This paper advances a virtue-theoretic reinterpretation of shareholder moral responsibility, proposing a shift from beneficence—an action-based duty to do good—toward benevolence, understood as a stable virtue of character. Engaging Santiago Mejia’s deontological account of shareholder discretion and latitude in discharging imperfect duties, it argues that such action-based models, while structurally clarifying, leave unexamined the moral quality of the agent herself. Drawing on Aristotelian concepts of phronēsis, aisthesis, and hexis, the paper contends that shareholders are genuine moral agents whose investment, voting, and engagement decisions shape and are shaped by their character. It introduces the notion of “vicious beneficence”—praiseworthy acts undertaken from vice, as in strategic philanthropy—to show why disposition, not merely outcome, matters morally. Rather than displacing deontology, the argument integrates the two frameworks: duty supplies structure, virtue supplies motivation and perception. Benevolence thus emerges as a foundational business virtue grounding capitalism’s moral legitimacy.
This article addresses epistemic injustices committed by micro-credit non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in rural Bangladesh, filling a gap in the micro-credit literature. While micro-credit is often praised for promoting positive social change, critics argue that the Bangladeshi model has failed to deliver its promised benefits. Existing research has identified various adverse effects of micro-credit practices, but little attention has been paid to their epistemic dimensions. Applying the philosophical theory of epistemic injustice, this study examines the epistemic concerns and harms caused by micro-credit NGOs in rural Bangladesh. It identifies instances of testimonial injustice, hermeneutical injustice, self-fulfilling testimonial injustice, and willful hermeneutical ignorance. The article further identifies five conditions that contribute to epistemic injustice in micro-credit lending: disadvantage, prejudice, stakeholder, epistemic, and social justice. It concludes by emphasizing the importance of recognizing and addressing these injustices to create more equitable micro-credit systems.
The paper investigates the ethical dimensions of selling AI-based financial products, using the example of the machine learning-driven hedge fund Tyndaris. It is the first study to examine the specific ethical challenges involved in marketing investment products built on advanced algorithms. The paper highlights the risk of AI washing and the erosion of informed consent, arguing that sales ethics must go beyond preventing misrepresentation to address knowledge limitations and uncertainties inherent to AI systems. Drawing on the concept of complex sales, it emphasizes the need for ongoing, transparent communication and the ethical duty to accompany clients throughout the product’s lifecycle. Finally, the paper proposes a two-phase model of sales ethics and outlines concrete steps for enhancing ethical and professional standards in the investment industry.
The purpose of this study was to investigate how power is abused through individual and collective mechanisms of state capture in Zambia. The study drew on the three-pronged theory to understand diverse mechanisms of state capture. Data collection relied on archival evidence and semi-structured interviews with stakeholders from institutions of accountability. Thematic analysis was used whereby data accounts that corresponded to each of the pillars in the theoretical framework were identified and designated to each theme. Findings highlight the prominence of legislative, policy, judicial, and political mechanisms that are utilised by influential actors to capture institutions of accountability. This study presents critical implications reiterating the challenging nature of accountability in the midst of captured government institutions. The study contributes to the literature by demonstrating both the discreet and the not so discreet mechanisms through which elites capture state institutions to achieve goals of a personal and corrupt nature.
This article investigates the relationship between the logics of gift and exchange within corporate giving. While prior research has extensively examined the foundations and coexistence of these logics, their interaction remains underexplored, particularly in the management literature. To address this gap, we conducted a single qualitative case study focusing on the role of a commercial banking institution, in the partnership between a foundation and the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI). Through an analysis of this corporate giving setting, we identify and explore five key processes: Assimilation, Adaptation, Assurance, Adjustment, and Advancement, which capture the dynamics between gift and exchange. Additionally, employing an inductive methodology, we propose two aggregate dimensions that depict the transformation of both logics as a result of their interplay: the generative gift and the humane exchange. Our findings contribute to a deeper understanding of the complex relationship between gift and exchange in organizational contexts, offering valuable insights for scholars and practitioners interested in the ethical dimensions of corporate giving.
This paper aims to examine the impact of public interest commitment, the attitude towards independence enforcement, and organizational ethical culture on auditors' ethical behavior. It also tests the moderating effect of gender diversity on these relationships. The sample consisted of 100 Tunisian chartered accountants. An online survey was used to collect the data. Results indicate that Tunisian auditors generally accept regulatory efforts aiming to improve their behavior through the rigorous application of independence rules. Furthermore, the organizational ethical culture within the audit firm influences the auditors' ethical decision-making, and the presence of women moderates the relationship between the public interest commitment, independence enforcement, and auditors' ethical behavior. This study provides new insights that add to the existing gender literature by introducing a North African perspective that highlights the importance of having women in audit firms which are particularly dominated by males.
At the heart of the ethics debate regarding healthcare service advertising is the erosion of the trust bestowed upon physicians by patients and society at large. However, no study has empirically examined the relationship between advertising and trust in the medical profession. The current study addresses this gap using a survey of adults in a U.S. state. Contrary to some ethicists' assertions, exposure to healthcare service advertisements resulted in higher trust via a more positive attitude toward healthcare service advertising. At the same time, exposure to healthcare service advertisements was related to lower trust via a more positive attitude toward physicians who advertise: The more advertisements consumers saw, the more they liked physicians who advertised, resulting in lower trust in the medical profession. The ethics of healthcare service advertising should be understood in a broader context of access to healthcare and patient-provider relationships.
