Cover of Business and Professional Ethics Journal
>> Go to Current Issue

Business and Professional Ethics Journal

Volume 33, Issue 4, 2014
ABIS Doctoral Summer School 2013

Table of Contents

Already a subscriber? - Login here
Not yet a subscriber? - Subscribe here

Browse by:



Displaying: 1-7 of 7 documents


articles

1. Business and Professional Ethics Journal: Volume > 33 > Issue: 4
Erik G. Hansen, Dimitar Zvezdov, Dorli Harms, Gilbert Lenssen

abstract | view |  rights & permissions | cited by
Environmental, social and ethical issues have become increasingly important for businesses due to changed customer expectations, more regulation and stakeholder pressure, amongst others. This led to the development of concepts such as sustainability management, corporate social responsibility (CSR), stakeholder management and business ethics. Though mostly developed in isolation, scholars have increasingly worked on their integration. This editorial sheds light on (missing) overlaps between these concepts. We find that sustainability management and CSR have become more integrated and are increasingly grounded in an “embedded view“ in which business and society is part of (and constrained by) the natural environment. In contrast, business ethics has not been integrated to the same extent, expect for the subfield of environmental ethics. After this general overview, we introduce the individual contributions to the special issue which are advancing the conceptual and empirical foundation of sustainability management, CSR, and business ethics.
2. Business and Professional Ethics Journal: Volume > 33 > Issue: 4
Pepe Strathoff

abstract | view |  rights & permissions | cited by
The basic idea of the conceptual paper is to discuss the notion of value creation in the business and society field and to present the public value concept as a way of extending the understanding of business’s value creation for society. First, the paper draws on the value balance accountability (VBA) model by Schwartz and Carroll, in which value creation is identified as a central element in the business and society field. Second, based on this, we critically evaluate the VBA model’s value notion, which appears to be relatively vague and narrow. Third, in order to tackle these gaps, we present Meynhardt’s public value approach, which provides an extended notion of value creation. We further propose a combined public value-balance-accountability-framework. Public value fills the framework’s value dimension with actual content and provides a microfoundation. It helps to overcome the separation fallacy. The combined framework contributes to both theory and practice in the business and society field.
3. Business and Professional Ethics Journal: Volume > 33 > Issue: 4
Igor Blumberg, Nick Lin-Hi

abstract | view |  rights & permissions | cited by
The business case for Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is a powerful driver for mainstreaming socially responsible behavior in corporate practice. This is because managers’ proclivity to assume responsibility is positively correlated with their expectations that CSR pays off. However, there is the danger that managers might be tempted to focus primarily on those CSR activities that allow to link the associated costs and benefits ex ante reliably which, in turn, is a precondition for a perceived business case. Unfortunately, the perceived business case for CSR activities that prevent irresponsible behavior (“avoiding bad”) is rather weak. In contrast, CSR in terms of the voluntary engagement for society (“doing good”) is quite promising for the perceived business case. In consequence, a business case–driven approach to CSR might foster “cherry picking” behavior, in the sense that managers might tend to reduce CSR to “doing good” and put less efforts on CSR in terms of “avoiding bad” which, in turn, increases the risk of irresponsible business practices.
4. Business and Professional Ethics Journal: Volume > 33 > Issue: 4
Marina Vashchenko

abstract | view |  rights & permissions | cited by
The conceptualization of CSR has been steadily establishing and evolving, and even after decades of research there is still no consensus regarding CSR definition and scope. In a world of multiple definitions and approaches, every company needs to find its own way and “translate” vague idea of CSR into company-specific and context-related CSR program. Three large Danish companies with the substantial experience in CSR were chosen in order to investigate their set of CSR activities and initiatives—“organizational CSR portfolio.” Their CSR related reports were qualitatively evaluated according to the categories which were suggested for each pillar of CSR concept—environmental, social and economic. The paper performs longitudinal study of organizational CSR portfolios which contributes to a better understanding of priorities in CSR field for different types of organizations and reveals changes in corporate CSR policies of leading companies over the last five years.
5. Business and Professional Ethics Journal: Volume > 33 > Issue: 4
Olga Dziubaniuk

abstract | view |  rights & permissions | cited by
Search engine marketing (SEM) industry provides modern on-line marketing services. This industry initially obtained a doubtful reputation in the sphere of e-commerce due to utilization of ethically questionable methods in the promotion or marketing their customers` web sites. This study considers the relationship building process and the trustfulness between the marketers and their business customers. Research aims are to explore how these virtual companies operate in unsteady-trust environment as the Internet market. The interviewed marketing-companies representatives have provided their perspectives on successful relationship maintenance including the impact of trust on the business performance. The results of the qualitative research illustrated that trust is a vital necessity for the stable business development. Investigation highlights that the trustful relationships depends on inter-personal communication and following the ethical principles of business management. Although digital business allows performing the activities on-line, interpersonal interaction remains the key element in the trustful relationship building.

6. Business and Professional Ethics Journal: Volume > 33 > Issue: 4

view |  rights & permissions | cited by

7. Business and Professional Ethics Journal: Volume > 33 > Issue: 4

view |  rights & permissions | cited by