucket shop (stock market)|bucket shops]] and [[forex scam]]s are criminal manipulations of financial markets. Cases include [[accounting scandals]], [[Enron]], [[WorldCom]] and [[Satyam scandal|Satyam]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Top Accounting Scandals |url=https://corporatefinanceinstitute.com/resources/accounting/top-accounting-scandals/ |access-date=2024-05-29 |website=Corporate Finance Institute |language=en-US}}</ref>

===Human resource management===
[[Human resource management]] occupies the sphere of activity of [[recruitment]] selection, orientation, [[performance appraisal]], [[training and development]], [[industrial relations]] and [[Occupational safety and health|health and safety]] issues.<ref name="a102">Walsh, A. J. HRM and the ethics of commodified work in a market economy. {{harvnb|Pinnington|Macklin|Campbell|2007|pp=102–118}}</ref> Business Ethicists differ in their orientation towards labor ethics. Some assess human resource policies according to whether they support an egalitarian workplace and the [[dignity of labor]].<ref>Kuchinke, K. P. (2005). [https://books.google.com/books?id=pA0PKmbhKaUC&pg=PA141 The self at work: theories of persons, meaning of work and their implications for HRD] {{harvnb|Elliott|Turnbull|2005|pp=141–154}}</ref><ref>Dirkx, J. M. (2005). [https://books.google.com/books?id=pA0PKmbhKaUC&pg=PA155 To develop a firm persuasion: Workplace learning and the problem of meaning].{{harvnb|Elliott|Turnbull|2005|pp=155–174}}</ref>

Issues including [[At-will employment|employment itself]], [[workplace surveillance|privacy]], compensation in accord with [[comparable worth]], [[collective bargaining]] (and/or its opposite) can be seen either as inalienable rights<ref name=pin>Introduction: ethical human resource management {{harvnb|Pinnington|Macklin|Campbell|2007|pp=1–22}}</ref><ref>Duska, R. [https://books.google.com/books?id=PDXVnfyKHBIC&pg=PA257 Employee Rights].{{harvnb|Frederic|2002|pp=257–268}}</ref> or as negotiable.<ref>Koehn, D. (2002). [https://books.google.com/books?id=CHtbwX11oUIC&pg=PA225 Ethical Issues in Human Resources]. In N. E. Bowie (Ed.), The Blackwell guide to business ethics (pp. 225–243). Oxford: Blackwell {{ISBN|0-631-22123-9}}.</ref><ref>Watson, I., Buchanan, J., Campbell, I., and Briggs, C. (2003). Fragmented Futures: New Challenges in Working Life. ACIRRT, University of Sydney, NSW: The Federation Press.</ref><ref>Smith, N. H. (1997). Strong Hermeneutics: Contingency and Moral Identity. London: Routledge.</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Machan|2007|p=67}}</ref>
[[Discrimination]] by age (preferring the [[ageism|young]] or the [[seniority|old]]), [[sex discrimination|gender]]/[[sexual harassment]], [[racial discrimination|race]], [[religious discrimination|religion]], [[disability]], weight and attractiveness. A common approach to remedying discrimination is [[affirmative action]].

Once hired, employees have the right to the occasional cost-of-living increases, as well as raises based on merit. Promotions, however, are not a right, and there are often fewer openings than qualified applicants. It may seem unfair if an employee who has been with a company longer is passed over for a promotion, but it is not unethical. It is only unethical if the employer did not give the employee proper consideration or used improper criteria for the promotion.<ref>DeGeorge, Richard. "Business Ethics, Seventh Edition". Prentice Hall, 2010, p. 351-352.</ref> Each employer should know the distinction between what is unethical and what is illegal. If an action is illegal, it is breaking the law, but if an action seems morally incorrect, that is unethical. In the workplace, what is unethical does not mean illegal and should follow the guidelines put in place by OSHA ([[Occupational Safety and Health Administration]]), EEOC ([[Equal Employment Opportunity Commission]]), and other law-binding entities.

Potential employees have ethical [[obligation]]s to employers, involving intellectual property protection and [[whistle-blowing]].

Employers must consider [[Occupational safety and health|workplace safety]], which may involve modifying the workplace or providing appropriate training or hazard disclosure. This differentiates based on the location and type of work that is taking place and may require compliance with the standards to protect employees and non-employees under workplace safety.

Larger economic issues such as [[immigration]], [[trade policy]], [[globalization]] and [[trade union]]ism affect workplaces and have an ethical dimension, but are often beyond the purview of individual companies.<ref name=pin/><ref>Legge, K. The ethics of HRM in dealing with individual employees without collective representation. {{harvnb|Pinnington|Macklin|Campbell|2007|pp=35 ff}}</ref><ref>Morehead, A., Steele, M., Stephen, K., and Duffin, L. (1997). Changes at Work: The 1995 Australian Workplace Industrial Relations Survey. Melbourne: Longman.</ref>

====Trade unions====
[[Trade union]]s, for example, may push employers to establish [[due process]] for workers, but may also cause job loss by demanding unsustainable compensation and work rules.<ref>Reinhold, R. (2000). 'Union Membership in 2000: Numbers Decline During Record Economic Expansion', Illinois Labor Market Review, 6.</ref><ref>Akyeampong, E. (1997). 'A Statistical Portrait of the Trade Union Movement', Perspectives on Labour and Income, 9: 45–54.</ref><ref>Kuruvilla, S., Das, S., Kwon, H., and Kwon, S. (2002). 'Trade Union Growth and Decline in Asia', British Journal of Industrial Relations, 40(3): 431–61.</ref><ref>Watson T.J (2003). 'Ethical Choice in Managerial Work: The Scope for Managerial Choices in an Ethically Irrational World', Human Relations, 56(2): 167–85.</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last=Woodd|first=Maureen|title=Human resource specialists—guardians of ethical conduct?|journal=Journal of European Industrial Training|volume=21|page=110|year=1997|doi=10.1108/03090599710161810|issue=3}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Guest|first1=David E|title=Human resource management—the workers' verdict|journal=Human Resource Management Journal|volume=9|page=5|year=1999|doi=10.1111/j.1748-8583.1999.tb00200.x|issue=3}}</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Machan|2007|p=29}}</ref><ref>Desai, M. (1991). Issues concerning setting up of social work specializations in India. International Social Work, 34, 83–95</ref><ref>Guest, D. E. HRM and performance: can partnership address the ethical dilemmas? {{harvnb|Pinnington|Macklin|Campbell|2007|pp=52–65}}</ref>

====Management strategy====
Among the many people management strategies that companies employ are a "soft" approach that regards employees as a source of creative energy and participants in workplace decision-making, a "hard" version explicitly focused on control<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Storey|first1=D.J.|title=The Problems Facing New Firms &#91;1&#93;|journal=Journal of Management Studies|volume=22|page=327|year=1985|doi=10.1111/j.1467-6486.1985.tb00079.x|issue=3}}</ref> and [[Theory Z]] that emphasizes philosophy, culture and consensus.<ref>{{cite book|last=Ouchi|first=William G.|year=1981|title=Theory Z|url=https://archive.org/details/theoryzhowameric1982ouch|url-access=registration|location=New York|publisher=Avon Books|isbn=978-0-380-59451-1}}</ref> None ensures ethical behavior.<ref>{{harvnb|Pinnington|Macklin|Campbell|2007|p=3}} Introduction: ethical human resource management</ref> Some studies claim that sustainable success requires a humanely treated and satisfied workforce.<ref>Schneider, B., Hanges, P., Smith, D., and Salvaggio, A. (2003). 'Which Comes First: Employee Attitudes or Organizational Financial and Market Performance?', Journal of Applied Psychology, 88: 836–51.</ref><ref>Guest, D. E., Michie, J., Conway, N., and Sheehan, M. (2003). 'Human Resource Management and Corporate Performance in the UK', British Journal of Industrial Relations, 41(2): 291–314.</ref><ref>Boxall, P., & Purcell, J. Strategic management and human resources: the pursuit of productivity, flexibility, and legitimacy {{harvnb|Pinnington|Macklin|Campbell|2007|pp=66–80}}</ref>

===Procurement===
In the [[procurement]] field, ethical behaviour includes adherence to the principle of fairness, avoidance of preferential treatment, and the elimination of malpractice in relation to suppliers and their workforces. The [[Chartered Institute of Procurement & Supply]], which provides ethical procurement assessment for its members,<ref>Chartered Institute of Procurement & Supply, [https://www.cips.org/membership/benefits/ethics-test Ethical Procurement and Supply eLearning & Test], accessed on 12 December 2025</ref> notes that "it's important to recognise that being ethical isn't just within the business community, but consumers can also make ethical choices in their buying decisions".<ref>Chartered Institute of Procurement & Supply, [https://www.cips.org/intelligence-hub/ethics Why are ethics important for procurement professionals?], accessed on 1 July 2025</ref>

===Sales and marketing===
{{Main|Marketing ethics}}
Marketing ethics came of age only as late as the 1990s.<ref>{{harvnb|Murphy|2002|pp=165–185}}</ref> Marketing ethics was approached from ethical perspectives of [[virtue]] or [[virtue ethics]], [[deontology]], [[consequentialism]], [[pragmatic ethics|pragmatism]] and relativism.<ref>{{harvnb|Jones, Parker, et al.|2005|p=3}}</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Murphy|2002|pp=168–169}}</ref>

