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Contractarian Business Ethics: Current Status and Next Steps

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  • Dunfee, Thomas W.
  • Donaldson, Thomas

Abstract

Social contract is rapidly becoming one of the significant alternatives for analyzing ethical issues in business. Contractarian approaches emphasizing consent as a means of justifying principles can provide needed context for rendering normative judgements concerning economic behaviors. Current research issues include developing tests of consent for both hypothetical and extant social contracts, and empirically testing the assumptions of the major contractarian approaches. Open questions include exploring the relationship between contractarian business ethics and other approaches, such as stakeholder management and virtue based ethics; and analysis of the intersection of contractarian approaches with the findings and assumptions of the field of moral psychology. Finally, the managerial utility of social contract based approaches needs to be explored with emphasis on identifying “translator” concepts.

Suggested Citation

  • Dunfee, Thomas W. & Donaldson, Thomas, 1995. "Contractarian Business Ethics: Current Status and Next Steps," Business Ethics Quarterly, Cambridge University Press, vol. 5(2), pages 173-186, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:cup:buetqu:v:5:y:1995:i:02:p:173-186_01
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    Cited by:

    1. Frances Chua & Asheq Rahman, 2011. "Institutional Pressures and Ethical Reckoning by Business Corporations," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 98(2), pages 307-329, January.
    2. Bruce Barry & Mara Olekalns & Laura Rees, 2019. "An Ethical Analysis of Emotional Labor," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 160(1), pages 17-34, November.
    3. Ingo Pies & Markus Beckmann & Stefan Hielscher, 2010. "Value Creation, Management Competencies, and Global Corporate Citizenship: An Ordonomic Approach to Business Ethics in the Age of Globalization," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 94(2), pages 265-278, June.
    4. Johannes Jahn & Rolf Brühl, 2018. "How Friedman’s View on Individual Freedom Relates to Stakeholder Theory and Social Contract Theory," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 153(1), pages 41-52, November.
    5. Yafet Yosafet Wilben Rissy, 2021. "The stakeholder model: its relevance, concept, and application in the Indonesian banking sector," Journal of Banking Regulation, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 22(3), pages 219-231, September.
    6. Labrecque, Lauren I. & Markos, Ereni & Swani, Kunal & Peña, Priscilla, 2021. "When data security goes wrong: Examining the impact of stress, social contract violation, and data type on consumer coping responses following a data breach," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 135(C), pages 559-571.
    7. Bruce W. Klaw & Don Mayer, 2021. "Ethics, Markets, and the Legalization of Insider Trading," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 168(1), pages 55-70, January.
    8. Cristel Antonia Russell & Dale W. Russell & Heather Honea, 2016. "Corporate Social Responsibility Failures: How do Consumers Respond to Corporate Violations of Implied Social Contracts?," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 136(4), pages 759-773, July.
    9. Miguel Alzola, 2018. "Decent Work: The Moral Status of Labor in Human Resource Management," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 147(4), pages 835-853, February.
    10. Julia Roloff & Michael Aßländer, 2010. "Corporate Autonomy and Buyer–Supplier Relationships: The Case of Unsafe Mattel Toys," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 97(4), pages 517-534, December.
    11. Markus Beckmann & Stefan Hielscher & Ingo Pies, 2014. "Commitment Strategies for Sustainability: How Business Firms Can Transform Trade‐Offs Into Win–Win Outcomes," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 23(1), pages 18-37, January.
    12. Lu, Jun & Li, Wengui & Huang, Wei, 2024. "Corporate social responsibility and stock resilience to COVID-19: A contract theory perspective," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 89(PB), pages 12-29.
    13. Federico Ast, 2019. "The Deliberative Test, a New Procedural Method for Ethical Decision Making in Integrative Social Contracts Theory," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 155(1), pages 207-221, March.
    14. Ben Wempe, 2008. "Four Design Criteria for any Future Contractarian Theory of Business Ethics," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 81(3), pages 697-714, September.
    15. Katherina Glac & Tae Kim, 2009. "The “I” in ISCT: Normative and Empirical Facets of Integration," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 88(4), pages 693-705, October.
    16. Richard Marens, 2007. "Returning to Rawls: Social Contracting, Social Justice, and Transcending the Limitations of Locke," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 75(1), pages 63-76, September.
    17. Jeffery Thompson & David Hart, 2006. "Psychological Contracts: A Nano-Level Perspective on Social Contract Theory," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 68(3), pages 229-241, October.
    18. Degli Antoni, Giacomo & Sacconi, Lorenzo, 2013. "Social responsibility, activism and boycotting in a firm–stakeholders network of games with players’ conformist preferences," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 216-226.
    19. Jan Hanousek & Hoje Jo & Christos Pantzalis & Jung Chul Park, 2023. "A Dilemma of Self-interest vs. Ethical Responsibilities in Political Insider Trading," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 187(1), pages 137-167, September.
    20. Diana ANTONOVA & Bozhana STOYCHEVA & Svilen KUNEV & Irina KOSTADINOVA, 2018. "The Concept of Stakeholders in the Context of CSR (A Survey of Industrial Enterprises in Bulgaria)," Journal of Emerging Trends in Marketing and Management, The Bucharest University of Economic Studies, vol. 1(1), pages 115-128, November.
    21. Monica M. Sharif & Farshad Ghodoosi, 2022. "The Ethics of Blockchain in Organizations," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 178(4), pages 1009-1025, July.

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