Ethics in marketing deals with the principles, values and/or ideas by which marketers (and marketing institutions) ought to act.<ref>Brenkert, G. K. [https://books.google.com/books?id=PDXVnfyKHBIC&pg=PA179 Marketing ethics].{{harvnb|Frederic|2002|pp=179}}</ref> Marketing ethics is also a contested terrain, beyond the previously described issue of potential conflicts between profitability and other concerns. Ethical marketing issues include marketing redundant or dangerous products/services,<ref>Marcoux, A. (2009). Business-Focused Business Ethics. in Normative Theory and Business Ethics. J. Smith. Plymouth Rowman & Littlefield: pp. 17–34 {{ISBN|0-7425-4841-4}}</ref><ref>Fisher, B., 2003-05-27 [http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p111389_index.html "Ethics of Target Marketing: Process, Product or Target?"] Paper presented at the annual meeting of the International Communication Association, Marriott Hotel, San Diego, California</ref><ref>Groucutt, J., P. Leadley, ''et al.'' (2004). [https://books.google.com/books?id=cd6Sjxu2lesC&pg=PA75 Marketing: essential principles, new realities]. London, Kogan p. 75 {{ISBN|0-7494-4114-3}}</ref> [[Transparency (behavior)|transparency]] about environmental risks, transparency about [[Mandatory labelling|product ingredients]] such as [[genetically modified organism]]s<ref>{{Cite journal|doi=10.1108/03090560710718102 |author=Murphey, P. E. |author2=G. R. Laczniak |year=2007 |title=An ethical basis for relationship marketing: a virtue ethics perspective |journal=European Journal of Marketing |volume=41 |pages=37–57 |url=http://www.ethicalbusiness.nd.edu/documents/European%20Journal%20of%20Marketing.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100616003726/http://www.ethicalbusiness.nd.edu/documents/European%20Journal%20of%20Marketing.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-date=2010-06-16 |display-authors=etal}}</ref><ref>[http://oreilly.com/openbook/freedom/ Free as in Freedom: Table of Contents]. Oreilly.com. Retrieved on 2010-09-02.</ref><ref>[http://www.gmo-compass.org/eng/regulation/labelling/ Labelling of GMO Products: Freedom of Choice for Consumers] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160121103337/http://www.gmo-compass.org/eng/regulation/labelling/ |date=2016-01-21 }}. Gmo-compass.org. Retrieved on 2010-09-02.</ref><ref>[http://ec.europa.eu/food/food/biotechnology/gmfood/labelling_en.htm EUROPA—Food Safety—Biotechnology—GM Food & Feed—Labelling]. Ec.europa.eu (2003-09-22). Retrieved on 2010-09-02.</ref> possible health risks, [[financial risk]]s, security risks, etc.,<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Anand|first1=V.|last2=Rosen|first2=C. C.|title=The Ethics of Organizational Secrets|journal=Journal of Management Inquiry|volume=17|page=97|year=2008|doi=10.1177/1056492607312785|issue=2|s2cid=143933381}}</ref> respect for [[consumer privacy]] and autonomy,<ref>Brenkert, G. K. [https://books.google.com/books?id=PDXVnfyKHBIC&pg=PA178 Marketing ethics] {{harvnb|Frederic|2002|pp=178–193}}</ref> [[advertising]] truthfulness and fairness in [[pricing]] & distribution.<ref>{{harvnb|Murphy|2002|p=165}}</ref>

According to Borgerson and Schroeder (2008), marketing can influence individuals' perceptions of and interactions with other people, implying an ethical responsibility to avoid distorting those perceptions and interactions.<ref>Borgerson, J. L. and J. E. Schroeder (2008). [https://books.google.com/books?id=RsBfMI6di8gC&pg=PA87 Building an Ethics of Visual Representation: Contesting Epistemic Closure in Marketing Communication]. in Cutting Edge Issues in Business Ethics. M. P. Morland and P. Werhane. Boston, Springer pp. 87–108 {{ISBN|1-4020-8400-5}}</ref>

Marketing ethics involves pricing practices, including illegal actions such as [[price fixing]] and legal actions, including [[price discrimination]] and [[price skimming]]. Certain promotional activities have drawn fire, including [[greenwash]]ing, [[bait and switch]], [[shill]]ing, [[viral marketing]], [[spam (electronic)]], [[pyramid scheme]]s and [[multi-level marketing]]. Advertising has raised objections about [[attack ad]]s, [[subliminal message]]s, [[sex in advertising]] and [[marketing in schools]].

===Inter-organizational relationships===
Scholars in business and management have paid much attention to the ethical issues in the different forms of relationships between organizations such as buyer-supplier relationships, networks, [[Strategic alliance|alliances]], or [[joint venture]]s.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Abosag|first1=Ibrahim|last2=Yen|first2=Dorothy|last3=Barnes|first3=Bradley|date=2016|title=What is Dark about the Dark-Side of Business Relationships?|url=https://eprints.soas.ac.uk/21996/|journal=Industrial Marketing Management|language=en|volume=55|pages=5–9|doi=10.1016/j.indmarman.2016.02.008}}</ref> Drawing in particular on [[Transaction cost analysis|transaction cost theory]] and [[agency theory]], they note the risk of [[Opportunism|opportunistic]] and unethical practices between partners through, for instance, shirking, [[poaching]], and other deceitful behaviors.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Saini|first=Amit|date=2010|title=Purchasing Ethics and Inter-Organizational Buyer–Supplier Relational Determinants: A Conceptual Framework|url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10551-010-0432-2|journal=Journal of Business Ethics|volume=95|issue=3|pages=439–455|doi=10.1007/s10551-010-0432-2|s2cid=144375858|issn=0167-4544|url-access=subscription}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Hill|first1=James A.|last2=Eckerd|first2=Stephanie|last3=Wilson|first3=Darryl|last4=Greer|first4=Bertie|date=2008|title=The effect of unethical behavior on trust in a buyer-supplier relationship: The mediating role of psychological contract violation|url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jom.2008.10.002|journal=Journal of Operations Management|volume=27|issue=4|pages=281–293|doi=10.1016/j.jom.2008.10.002|issn=0272-6963|url-access=subscription}}</ref> In turn, research on inter-organizational relationships has observed the role of formal and informal mechanisms to both prevent unethical practices and mitigate their consequences. It especially discusses the importance of formal contracts and relational norms between partners to manage ethical issues.

===Emerging issues===
Being the most important element of a business, stakeholders' main concern is to determine whether or not the business is behaving ethically or unethically. The business's actions and decisions should be primarily ethical before they become an ethical or even legal issue. "In the case of the government, community, and society, what was merely an ethical issue can become a legal debate and eventually law."<ref name="ReferenceA">Business Ethics: Ethical Decision Making & Cases, 11e. O.C Ferrell, John Fraedrich and Linda Ferrell</ref> Some emerging ethical issues are:
* [[Corporate environmental responsibility]]: Businesses' impacts on ecosystemic environments can no longer be neglected and ecosystems' impacts on business activities are becoming more imminent.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Meinhold |first1=Roman |title=Business Ethics and Sustainability |date=2022 |publisher=Routledge |location=New York |isbn=978-1-003-12765-9 |pages=75–76 |edition=1 }}</ref>
* [[Justice|Fairness]]: The three aspects that motivate people to be fair is equality, optimization, and reciprocity. Fairness is the quality of being just, equitable, and impartial.
* Misuse of the company's time and resources: This particular topic may not seem to be a very common one, but it is very important, as it costs a company billions of dollars on a yearly basis. This misuse is from late arrivals, leaving early, long lunch breaks, inappropriate sick days, etc. This has been observed as a major form of misconduct in businesses today. One of the greatest ways employees participate in the misuse of the company's time and resources is by using the company computer for personal use.
* [[Consumer fraud]]: There are many different types of fraud, namely, friendly fraud, return fraud, wardrobing, price arbitrage, and returning stolen goods. Fraud is a major unethical practice within businesses that should be paid special attention to. Consumer fraud is when consumers attempt to deceive businesses for their own benefit.<ref name="ReferenceA"/>
* Abusive behavior: A common ethical issue among employees. Abusive behavior consists of inflicting intimidating acts on other employees. Such acts include harassing, using profanity, threatening someone physically and insulting them, and being annoying.<ref>Business Ethics: Ethical Decision Making & Cases, 9e. O.C Ferrell, John Fraedrich and Linda Ferrell</ref>

===Production===
This area of business ethics usually deals with the duties of a company to ensure that products and production processes do not needlessly cause harm. Since a few goods and services can be produced and consumed with zero risks, determining the ethical course can be difficult. In some cases, consumers demand products that harm them, such as [[tobacco]] products. Production may have environmental impacts, including [[pollution]], [[habitat destruction]] and [[urban sprawl]]. The downstream effects of technologies, such as [[nuclear power]], [[genetically modified food]] and [[mobile phone|mobile phones]], may not be well understood. While the [[precautionary principle]] may prohibit introducing new technology whose consequences are not fully understood, that principle would have prohibited the newest technology introduced since the [[Industrial Revolution]]. Product testing protocols have been attacked for violating the rights of both [[clinical trials|humans]] and [[animal testing|animals]].{{citation needed|date=March 2011}} Some sources that provide information on companies that are environmentally responsible or do not test on animals.

===Property===
{{Main|Private property|Property rights}}

The etymological root of property is the [[Latin]] {{Lang|la|proprius}},<ref>[https://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=property Online Etymology Dictionary]. Etymonline.com. Retrieved on 2010-09-02.</ref> which refers to 'nature', 'quality', 'one's own', 'special characteristic', 'proper', 'intrinsic', 'inherent', 'regular', 'normal', 'genuine', 'thorough, complete, perfect' etc. The word property is value-loaded and associated with the personal qualities of propriety and respectability, and it also implies questions relating to ownership. A 'proper' person owns and is true to herself or himself, and is thus genuine, perfect and pure.<ref>{{harvnb|Davies|2007 |p=25}}</ref>

====Modern history of property rights====
Modern discourse on property emerged by the turn of the 17th century within theological discussions of that time. For instance, [[John Locke]] justified [[property rights]], saying that God had made "the earth, and all inferior creatures, [in] common to all men".<ref>Harris, J.W. (1996), "Who owns My Body", Oxford Journal of Legal Studies, 16: 55–84. Harris finds this argument a 'spectacular non sequitur,' '[f]rom the fact that nobody owns me if I am not a slave, it simply does not follow that I must own myself'(p. 71)</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|doi=10.2307/2218464|author=Day, P. J.|year=1966|title=Locke on Property|journal=The Philosophical Quarterly|volume=16|issue=64|pages=207–220|jstor=2218464}}</ref>

In 1802, [[utilitarian]] [[Jeremy Bentham]] stated, "property and law are born together and die together".<ref>Bentham, J. (1931), Theory of Legislation, London: Kegan Paul, p. 113 {{ISBN|978-1-103-20150-1}}</ref>

One argument for property ownership is that it enhances individual liberty by extending the line of non-interference by the state or others around the person.<ref>{{harvnb|Davies|2007 |p=27}}</ref> Seen from this perspective, property rights are absolute and property has a special and distinctive character that precedes its legal protection. Blackstone conceptualized property as the "sole and despotic dominion which one man claims and exercises over the external things of the world, in total exclusion of the right of any other individual in the universe".<ref>Blackstone, W. (1766), [http://www.lonang.com/exlibris/blackstone/bla-201.htm Commentaries on the Laws of England, Volume II, Of the Rights of Things] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100203220233/http://www.lonang.com/exlibris/blackstone/bla-201.htm |date=2010-02-03 }}, Oxford: Clarendon Press.</ref>

=====Slaves as property=====
During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, slavery spread to European colonies, including America, where colonial legislatures defined the legal status of slaves as a form of property.

Combined with theological justification, the property was taken to be essentially natural, ordained by God. Property, which later gained meaning as ownership and appeared natural to Locke, Jefferson and to many of the 18th and 19th century intellectuals as land, labor or idea, and property right over slaves had the same [[Christianity and slavery|theological]] and [[essentialism|essentialized]] justification<ref>{{cite journal|last=Daykin|first=Jeffer B.|title="They Themselves Contribute to Their Misery by Their Sloth": The Justification of Slavery in Eighteenth-Century French Travel Narratives|journal=The European Legacy|volume=11|page=623|year=2006|doi=10.1080/10848770600918117|issue=6|s2cid=143484245}}</ref><ref>Gordon, D. (2009). [http://ssrn.com/abstract=1350522 Gender, Race and Limiting the Constitutional Privilege of Religion as a Haven for Bias: The Bridge Back to the Twentieth Century]. Women's Rights Law Reporter, p. 30.</ref><ref>Sandoval, Alonso De. (2008). [https://books.google.com/books?id=eIHte1t-BKsC&pg=PA17 Treatise on Slavery: Selections from De instauranda Aethiopum salute]. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company, Inc. pp. 17, 20.</ref><ref>Bay, M. (2008). Polygenesis Versus Monogenesis In Black and White. In J. H. Moore (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Race and Racism (Vol. 1, pp. 90–93). Detroit: Macmillan Reference:91</ref><ref>Baum, B. (2006). [https://books.google.com/books?id=TnVgKpqCxzQC&pg=PA35 The Rise and Fall of the Caucasian Race: A Political History of Racial Identity]. New York: New York University Press, {{ISBN|0-8147-9892-6}} p. 35.</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|doi=10.1177/0306312706054859|author=Skinner, D|year=2006|title=Racialized Futures: Biologism and the Changing Politics of Identity|journal=Social Studies of Science|volume=36|issue=3|pages=459–488|jstor=25474453|s2cid=62895742}}</ref>  It was even held{{By whom?|date=September 2024}} that the property in slaves was a sacred right.<ref>Jensen, E. M. (1991). The Good Old Cause': The Ratification of the Constitution and Bill of Rights in South Carolina. In R. J. Haws (Ed.), The South's Role in the Creation of the Bill of Rights. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi.</ref><ref>Following a bitter debate over the importation of slaves, Congress was denied, by the 1787 [[Philadelphia Convention]], the authority to prohibit the slave trade to the US until 1808. The rendition of escaped slaves was also a priority for southerners. Accordingly, the fugitive slave clause declared that people held to service or labor under state law "shall be delivered up on Claim of the Party to whom such Service or Labour may be due." (Ely, 2008:46)</ref> Wiecek says, "Yet slavery was more clearly and explicitly established under the Constitution than it had been under the Articles".<ref>Wiecek, W. M. (1977). The Sources of Antislavery Constitutionalism in America, 1760–1848. New York: Cornell University Press:63</ref> In an 1857 judgment, [[Supreme Court of the United States|US Supreme Court]] Chief Justice [[Roger B. Taney]] said, "The right of property in a slave is distinctly and expressly affirmed in the Constitution."

====Natural right vs social construct====
Neoliberals hold that private property rights are a non-negotiable natural right.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|last=Bethell|first=Tom|author-link=Tom Bethell|editor-first=Ronald|editor-last=Hamowy|editor-link=Ronald Hamowy|encyclopedia=The Encyclopedia of Libertarianism|chapter=Private Property|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yxNgXs3TkJYC|year=2008|publisher=[[SAGE Publishing|SAGE]]; [[Cato Institute]]|location=Thousand Oaks, California|doi=10.4135/9781412965811.n243|isbn= 978-1-4129-6580-4|oclc=750831024|lccn=2008009151|pages=393–94|url-access=subscription}}</ref><ref>[http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/documents/documents_p2.cfm?doc=23 Digital History] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120419075820/http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/documents/documents_p2.cfm?doc=23 |date=2012-04-19 }}. Digitalhistory.uh.edu. Retrieved on 2010-09-02.</ref> Davies counters with "property is no different from other legal categories in that it is simply a consequence of the significance attached by law to the relationships between legal persons."<ref name="Davies 2007 20">{{harvnb|Davies|2007 |p=20}}</ref> Singer claims, "Property is a form of power, and the distribution of power is a political problem of the highest order".<ref>{{harvnb|Singer|2000|p=9}}</ref><ref>Cohen, M. R. (1927). Property and Sovereignty. Cornell Law Quarterly, 13, 8–30. Cohen commenting on the power dimension of property noted, "we must not overlook the actual fact that dominion over things is also imperium over our fellow human beings" p. 13</ref> Rose finds, {{" '}}Property' is only an effect, a construction, of relationships between people, meaning that its objective character is contestable. Persons and things, are 'constituted' or 'fabricated' by legal and other normative techniques."<ref>{{harvnb|Rose|1994|p=14}}</ref><ref>"'Property' has no essential character, but is rather a highly flexible set of rights and responsibilities which congeal in different ways in different contexts" {{harvnb|Davies|2007 |p=20}}</ref> Singer observes, "A private property regime is not, after all, a Hobbesian state of nature; it requires a working legal system that can define, allocate, and enforce property rights."<ref>{{harvnb|Singer|2000|p=8}}</ref> Davis claims that common law theory generally favors the view that "property is not essentially a 'right to a thing', but rather a separable bundle of rights subsisting between persons which may vary according to the context and the object which is at stake".<ref name="Davies 2007 20"/>

In common parlance, property rights involve a [[bundle of rights]]<ref>Cooter, R. and T. Ulen (1988). ''Law and Economics''. New York, Harper Collins.</ref> including occupancy, use and enjoyment, and the right to sell, devise, give, or lease all or part of these rights.<ref>[[Tony Honoré|Honoré, A. M.]] (1961). Ownership. In A. G. Guest (Ed.), Oxford Essays in Jurisprudence. London: Oxford University Press.; Becker, L. (1980). The Moral Basis of Property Rights In J. Pennock & J. Chapman (Eds.), Property. New York: New York University Press.</ref><ref>However, some scholars often use the terms ownership, property and property rights interchangeably, while others define ownership (or property) as a set of specific rights each attached to the vast array of uses accessible by the owner. Ownership has thus been interpreted as a form of aggregation of such social relations—a bundle of rights over the use of scarce resources . Alchian, A. A. (1965). Some Economics of Property Rights. Il Politico, 30, 816–829</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|doi=10.2307/797162|author=Epstein, R. A.|year=1997|url=https://www.questia.com/googleScholar.qst;jsessionid=M1sW1nylSWKQJzZnVYGGY3ZCLG0shFGz4Bjj8YTLjNjFKRGv92Ym!-1814198305!558324302?docId=5000440763|title=A Clear View of the Cathedral: The Dominance of Property Rules|journal=Yale Law Journal|volume=106|issue=7|pages=2091–2107|quote=Bundle of rights is often interpreted as 'full control' over the property by the owner|jstor=797162}}{{Dead link|date=August 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|doi=10.2307/797592|author1=Merrill, T. W.|author2=Smith, H. E.|year=2001|title=What Happened to Property in Law and Economics?|journal=Yale Law Journal|volume=111|issue=2|pages=357–398|url=https://www.yalelawjournal.org/the-yale-law-journal/content-pages/what-happened-to-property-in-law-and-economics?/|jstor=797592|access-date=2018-11-24|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140201205042/http://www.yalelawjournal.org/the-yale-law-journal/content-pages/what-happened-to-property-in-law-and-economics?%2F|archive-date=2014-02-01|url-status=dead|url-access=subscription}}</ref> Custodians of property have obligations as well as rights.<!-- refs don't obviously support this point.--><ref>Property has been conceptualized as absolute ownership with full control over the owned property without being accountable to anyone else {{harvnb|Singer|2000|p=29}}.</ref> Michelman writes, "A property regime thus depends on a great deal of cooperation, trustworthiness, and self-restraint among the people who enjoy it."<!-- isn't this true of all "rights"? what right is secure if society doesn't accept/trust it? Isn't a better criterion the existence of a well-established rule of law that includes property protections?--><ref>Rose (1996), "Property as the Keystone Right?", ''Notre Dame Law Review'' '''71''', pp. 329–365.</ref>

Menon claims that the autonomous individual, responsible for his/her own existence, is a cultural construct moulded by [[Western culture]] rather than the truth about the [[human condition]]. Penner views property as an "illusion"—a "normative phantasm" without substance.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Gray|first1=Kevin|title=Property in Thin Air|journal=The Cambridge Law Journal|volume=50|page=252|year=2009|doi=10.1017/S0008197300080508|issue=2|s2cid=146430275 }}</ref>

In the neoliberal literature, the property is part of the private side of a public/private dichotomy and acts as a counterweight to state power.<!-- need a cite from that literature--> Davies counters that "any space may be subject to plural meanings or appropriations which do not necessarily come into conflict".

Private property has never been a universal doctrine, although since the end of the Cold War, it has become nearly so. Some societies, e.g., Native American bands, held land, if not all property, in common. When groups came into conflict, the victor often [[Indian Removal Act|appropriated]] the loser's property.<ref>Fischbach, M. R. (2003). [https://archive.org/details/recordsofdisposs00fisc Records of Dispossession: Palestinian Refugee Property and the Arab-Israeli Conflict]. New York: Columbia University Press {{ISBN|0-231-12978-5}}. In this book Fischbach discusses on forceful dispossession of Palestinian property by Israel</ref> The rights paradigm tended to stabilize the distribution of property holdings on the presumption that title had been lawfully acquired.

Property does not exist in isolation, and neither do property rights.<ref>{{Cite journal|doi=10.2307/795134|author=Sax, J. L.|year=1971|title=Takings, Private Property and Public Rights|journal=Yale Law Journal|volume=81|issue=2|pages=149–186|id=see pp. 149, 152|jstor=795134|url=http://scholarship.law.berkeley.edu/facpubs/1586|archive-date=2017-08-09|access-date=2017-08-09|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170809211210/http://scholarship.law.berkeley.edu/facpubs/1586/|url-status=dead|doi-access=free}}</ref> Bryan claimed that property rights describe relations among people and not just relations between people and things.<ref>{{harvnb|Singer|2000|p=6}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|doi=10.2307/785533|author=Hohfeld, W.|year=1913|title=Some Fundamental Legal Conceptions as Applied in Judicial Reasoning I|journal=Yale Law Journal|volume=23|issue=1|pages=16–59|jstor=785533|url=https://digitalcommons.law.yale.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2324&context=ylj}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|doi=10.2307/786270|author=Hohfeld, W.|year=1917|title=Some Fundamental Legal Conceptions as Applied in Judicial Reasoning II|journal=Yale Law Journal|volume=26|issue=8|pages=710–770|jstor=786270|s2cid=142251500 |url=http://digitalcommons.law.yale.edu/fss_papers/4378}}</ref><ref>Miunzer, S. R. (1990). A theory of property. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 17</ref><ref>Bryan, B. (2000). Property as Ontology: on Aboriginal and English Understandings of Property. Canadian Journal of Law and Jurisprudence, 13, 3–31. In this article Bradley Bryan claimed that property is about much more than a set of legal relations: it is 'an expression of social relationships because it organizes people with respect to each other and their material environment' p. 4</ref><ref>Arendt, H. (1958). The Human Condition. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, p. 7</ref> Singer holds that the idea that owners have no legal obligations to others wrongly supposes that property rights hardly ever conflict with other legally protected interests.<!-- the existence/importance of the "no obligation" claim needs a ref.--><ref>{{harvnb|Singer|2000|p=16}}</ref> Singer continues implying that [[legal realism|legal realists]] "did not take the character and structure of social relations as an important independent factor in choosing the rules that govern market life". The ethics of property rights begins with recognizing the vacuous nature of the notion of property.

===Intellectual property===
{{main|Intellectual property|Intellectual property rights}}

[[Intellectual property]] (IP) encompasses expressions of ideas, thoughts, codes, and information. "[[Intellectual property rights]]" (IPR) treat IP as a kind of [[real property]], subject to analogous protections, rather than as a reproducible good or service. Boldrin and Levine argue that "government does not ordinarily enforce monopolies for producers of other goods. This is because it is widely recognized that a monopoly creates many social costs. Intellectual monopoly is no different in this respect. The question we address is whether it also creates social benefits commensurate with these social costs."<ref>{{harvnb|Boldrin|Levine|2008|p=10}}</ref>

International standards relating to intellectual property rights are enforced through the [[Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights]]. In the US, IP other than [[copyright]]s is regulated by the [[United States Patent and Trademark Office]].

The [[US Constitution]] included the power to protect intellectual property, empowering the Federal government "to promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries".<ref name=steel>Steelman, A. Intellectual Property.{{harvnb|Hamowy|Kuznicki|Steelman|2008 |pp=249–250}}</ref> Boldrin and Levine see no value in such state-enforced monopolies, stating, "we ordinarily think of innovative monopoly as an [[oxymoron]].<ref>Välimäki, M. (2005). The Rise of Open Source Licensing: A Challenge to the Use of Intellectual Property in the Software Industry. Helsinki: Turre Publishing {{ISBN|952-91-8769-6}}.</ref> Further, they comment, 'intellectual property' "is not like ordinary property at all, but constitutes a government grant of a costly and dangerous private monopoly over ideas. We show through theory and example that intellectual monopoly is not necessary for innovation and, as a practical matter, is damaging to growth, prosperity, and liberty".<ref name=steel/> Steelman defends patent monopolies, writing, "Consider prescription drugs, for instance. Such drugs have benefited millions of people, improving or extending their lives. Patent protection enables drug companies to recoup their development costs because, for a specific period of time, they have the sole right to manufacture and distribute the products they have invented."<ref>{{harvnb|Hamowy|Kuznicki|Steelman|2008|p=249}}</ref> The court cases by 39 pharmaceutical companies against [[South Africa]]'s 1997 Medicines and Related Substances Control Amendment Act, which intended to provide affordable HIV medicines, have been cited as a harmful effect of patents.<ref>[http://academic.udayton.edu/Health/06world/africa01.htm The South African Medicines and Related Substances Control Amendment Bill and TRIPS] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110807080930/http://academic.udayton.edu/Health/06world/africa01.htm |date=2011-08-07 }}. Academic.udayton.edu. Retrieved on 2010-09-02.</ref><ref>Orsi, F., Camara, M., & Coriat, B. (2006). AIDS, TRIPS and 'TRIPS plus': the case for developing and less developed countries. {{harvnb|Andersen|2006|pp=70–108}}</ref><!-- Isn't the ethical issue not the existence of patents, but the misuse of them in the above circumstance? -->

One attack on IPR is moral rather than utilitarian, claiming that inventions are mostly a collective, cumulative, path-dependent, social creation and therefore, no one person or firm should be able to monopolize them even for a limited period.<ref>{{harvnb|Andersen|2006|pp=109–147}}</ref> The opposing argument is that the benefits of innovation arrive sooner when patents encourage innovators and their investors to increase their commitments.

Roderick T. Long, a [[libertarianism|libertarian]] philosopher, argued:

{{Blockquote|Ethically, property rights of any kind have to be justified as extensions of the right of individuals to control their own lives. Thus, any alleged property rights that conflict with this moral basis—like the "right" to own slaves—are invalidated. In my judgment, intellectual property rights also fail to pass this test. To enforce copyright laws and the like is to prevent people from making peaceful use of the information they possess. If you have acquired the information legitimately (say, by buying a book), then on what grounds can you be prevented from using it, reproducing it, or trading it? Is this not a violation of the freedom of speech and the press? It may be objected that the person who originated the information deserves ownership rights over it. But information is not a concrete thing an individual can control; it is universal, existing in other people's minds and other people's property, and over these, the originator has no legitimate sovereignty. You cannot own information without owning other people.<ref>Roderick Long in {{harvnb|Hamowy|Kuznicki|Steelman|2008|pp=249–250}}</ref>}}

Machlup concluded that patents do not have the intended effect of enhancing innovation.<ref>Machlup, F. (1958). An Economic Review of the Patent System. Washington D.C.: US Government Printing Office, p. 80. Expressing similar concern Fritz Machlup wrote, "It would be irresponsible, on the basis of our present knowledge of its economic consequences, to recommend instituting [a patent system]."</ref> Self-declared [[anarchist]] [[Pierre-Joseph Proudhon|Proudhon]], in his 1847 seminal work, noted, "Monopoly is the natural opposite of competition," and continued, "Competition is the vital force which animates the collective being: to destroy it, if such a supposition were possible, would be to kill society."<ref>Proudhon (1847), [http://www.marxists.org/reference/subject/economics/proudhon/philosophy/ch06.htm Chapter Virgin Islands] in The Philosophy of Poverty.</ref><ref>The [[Sherman Antitrust Act|Sherman Act]] of 1890, was passed in America to stop rampant cartelization and monopolization in the American economy, followed by the [[Clayton Antitrust Act|Clayton Act]] of 1914, [[Federal Trade Commission Act]] of 1914,[https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/15/usc_sup_01_15_10_2_20_I.html] and the [[Robinson-Patman Act|Anti-Price Discrimination Act]] of 1936. In recent years, "[[antitrust]]" enforcement is alleged to have reduced competition. E.g., "antitrust is anticompetitive" writes Boudreaux Antitrust.{{harvnb|Hamowy|Kuznicki|Steelman|2008|pp=16}}</ref>

Mindeli and Pipiya argued that the [[knowledge economy]] is an economy of abundance<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Mindeli|first1=L. E.|last2=Pipiya|first2=L. K.|title=Conceptual aspects of formation of a knowledge-based economy|journal=Studies on Russian Economic Development|volume=18|page=314|year=2007|doi=10.1134/S1075700707030100|issue=3|s2cid=154185640}}</ref> because it relies on the "infinite potential" of knowledge and ideas rather than on the limited resources of natural resources, labor and capital. Allison envisioned an egalitarian distribution of knowledge.<ref>{{Cite book|author=R. Allison |date=30 December 2005| chapter= The Birth of Spiritual Economics|editor = L. Zsolnai | title= Spirituality and Ethics in Management|series=Issues in Business Ethics| volume= 19| pages= 61–74| location= New York| publisher= Springer |issn = 0925-6733 | isbn=978-1-4020-2365-1 }}</ref>  Kinsella claimed that IPR create artificial scarcity and reduce equality.<ref>Kinsella, S. (2008). [https://books.google.com/books?id=og0OkSwUnUQC&pg=PA32 Against Intellectual Property]. Alabama: Ludwig von Mises Institute. Kinsella writes, "Ideas are not naturally scarce. However, by recognizing a right in an ideal object, one creates scarcity where none existed before" p. 33.</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Andersen|2006|p=125}}</ref><ref>David, P. (2001, 22–23 January). Will Building 'Good Fences' Really Make 'Good Neighbours'. Paper presented at the Science, report to European Commission (DG-Research) STRATA-ETAN workshop on IPR aspects of internal collaborations, Brussels.</ref> Bouckaert wrote, "Natural scarcity is that which follows from the relationship between man and nature. Scarcity is natural when it is possible to conceive of it before any human, institutional, or contractual arrangement. Artificial scarcity, on the other hand, is the outcome of such arrangements. Artificial scarcity can hardly serve as a justification for the legal framework that causes that scarcity. Such an argument would be completely circular. On the contrary, artificial scarcity itself needs a justification".<ref>Bouckaert, B (1990). "What is Property?" In "Symposium: Intellectual Property." Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy 13(3) p. 793</ref> Corporations fund much IP creation and can acquire IP they do not create,<ref>Macmillan, F. (2006). Public interest and the public domain in an era of corporate dominance. {{harvnb|Andersen|2006|pp=46–69}}</ref> to which Menon and others have objected.<ref>{{harvnb|Drahos|Braithwaite|2002}}</ref> Andersen claims that IPR has increasingly become an instrument in eroding the public domain.<ref>{{harvnb|Andersen|2006|pp=63}}</ref>

Ethical and legal issues include [[patent infringement]], [[copyright infringement]], [[trademark infringement]], [[patent misuse|patent]] and [[copyright misuse]], [[submarine patent]]s, [[biological patent]]s, [[patent troll|patent]], [[copyright troll|copyright]] and [[trademark troll]]ing, [[employee raiding]] and monopolizing talent, [[bioprospecting]], [[biopiracy]] and [[industrial espionage]], and [[digital rights management]].

Notable IP copyright cases include ''[[A&M Records, Inc. v. Napster, Inc.]]'', ''[[Eldred v. Ashcroft]]'', and [[Disney]]'s lawsuit against the [[Air Pirates]].

==International issues==
While business ethics emerged as a field in the 1970s, international business ethics did not emerge until the late 1990s, looking back on the international developments of that decade.<ref>{{cite book|first=Georges|last=Enderle|year=1999|title=International Business Ethics|page=1|publisher=[[University of Notre Dame Press]]|isbn=0-268-01214-8}}</ref> Many new practical issues arose out of the international context of business. Theoretical issues such as the cultural relativity of ethical values receive more emphasis in this field. Other, older issues can be grouped here as well. Issues and subfields include:

*The search for universal values as a basis for international commercial behavior
*Comparison of business ethical traditions in different countries and on the basis of their respective GDP and corruption rankings
*Comparison of business ethical traditions from various religious perspectives
*Ethical issues arising out of international business transactions—e.g., [[bioprospecting]] and biopiracy in the pharmaceutical industry; the [[fair trade]] movement; [[transfer pricing]].
*Issues such as [[globalization]] and [[cultural imperialism]]
*Varying global standards—e.g., the use of [[child labor]]
*The way in which multinationals take advantage of international differences, such as outsourcing production (e.g. clothes) and services (e.g. call centers) to low-wage countries
*The permissibility of international commerce with pariah states

Foreign countries often use dumping as a competitive threat, selling products at prices lower than their normal value. This can lead to problems in domestic markets, as it becomes difficult for them to compete with the pricing set by foreign markets. In 2009, the International Trade Commission conducted research on anti-dumping laws. Dumping is often seen as an ethical issue, as larger companies take advantage of other, less economically advanced companies.

==Issues==
Ethical issues often arise in business settings, whether through business transactions or forming new business relationships. It also has a huge focus in the auditing field, whereby the type of verification can be directly dictated by ethical theory. An [[Ethics|ethical issue]] in a business atmosphere may refer to any situation that requires business associates as individuals, or as a group (for example, a department or firm) to evaluate the [[morality]] of specific actions, and subsequently, make a decision among the choices. Some ethical issues of particular concern in today's evolving business market include such topics as [[honesty]], [[integrity]], professional behaviors, [[environmental issue]]s, [[harassment]], and [[fraud]], to name a few. From a 2009 National Business Ethics survey, it was found that types of employee-observed ethical misconduct included abusive behavior (at a rate of 22 percent), [[discrimination]] (at a rate of 14 percent), improper hiring practices (at a rate of 10 percent), and company resource abuse (at a rate of percent).<ref>{{Cite book|title=Business Ethics: Ethical Decision Making and Cases|last=Ferrell|first=Linda|publisher=South-Western Cengage Learning|year=2013|isbn=978-1-111-82516-4|location=Mason, Ohio|pages=61–65}}</ref>

The ethical issues associated with honesty are widespread and vary greatly in business, from the misuse of company time or resources to lying with malicious intent, engaging in [[bribery]], or creating conflicts of interest within an organization. Honesty encompasses the truthful speech and actions of an individual wholly. Some cultures and belief systems even consider honesty to be an essential pillar of life, such as Confucianism and Buddhism (referred to as [[Sacca (Buddhism)|sacca]], part of the [[Four Noble Truths]]). Many employees lie in order to reach goals, avoid assignments or negative issues; however, sacrificing honesty in order to gain status or reap rewards poses potential problems for the overall ethical culture organization, and jeopardizes organizational goals in the long run. Using company time or resources for personal use is also commonly viewed as unethical because it boils down to stealing from the company. The misuse of resources costs companies billions of dollars each year, averaging about 4.25 hours per week of stolen time alone, and employees' abuse of Internet services is another main concern.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|title=Business Ethics: Ethical Decision Making and Cases|last1=Ferrell|first1=O.C.|last2=Fraedrich|first2=John|last3=Ferrell|first3=Linda|publisher=Cengage Learning|year=2015|location=Canada|pages=66, 70}}</ref> Bribery, on the other hand, is not only considered unethical in business practices, but it is also illegal. In accordance with this, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act was established in 1977 to deter international businesses from giving or receiving unwarranted payments and gifts that were intended to influence the decisions of executives and political officials.<ref>{{Cite book|title=International Marketing: Managing Across Borders and Cultures|last=Deresky|first=Helen|publisher=Pearson Education|year=2017|isbn=9780134376042|location=Hoboken|pages=58}}</ref> Although small payments known as [[Facilitating payment|facilitation payments]] will not be considered unlawful under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act if they are used towards regular public governance activities, such as permits or licenses.<ref name=":0"/>

==Influential factors on business ethics==
Many aspects of the work environment influence an individual's decision-making regarding ethics in the business world. When an individual is on the path of growing a company, many outside influences can pressure them to perform a certain way. The core of a person's performance in the workplace is rooted in their personal code of behavior. A person's personal code of ethics encompasses many different qualities such as integrity, honesty, communication, respect, compassion, and common goals. In addition, the ethical standards set forth by a person's superior(s) often translate into their own code of ethics. The company's policy is the 'umbrella' of ethics that plays a major role in the personal development and decision-making processes that people make with respect to ethical behavior.

National economic conditions often shape corporate ethics. In environments marked by high poverty, large corporations may continue to expand, while smaller firms face significant survival challenges. This pressure can lead leadership to explore unconventional or unethical avenues to secure business opportunities. Similarly, social media has become a primary influence on ethical standards. The constant flow of information and public opinion can pressure individuals to conform to perceived norms. Consequently, fast-moving digital trends and the drive for instant engagement can alter how people evaluate moral and professional decisions.

==Economic systems==
[[Political economy]] and [[political philosophy]] have ethical implications, particularly regarding the distribution of economic benefits.<ref>{{cite book|first=Richard de|last=George|year=1999|title=Business Ethics|publisher=Chapman & Hall |isbn=0-412-46080-7}}</ref> [[John Rawls]] and [[Robert Nozick]] are both notable contributors. For example, Rawls has been interpreted as offering a critique of [[offshore outsourcing]] on social contract grounds.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Friedland |first=Julian |date=2005 |title=The utility of offshoring: a Rawlsian critique |journal=Electronic Journal of Business Ethics and Organization Studies |volume=10 |issue=1 |pages=9–13 |url=https://philarchive.org/archive/FRITUO-3v1}}</ref>

==Law and regulation==
[[Law]]s are the written statutes, codes, and opinions of government organizations by which citizens, businesses, and persons present within a jurisdiction are expected to govern themselves or face legal sanction. Sanctions for [[law violation|violating]] the law can include (a) [[civil penalties]], such as fines, pecuniary damages, and loss of licenses, property, rights, or privileges; (b) criminal penalties, such as fines, probation, imprisonment, or a combination thereof; or (c) both civil and criminal penalties.

Very often, it is held that business is not bound by any ethics other than abiding by the law. [[Milton Friedman]] is the pioneer of the view. He held that corporations have the obligation to make a profit within the framework of the legal system, nothing more.<ref>{{harvnb|Machan|2007}}; {{harvnb|Frederic|2002|pp=88}}</ref> Friedman made it explicit that the duty of the business leaders is "to make as much money as possible while conforming to the basic rules of the society, both those embodied in the law and those embodied in ethical custom".<ref name=f1970>Friedman, M. (1970). [http://www.oppapers.com/essays/The-Social-Responsibility-Of-Business-Is/317417 "The Social Responsibility of Business is to Increase Profit"] {{webarchive|url=https://archive.today/20130130190539/http://www.oppapers.com/essays/The-Social-Responsibility-Of-Business-Is/317417 |date=2013-01-30 }}, ''The New York Times Magazine''.</ref> Ethics for Friedman is nothing more than abiding by customs and laws. The reduction of ethics to abidance to laws and customs, however, has drawn serious criticisms.

Counter to Friedman's logic, it is observed that legal procedures are technocratic, bureaucratic, rigid and obligatory whereas ethical act is conscientious, voluntary choice beyond normativity.<ref name=ag43>Agamben, G. (1993) [https://books.google.com/books?id=6ekx1dg4nSgC&pg=PT43 The Coming Community], trans. Michael Hardt. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, p. 43 {{ISBN|0-8166-2235-3}}</ref> Law is retroactive. Crime precedes law. For Law against crime to be passed, the crime must have happened. Laws are blind to the crimes undefined in them.<ref>{{harvnb|Hasnas|2005|pp=15–18}}</ref> Further, as per law, "[[Impossibility defense|conduct is not criminal unless forbidden by law which gives advance warning that such conduct is criminal]]".<ref>[http://cases.justia.com/us-court-of-appeals/F2/908/443/168897/ United States of America, Plaintiff-appellee, v. Kristine D. Vasarajs, Defendant-appellant—908 F.2d 443—Justia US Court of Appeals Cases and Opinions]. Cases.justia.com. Retrieved on 2010-09-02.</ref> Also, the law presumes the accused is innocent until proven guilty and that the state must establish the guilt of the accused beyond a reasonable doubt. As per liberal laws followed in most of the democracies, until the government prosecutor proves the firm guilty with the limited resources available to her, the accused is considered to be innocent. Though the liberal premises of law are necessary to protect individuals from being persecuted by the government, it is not a sufficient mechanism to make firms morally accountable.<ref>{{Cite journal|doi=10.1086/228750|author=Coleman, J. W.|year=1987|title=Toward an Integrated Theory of White-Collar Crime|journal= American Journal of Sociology|volume=93|pages=406–439|jstor=2779590|issue=2|s2cid=146787581}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|doi=10.2307/2095761|author=Shapiro, B.|year=1995|title=Collaring the Crime, not the Criminal: Reconsidering the Concept of White-collar Crime|journal=American Sociological Review |volume=55|issue=3|pages=346–65|jstor=2095761}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|author=Enker, A. N.|title=Impossibility in Criminal Attempts—Legality and the Legal Process|year=1969|url=http://heinonline.org/HOL/LandingPage?collection=journals&handle=hein.journals/mnlr53&div=40&id=&page=|journal=Minnesota Law Review|volume=53|page=665}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|doi=10.2307/1288201|author=Coffee, J. C. J.|year=1981|title="No Soul to Damn: No Body to Kick": An Unscandalized Inquiry into the Problem of Corporate Punishment|journal=Michigan Law Review|volume=79|issue=3|pages=386–459|jstor=1288201|url=https://repository.law.umich.edu/mlr/vol79/iss3/7}}</ref>

==Implementation==
===Corporate policies===
{{See also|Corporate governance}}
{{More citations needed section|date=March 2025}}

As part of more comprehensive compliance and ethics programs, many companies{{Who|date=March 2021}} have formulated internal policies pertaining to the ethical conduct of employees. These policies can be simple exhortations in broad, highly generalized language (typically called a corporate ethics statement), or they can be more detailed policies, containing specific behavioral requirements (typically called corporate ethics codes). They are generally meant{{by whom|date=March 2021}} to identify the company's expectations of workers and to offer guidance on handling some of the more common ethical problems that might arise in the course of doing business. It is hoped{{by whom|date=March 2021}} that having such a policy will lead to greater ethical awareness, consistency in application, and the avoidance of ethical disasters.

An increasing number of companies{{Who|date=November 2017}} also require employees to attend seminars regarding business conduct, which often include discussion of the company's policies, specific case studies, and legal requirements. Some companies{{Who|date=March 2021}} even require their employees to sign agreements stating that they will abide by the company's rules of conduct.

Many companies{{Who|date=November 2017}} are assessing the environmental factors that can lead employees to engage in unethical conduct. A competitive business environment may call for unethical behavior. Lying has become expected in fields such as trading. An example of this is the issues surrounding the unethical actions of the [[Salomon Brothers]].

Not everyone{{Who|date=November 2017}} supports corporate policies that govern ethical conduct. Some claim that ethical problems are better dealt with by depending upon employees to use their own judgment.

Others{{Who|date=November 2017}} believe that corporate ethics policies are primarily rooted in utilitarian concerns and that they are mainly to limit the company's legal liability or to curry public favor by giving the appearance of being a good corporate citizen. Ideally, the company will avoid a lawsuit because its employees will follow the rules. Should a lawsuit occur, the company can claim that the problem would not have arisen if the employee had only followed the code properly.

Some corporations{{Who|date=March 2021}} have tried to burnish their ethical image by creating whistle-blower protections, such as anonymity. In the case of [[Citigroup|Citi]], they call this the Ethics Hotline.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Citi {{!}} Investor Relations {{!}} Ethics Hotline|url=https://www.citigroup.com/citi/investor/ethics_hotline.html|access-date=2020-06-15|website=www.citigroup.com}}</ref> Though it is unclear whether firms such as Citi take offences reported to these hotlines seriously or not. Sometimes there is a disconnection between the company's code of ethics and the company's actual practices{{Who|date=November 2017}}. Thus, whether or not such conduct is explicitly sanctioned by management, at worst, this makes the policy duplicitous, and, at best, it is merely a marketing tool.

Jones and Parker wrote, "Most of what we read under the name business ethics is either sentimental common sense or a set of excuses for being unpleasant."<ref>{{harvnb|Jones, Parker, et al.|2005}}</ref> Many manuals are procedural form-filling exercises, unconcerned about the real ethical dilemmas. For instance, the US Department of Commerce ethics program treats business ethics as a set of instructions and procedures to be followed by 'ethics officers'.<ref name=program/> Some others claim that being ethical is just for the sake of being ethical.<ref>{{harvnb|Jones, Parker, et al.|2005|pp=3–8}}</ref> Business ethicists may trivialize the subject, offering standard answers that do not reflect the situation's complexity.<ref name=ag43/>

Richard DeGeorge wrote in regard to the importance of maintaining a corporate code:

{{Blockquote|Corporate codes have certain usefulness and there are several advantages to developing them. First, the very exercise of doing so in itself is worthwhile, especially if it forces a large number of people in the firm to think through, in a fresh way, their mission and the important obligations they as a group and as individuals have to the firm, to each other, to their clients and customers, and to society as a whole. Second, once adopted, a code can be used to generate continuing discussion and possible modification to the code. Third, it could help to inculcate in new employees at all levels the perspective of responsibility, the need to think in moral terms about their actions, and the importance of developing the [[virtue]]s appropriate to their position.<ref>{{cite book|last=DeGeorge|first=Richard|title=Business Ethics|publisher=Prentice Hall|pages=207–208}}</ref>}}

Ethics codes often state a company's view on [[Diversity, equity, and inclusion|DEI]] (diversity, equity, inclusivity).<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Ethics of DEI: Cultivating a Positive Workplace |url=https://www.icpas.org/information/copy-desk/insight/article/fall-2023/the-ethics-of-dei-cultivating-a-positive-workplace |access-date=2025-02-27 |website=www.icpas.org}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |first= |title=Examining Professionalism through a DEI Lens |url=https://naceweb.org/diversity-equity-and-inclusion/best-practices/examining-professionalism-through-a-dei-lens/}}</ref> In 2025, some companies began changing their ethics policies to reduce the focus on DEI,<ref>{{Cite web |last=Clarence-Smith |first=Louisa |date=2025-01-28 |title=DEI is not over, but it will have to be reinvented |url=https://www.thetimes.com/business-money/companies/article/dei-is-not-over-but-it-will-have-to-be-reinvented-s6gfhn0gt?region=global |access-date=2025-02-27 |website=www.thetimes.com |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite magazine |last=Jeyaretnam |first=Miranda |date=2025-02-26 |title=These Companies Aren't Ditching DEI |url=https://time.com/7261857/us-companies-keep-dei-initiatives-list-trump-diversity-order-crackdown/ |access-date=2025-02-27 |magazine=TIME |language=en |archive-date=2025-02-26 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250226195812/https://time.com/7261857/us-companies-keep-dei-initiatives-list-trump-diversity-order-crackdown/ |url-status=dead }}</ref> and some companies have decided to completely eliminate DEI from their policies.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Franey |first=James |date=2025-02-26 |title=BlackRock, Bank of America drop DEI policies amid White House's war on 'woke' |url=https://nypost.com/2025/02/26/business/blackrock-bank-of-america-drop-dei-policies-amid-white-houses-war-on-woke/ |access-date=2025-02-27 |language=en-US}}</ref>

===Ethics officers===
Following a series of fraud, corruption, and abuse scandals that affected the United States defense industry in the mid-1980s, the Defense Industry Initiative (DII) was created to promote ethical business practices and ethics management in multiple industries. Subsequent to these scandals, many organizations began appointing ethics officers (also referred to as "compliance" officers). In 1991, the Ethics & Compliance Officer Association —originally the Ethics Officer Association (EOA)—was founded at the Center for Business Ethics at [[Bentley University]] as a professional association for ethics and compliance officers.<ref>{{cite book|title=Business ethics : ethical decision making and cases|last1=Fraedrich|first1=John|last2=Ferrell|first2=Linda|last3=Ferrell|first3=O.C.|isbn=978-1305500846|pages=11–13|oclc=937450119|date = January 2016|publisher=Cengage Learning }}</ref>

The 1991 passing of the Federal Sentencing Guidelines for Organizations in 1991 was another factor in many companies appointing ethics/compliance officers. These guidelines, intended to assist judges with sentencing, set standards organizations must follow to obtain a reduction in sentence if they are convicted of a federal offense.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Business ethics : ethical decision making and cases|last1=Fraedrich|first1=John|last2=Ferrell|first2=Linda|last3=Ferrell|first3=O.C.|isbn=978-1305500846|pages=12–16|oclc=937450119|date = January 2016|publisher=Cengage Learning }}</ref>

Following the high-profile corporate scandals of companies like [[Enron]], [[WorldCom]] and [[Tyco International|Tyco]] between 2001 and 2004, and following the passage of the [[Sarbanes–Oxley Act]], many small and mid-sized companies also began to appoint ethics officers.<ref>{{cite book|title=Business ethics : ethical decision making and cases|last1=Fraedrich|first1=John|last2=Ferrell|first2=Linda|last3=Ferrell|first3=O.C.|isbn=978-1305500846|pages=12–14|oclc=937450119|date = January 2016|publisher=Cengage Learning }}</ref>

Often reporting to the chief executive officer, ethics officers focus on uncovering or preventing unethical and illegal actions. This is accomplished by assessing the ethical implications of the company's activities, making recommendations on ethical policies, and disseminating information to employees.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Business ethics : ethical decision making and cases|last1=Fraedrich|first1=John|last2=Ferrell|first2=Linda|last3=Ferrell|first3=O.C.|isbn=978-1305500846|pages=228–229|oclc=937450119|date = January 2016|publisher=Cengage Learning }}</ref>

The effectiveness of ethics officers is not clear. The establishment of an ethics officer position is likely to be insufficient in driving ethical business practices without a [[Organizational culture|corporate culture]] that values ethical behavior. These values and behaviors should be consistently and systemically supported by those at the top of the organization.<ref>"Business Ethics: Ethical Decision making and Cases", Ferrell Fredrich and Ferrell.</ref> Employees with strong community involvement, loyalty to employers, superiors or owners, smart work practices, and trust among the team members do inculcate a corporate culture.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://bba12.weebly.com/uploads/9/4/2/8/9428277/9781133816300.pdf |title=Business Ethics |access-date=2016-09-14 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161221053014/http://bba12.weebly.com/uploads/9/4/2/8/9428277/9781133816300.pdf |archive-date=2016-12-21 |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>"Business Ethics: Ethical Decision making and cases", 9e, Ferrell Friedrich, Ferrell.</ref>

===Sustainability initiatives===
Many [[strategic management|corporate and business strategies]] now include [[sustainability]]. In addition to the traditional environmental 'green' sustainability concerns, business ethics practices have expanded to include [[social sustainability]]. Social sustainability focuses on issues related to [[human capital]] in the business supply chain, such as [[worker's rights|workers' rights]], working conditions, [[Child labour|child labor]], and [[human trafficking]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://sftool.gov/plan/545/social-sustainability|title=Social Sustainability – GSA Sustainable Facilities Tool|website=sftool.gov|publisher=U.S. [[General Services Administration]]|access-date=2016-03-11}}</ref> Incorporation of these considerations is increasing, as consumers and procurement officials demand documentation of a business's compliance with national and international initiatives, guidelines, and standards.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://sftool.gov/plan/546/responsible-business-initiatives-guidelines-standards|title=Responsible Business Initiatives, Guidelines, and Standards – GSA Sustainable Facilities Tool|website=sftool.gov|publisher=U.S. [[General Services Administration]]|access-date=2016-03-11|archive-date=2017-10-12|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171012094924/https://sftool.gov/plan/546/responsible-business-initiatives-guidelines-standards|url-status=dead}}</ref> Many industries have organizations dedicated to verifying ethical delivery of products from start to finish,<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://sftool.gov/plan/541/verifying-delivery-sustainable-products-services|title=Verifying Delivery of Sustainable Products and Services – GSA Sustainable Facilities Tool|website=sftool.gov|publisher=U.S. [[General Services Administration]]|access-date=2016-03-11|archive-date=2019-04-20|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190420072356/https://sftool.gov/plan/541/verifying-delivery-sustainable-products-services|url-status=dead}}</ref> such as the [[Kimberley Process Certification Scheme|Kimberly Process]], which aims to stop the flow of conflict diamonds into international markets, or the [[Fair Wear Foundation]], dedicated to sustainability and fairness in the garment industry.

Initiatives in sustainability encompass "green" topics, as well as social sustainability. Tao ''et al''. refer to a variety of "green" business practices, including green strategy, green design, green production and green operation.<ref>Tao, Z., A. L. Guiffrida, and M. D. Troutt, "A green cost based economic production/order quantity model", in ''Proceedings of the 1st Annual Kent State International Symposium on Green Supply Chains'', Canton, Ohio, US, 29–30 July 2010</ref> There are however, many different ways in which sustainability initiatives can be implemented by a company.

====Improving operations====
An organization can implement sustainability initiatives by improving its operations and manufacturing processes so as to make it more aligned with environmental, social, and governance issues. Johnson & Johnson incorporates policies from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, applying these principles not only for members of its supply chain but also to its internal operations. Walmart has made commitments to doubling its truck fleet efficiency by 2015 by replacing 2/3rds of its fleet with more fuel-efficient trucks, including hybrids. Dell has integrated alternative, recycled, and recyclable materials in its products and packaging design, improving energy efficiency and design for end-of-life and recyclability. Dell plans to reduce the energy intensity of its product portfolio by 80% by 2020.<ref name="theguardian.com">{{Cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/blog/best-practices-sustainability-us-corporations-ceres|title=Best practices in sustainability: Ford, Starbucks and more|last=Confino|first=Jo|date=2014-04-30|work=The Guardian|access-date=2019-08-12|language=en-GB|issn=0261-3077}}</ref>

====Board leadership====
The board of a company can decide to lower executive compensation by a given percentage, and give the percentage of compensation to a specific cause. This is an effort which can only be implemented from the top, as it will affect the compensation of all executives in the company. In Alcoa, an aluminum company based in the US, "1/5th of executive cash compensation is tied to safety, diversity, and environmental stewardship, which includes greenhouse gas emission reductions and energy efficiency" (Best Practices). This is not usually the case for most companies, where we see the board take a uniform step towards the environment, social, and governance issues. This is only the case for companies that are directly linked to utilities, energy, or material industries, something which Alcoa as an aluminum company, falls in line with. Instead, formal committees focused on the environment, social, and governance issues are more usually seen in governance committees and audit committees, rather than the board of directors. "According to research analysis done by Pearl Meyer in support of the NACD 2017 Director Compensation Report shows that among 1,400 public companies reviewed, only slightly more than five percent of boards have a designated committee to address ESG issues." (How compensation can).<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.pearlmeyer.com/knowledge-share/article/how-compensation-can-support-improved-environmental-and-social-governance|title=How Compensation Can Support Improved Environmental and Social Governance|date=2017-03-30|website=Pearl Meyer|language=en|access-date=2019-08-12}}</ref><ref name="theguardian.com"/>

====Management accountability====
Similar to board leadership, creating steering committees and other types of committees specialized for sustainability, senior executives are identified who are held accountable for meeting and constantly improving sustainability goals.<ref name="theguardian.com"/>

====Executive compensation====
Introducing bonus schemes that reward executives for meeting non-financial performance, goals including safety targets, [[greenhouse gas emissions]], reduction targets, and goals engaging stakeholders to help shape the company's public policy positions. Companies such as Exelon have implemented policies like this.<ref name="theguardian.com"/>

====Stakeholder engagement====
Other companies will keep sustainability within their strategy and goals, presenting findings at shareholder meetings, and actively tracking metrics on sustainability. Companies such as PepsiCo, Heineken, and FIFCO{{clarify|What is FIFCO? Please also replace this jargon acronym with the full term the other times it appears in the article|date=April 2018}} take steps in this direction to implement sustainability initiatives. (Best Practices). Companies such as Coca-Cola have actively tried to improve their efficiency of water usage, hiring 3rd party auditors to evaluate their water management approach. FIFCO has also successfully led water-management initiatives.<ref name="theguardian.com"/>

====Employee engagement====
Implementation of sustainability projects through directly appealing to employees (typically through the human resource department) is another option for companies to implement sustainability. This involves integrating sustainability into the company culture, with hiring practices and employee training. General Electric is a company that is taking the lead in implementing initiatives in this manner. Bank of America directly engaged employees by implementing LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certified buildings, with a fifth of its building meeting these certifications.<ref name="theguardian.com"/>

====Supply chain management====
Establishing requirements for not only internal operations but also first-tier suppliers as well as second-tier suppliers to help drive environmental and social expectations further down the supply chain. Companies such as Starbucks, FIFCO and Ford Motor Company have implemented requirements that suppliers must meet to win their business. Starbucks has led efforts in engaging suppliers and local communities where they operate to accelerate investment in sustainable farming. Starbucks set a goal of ethically sourcing 100% of its coffee beans by 2015.<ref name="theguardian.com"/>

====Transparency====
{{Main|Transparency (behavior)}}

By revealing decision-making data about how sustainability was reached, companies can give away insights that can help others across the industry and beyond make more sustainable decisions. Nike launched its "making app" in 2013, which released data about the sustainability of the materials it was using. This ultimately allows other companies to make more sustainable design decisions and create lower-impact products.<ref name="theguardian.com"/>

==Academic discipline==
As an academic discipline, business ethics emerged in the 1970s. Since no academic business ethics journals or conferences existed, researchers published in general management journals and attended general conferences. Over time, specialized peer-reviewed journals appeared, and more researchers entered the field. Corporate scandals in the early 2000s increased the field's popularity. As of 2009, sixteen academic journals devoted to various business ethics issues existed, with ''[[Journal of Business Ethics]]'' and ''[[Business Ethics Quarterly]]'' considered the leaders.<ref>{{cite journal|doi=10.1504/IJBGE.2009.023790|access-date=2009-10-21|url=https://www.aserenko.com/papers/IJBGE040405_PUBLISHED.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://www.aserenko.com/papers/IJBGE040405_PUBLISHED.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live|author1=Serenko, A.|author2=Bontis, N.|name-list-style=amp|year=2009|title=A citation-based ranking of the business ethics scholarly journals|journal=International Journal of Business Governance and Ethics|volume=4|issue=4|pages=390–399}}</ref> ''[[Journal of Business Ethics Education]]'' publishes articles specifically about education in business ethics.

The International Business Development Institute is a global non-profit organization that represents 217 nations and all 50 United States. It offers a Charter in Business Development that focuses on ethical business practices and standards. The Charter is directed by [[Harvard University]], [[Massachusetts Institute of Technology|MIT]], and [[Fulbright]] Scholars, and it includes graduate-level coursework in economics, politics, marketing, management, technology, and legal aspects of business development as it pertains to business ethics. IBDI also oversees the International Business Development Institute of Asia, which provides individuals living in 20 Asian nations the opportunity to earn the Charter.

==Religious views==
In [[Sharia]] law, followed by many [[Muslims]], [[Islamic banking|banking]] specifically prohibits charging interest on loans.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB1047142445698534480|title=For Devout Muslims, Interest Is Forbidden|last=Journal|first=Alex Frangos Staff Reporter of The Wall Street|date=2003-03-09|newspaper=Wall Street Journal|issn=0099-9660|access-date=2017-02-02}}</ref> Traditional [[Confucian]] thought discourages profit-seeking.<ref>Jonathan Chan{{cite web|url=http://www.stthom.edu/academics/centers/cbes/jonachan.html|title=Confucian Business Ethics and the Nature of Business Decisions|access-date=2006-10-09|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060427023145/http://www.stthom.edu/academics/centers/cbes/jonachan.html |archive-date=2006-04-27}}</ref>
According to the article "Theory of the real economy", there is a narrower point of view from the Christian faith towards the relationship between ethics and religious traditions. This article stresses how Christianity is capable of establishing reliable boundaries for financial institutions. One criticism comes from Pope Benedict who describes the "damaging effects of the real economy of badly managed and largely speculative financial dealing." It is mentioned that Christianity has the potential to transform the nature of finance and investment, but only if theologians and ethicists provide more evidence of what is real in the economic life.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Mcdaniel|first=Charles|title="Theology of the "Real Economy"|journal=Journal of Religion and Business Ethics|year=2011|volume=2|url=https://via.library.depaul.edu/jrbe/vol2/iss2/1}}</ref> Business ethics receives an extensive treatment in Jewish thought and [[Rabbinic literature]], both from an ethical (''[[Musar movement|Mussar]]'') and a legal (''[[Halakha]]'') perspective; see the article ''[[Jewish business ethics]]'' for further discussion. According to the article "Indian Philosophy and Business Ethics: A Review", by Chandrani Chattopadyay, Hindus follow "Dharma" as Business Ethics and unethical business practices are termed "Adharma". Businessmen are supposed to maintain steadiness, self-purification, non-violence, concentration, clarity and control over their senses. Books like the Bhagavat Gita{{citation needed|date=November 2019}} and the Arthashastra<ref>"Two Birds in a Tree: Timeless Indian Wisdom for Business Leaders," by Ram Nidumolu (Berrett-Koehler, 2013), Chapter 4: The Higher Reality of Business</ref> contribute a lot towards the conduct of ethical business.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://sandhill.com/article/four-stages-of-business-evolution-through-the-lens-of-ancient-indian-wisdom/|title=Four Stages of Business Evolution through the Lens of Ancient Indian Wisdom|date=February 19, 2014|access-date=April 15, 2018}}</ref>

==Related disciplines==
[[Business]] ethics is related to [[philosophy of economics]], the branch of the [[philosophy]] that deals with the philosophical, political, and [[ethics|ethical]] underpinnings of business and [[economics]].<ref>[[Christoph Luetge]] (ed.): Handbook of the Philosophical Foundations of Business Ethics. Heidelberg/New York: Springer 2013, {{ISBN|978-9400714953}}.</ref> Valon Lluka writes: "Business ethics operates on the premise, for example, that the ethical operation of a private business is possible—those who dispute that premise, such as [[libertarian socialist]]s (who contend that 'business ethics' is an [[oxymoron]]), do so by definition outside of the domain of business ethics proper."<ref>{{Cite web |last=Lluka |first=Valon |date=2010 |title=Business Ethics: Some Theoretical Issues |url=https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/26716/1/MPRA_paper_26716.pdf |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250209091713/https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/26716/1/MPRA_paper_26716.pdf |archive-date=2025-02-09 |access-date=2025-10-28 |website=mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de}}</ref>

The philosophy of economics also deals with questions such as what, if any, are the [[social responsibility|social responsibilities]] of a business; [[business management]] [[theory]]; theories of [[individualism]] vs. [[Collectivism and individualism|collectivism]]; [[free will]] among participants in the [[marketplace]]; the role of [[selfishness|self interest]]; [[invisible hand]] theories; the requirements of [[social justice]]; and [[natural rights]], especially [[property rights]], in relation to the business enterprise.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Svensson |first1=Göran |last2=Wood |first2=Greg |date=2008-02-01 |title=A Model of Business Ethics |url=https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-007-9351-2 |journal=Journal of Business Ethics |language=en |volume=77 |issue=3 |pages=303–322 |doi=10.1007/s10551-007-9351-2 |issn=1573-0697|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

Business ethics is also related to [[political economy]], which is an [[economic analysis]] from political and [[economic history|historical]] perspectives. Political economy deals with the distributive consequences of economic actions.

==See also==
{{div col|colwidth=15em}}
*{{annotated link|B Corporation (certification)}}
*{{annotated link|Business culture}}
*{{annotated link|Business law}}
*{{annotated link|Corporate behaviour}}
*{{annotated link|Corporate crime}}
*{{annotated link|Corporate social responsibility}}
*{{annotated link|Eastern ethics in business}}
*{{annotated link|Ethical altruism}} / [[Ethical egoism]]
*{{annotated link|Ethical code}}
*{{annotated link|Ethical consumerism}}
*{{annotated link|Ethical implications in contracts}}
*{{annotated link|Ethical job}}
*{{annotated link|Ethicism}}
*{{annotated link|Evil corporation}}
*{{annotated link|Moral psychology}}
*{{annotated link|Optimism bias}}
*{{annotated link|Organizational ethics}}
*{{annotated link|Penny stock scam}}
*{{annotated link|Philosophy and economics}}
*{{annotated link|Political corruption}}
*{{annotated link|Strategic misrepresentation}}
*{{annotated link|Strategic planning}}
*{{annotated link|Work ethic}}
**{{annotated link|Protestant work ethic}}
{{div col end}}

==Notes==
{{Reflist|30em}}

==References==
{{Refbegin|colwidth=30em}}

===General references===
*{{cite book|last=Andersen|first=B.|year=2006|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ydV68o_oMHEC|title=Intellectual property rights: innovation, governance and the institutional environment|publisher=Edward Elgar Publishing|isbn=1-84542-269-4}}
*{{cite book|last1=Boldrin|first1=M.|first2=D. K.|last2=Levine|year=2008|title=Against Intellectual Monopoly|location=Cambridge |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]]}}
*{{cite book|last=Cory|first=Jacques|title=Activist Business Ethics|location=Boston|publisher=Springer|isbn=0-387-22848-9|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=V-HO7Bn2T14C&pg=PA1|date=2004}}
*{{cite book|last1=Cullather|first1=N.|first2=P.|last2=Gleijeses|year=2006|url=https://archive.org/details/secrethistorycia00cull_0|url-access=registration|title=Secret History: The CIA's Classified Account of Its Operations in Guatemala, 1952–1954|location=California|publisher=Stanford University Press|isbn=0-8047-5468-3}}
*{{cite book|last=Davies|first=M.|year=2007|url=https://archive.org/details/propertymeanings0000davi|url-access=registration|title=Property: Meanings, histories, theories|location=Oxford|publisher=Routledge-Cavendish|isbn=978-0-415-42933-7}}
*{{cite book|last=Dobson|first=J.|year=1997|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PgpxdI6mpXMC|title=Finance Ethics: The Rationality of Virtue|location=New York|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.|isbn=0-8476-8402-4}}
*{{cite book|last1=Drahos|first1=P.|first2=J.|last2=Braithwaite|year=2002|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Pkl7HNzhXgoC|title=Information Feudalism: who owns the knowledge economy|location=London|publisher=Earthscan|isbn=1-85383-917-5}}
*{{cite book|last=Duska|first=R.|year=2007|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dANmdJHsqu0C&pg=PA1|title=Contemporary Reflections on Business Ethics|location=Boston|publisher=Springer|isbn=978-1-4020-4983-5}}
*{{cite book|last1=Elliott|first1=C.|last2=Turnbull|first2=S.|year=2005|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pA0PKmbhKaUC|title=Critical Thinking in Human Resource Development|pages=141–154|location=London|publisher=Routledge|isbn=0-415-32917-5}}{{Dead link|date=April 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}
*{{cite book|last=Frederic|first=R. E.|year=2002|title=A Companion to Business Ethics.|location=Massachusetts|publisher=Blackwell |isbn=1-4051-0102-4}}
*{{cite book|last1=Hasnas|first1=J.|year=2005|url=https://archive.org/details/trappedwhenactin0000hasn|url-access=registration|title=Trapped: When acting ethically is against the law| location=Washington DC| publisher=Cato Institute |isbn=1-930865-88-0}}
*{{cite book |editor-first=Ronald |editor-last=Hamowy |editor-link=Ronald Hamowy |title=The Encyclopedia of Libertarianism |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yxNgXs3TkJYC |year=2008 |publisher=[[SAGE Publishing|SAGE]]; [[Cato Institute]] |location=Thousand Oaks, California |doi=10.4135/9781412965811 |isbn=978-1-4129-6580-4 |oclc=750831024 |lccn=2008009151 |ref={{harvid|Hamowy|Kuznicki|Steelman|2008}} }}
*{{cite book|last1=Jones|first1=C.|first2=M.|last2=Parker|year=2005|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7CSKX2HdnikC|title=For Business Ethics: A Critical Text|location=London|publisher=Routledge|isbn=0-415-31135-7|ref={{harvid|Jones, Parker, ''et al.''|2005}}|display-authors=etal}}
*{{cite book|last=Machan|first=T. R.|author-link=Tibor R. Machan|year=2007|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FCyJo5t_CQEC|title=The Morality of Business: A Profession for Human Wealthcare|location=Boston|publisher=Springer|isbn=978-0-387-48906-3}}
*{{cite book|last=Meinhold|first=R.|year=2022|title=Business Ethics and Sustainability |edition= 1|location=New York, New York|publisher=Routledge}}
*{{cite book|last=Murphy|first=P. E.|year=2002|title=Marketing Ethics at the Millennium: Review, Reflections and Recommendations. Blackwell Guide to Business Ethics|location=N. E. Bowie. Oxford|publisher=Blackwell}}
*{{cite book|last=O'Neill|first=J.|year=1998|url=https://archive.org/details/marketethicsknow0000onei|url-access=registration|title=The Market: Ethics, Knowledge and Politics|location=London|publisher=Routledge|isbn=0-415-09827-0}}
*{{cite book|last1=Pinnington|first1=A. H.|last2=Macklin|first2=R.|last3=Campbell|first3=T.|year=2007|title=Human Resource Management: Ethics and Employment|location=Oxford|publisher=Oxford University Press|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eIrnyGAKp6UC|isbn=978-0-19-920379-6}}
*{{cite book|last=Robertson|first=L. G.|year=2005|url=https://archive.org/details/conquestbylawhow00robe_0|url-access=registration|title=Conquest by Law: How the Discovery of America Dispossessed Indigenous Peoples of Their Lands|location=Oxford|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=0-19-514869-X}}
*{{cite book|last=Rose|first=C. M.|year=1994|title=Property and Persuasion: Essays on the History, Theory, and Rhetoric of Ownership |location=Colorado|publisher=Westview Press|isbn=0-8133-8554-7}}
*{{cite book|last=Singer|first=J. W.|year=2000|title=Entitlement: The Paradoxes of Property|location=New Haven|publisher=[[Yale University Press]]|isbn=0-300-08019-0|url=https://archive.org/details/entitlement00jose}}
*{{cite book|last=Smith|first=Adam|url=https://archive.org/details/worksadamsmith00stewgoog|page=[https://archive.org/details/worksadamsmith00stewgoog/page/n395 369]|title=The Theory of Moral Sentiments|year=1759|location=Indianapolis|publisher=Liberty Press}}
{{Refend}}

==Further reading==
{{refbegin|30em}}
* {{cite book |last1=Ferrell |first1=O.C. |last2=Fraedrich |first2=John |last3=Ferrell |first3=Linda |title=Business Ethics: Ethical Decision Making and Cases |edition=13th |publisher=Cengage Learning |year=2023 |isbn=9798214043098 |postscript==Widely adopted textbook integrating ethical theory, decision‑making frameworks, and contemporary case studies; extensively cited in business school curricula.}}

* {{cite book |last=Weiss |first=J. W. |year=2009 |title=Business Ethics: A Stakeholder and Issues Management Approach With Cases |edition=5 |location=Mason, Ohio 
|isbn=9780324589733|publisher=South-Western Cengage Learning}}
* {{cite book |last=Eng |first=David |title=Public Policy: Why Ethics Matters |url=https://openresearchlibrary.org/content/9da3e80e-69e2-4d10-bec7-bee557a2283d |publisher=Australian Scholarly Publishing |year=2012 |isbn=9781921666759}}<!-- brought over from Requested Articles page -->
{{refend}}

{{Ethics}}
{{Aspects of corporations}}
{{Social accountability}}
{{subject bar|auto=y|d=y|Companies}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Business Ethics}}
[[Category:Business ethics| ]]
[[Category:Applied ethics]]
[[Category:Industrial and organizational psychology]]
[[Category:Ethics by topic]]