The purpose of this study was to investigate how power is abused through individual and collective mechanisms of state capture in Zambia. The study drew on the three-pronged theory to understand diverse mechanisms of state capture. Data collection relied on archival evidence and semi-structured interviews with stakeholders from institutions of accountability. Thematic analysis was used whereby data accounts that corresponded to each of the pillars in the theoretical framework were identified and designated to each theme. Findings highlight the prominence of legislative, policy, judicial, and political mechanisms that are utilised by influential actors to capture institutions of accountability. This study presents critical implications reiterating the challenging nature of accountability in the midst of captured government institutions. The study contributes to the literature by demonstrating both the discreet and the not so discreet mechanisms through which elites capture state institutions to achieve goals of a personal and corrupt nature.
This article investigates the relationship between the logics of gift and exchange within corporate giving. While prior research has extensively examined the foundations and coexistence of these logics, their interaction remains underexplored, particularly in the management literature. To address this gap, we conducted a single qualitative case study focusing on the role of a commercial banking institution, in the partnership between a foundation and the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI). Through an analysis of this corporate giving setting, we identify and explore five key processes: Assimilation, Adaptation, Assurance, Adjustment, and Advancement, which capture the dynamics between gift and exchange. Additionally, employing an inductive methodology, we propose two aggregate dimensions that depict the transformation of both logics as a result of their interplay: the generative gift and the humane exchange. Our findings contribute to a deeper understanding of the complex relationship between gift and exchange in organizational contexts, offering valuable insights for scholars and practitioners interested in the ethical dimensions of corporate giving.
Digital technology is pervasive in our private and working lives, bringing about profound positive and negative changes at both societal and business levels that impact humankind. The present research addresses the issue of how digital transformation in companies might contribute to changing the traditional idea of business leadership and determines which ethical challenges and opportunities arise under the new digital paradigm using an ethics-leadership model. Thus, on the one hand, it is essential to acknowledge that there has been a change from a leader-centric notion of leadership to a collective view; on the other hand, it is possible to observe that certain traditional elements of leadership ethics, such as responsibility, are absent from the digital leadership discussion, whereas other notions, such as power, need to be comprehended from a new perspective. The current article can expand business practitioners' and researchers' understanding of ethical digital leadership.
The non-compete clause, or covenant not to compete, is often used by employers in the United States, requires an employee to legally agree not to engage in a profession or trade in competition against an employer, or from launching a competing business, for a specified period (usually twelve to twenty-four months), thus weakening the labor wage bargaining power of employees. Traditionally, these non-compete clauses were used to prevent highly-skilled employees from transferring company trade secrets from one firm to a competing firm, yet these non-compete clauses are often used in employer contracts for low-wage workers. This paper asks the following research question: What is a business ethics case for a qualified use of non-compete clauses for employers? Subsequently, an ethical, economic, and legal argument for the limited business use of the non-compete clause is offered, concluding with a qualified non-compete clause usage (situated in a Rawlsian-supported business ethic framework) recommended.
There is a growing realization that management education is not producing the leaders we need in business today. What is new here is that this criticism is coming from influential business leaders and that the focus is on the quality of the character of many of the leaders and not simply on the decisions they are making. This study argues that a key insight of Aristotle’s thought, the need to develop people of character would inform the way responsible management education is taught today and, more importantly, may enhance the future direction of business education. The argument, based on a study of business leaders, is that moral education in business schools should focus on the training of character rather than the inculcation of rules, becoming a certain sort of person with a “sustainability mindset.” We introduce a transformational model with five dimensions, ranging from the purpose of business school to the composition of its curriculum, aimed at achieving system-level transformation within business schools.
Being part of the most recent Global Survey of Business Ethics, this article provides some key insights on business ethics teaching, research and training in the three countries of Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Multiple data collection approaches are combined to take comprehensively stock of the state-of-the art of business ethics in the sectors of higher education, research and business, covering archival data, bibliometric data, interview data as well as survey data. Our results indicate the generally accepted relevance of the field as well as some level of common understandings and shared views of challenges lying ahead. While practical issues and instruments of corporate social responsibility and sustainability are emphasized, the need of ethical reflection and corresponding skills is also widely acknowledged. The subjects of artificial intelligence and cyber ethics are viewed to be among the most pressing future challenges.
The La Polar case is a major financial scandal in Chile involving unethical credit practices. The department store unilaterally rescheduled customers' credit card debts without consent, inflating debts with additional interest and charges. This misconduct led to a significant drop in La Polar's stock value and a public trust crisis in Chile's financial system. Legal actions included criminal prosecutions and stricter corporate governance regulations. The ethical breaches involved a lack of transparency, misuse of insider information, and executive opportunism. Executives manipulated financial statements to inflate profits, boosting bonuses and stock options. The board of directors failed in their oversight role, ignoring audit warnings, and neglecting internal controls. Audit firm PwC was also criticized for not detecting the irregularities, spotlighting flaws in auditing practices. Through ethical frameworks like utilitarianism, deontology, and virtue ethics, the scandal reveals the profound impact of unethical behavior on financial integrity, governance, and market trust. It highlights the need for stronger corporate governance, transparency, and accountability to ensure ethical conduct within organizations and maintain a stable financial system.
This study uses Bourdieu’s political economy framework to examine how corruption and lobbying practices are structured in the field, and how private sectors actors draw on their resources to lobby government officials to change rules in the pursuit of profits. The case of the UK’s Greensill scandal illustrate how corporate actors deploy their resources to lobby government officials and structure their deals to avoid regulatory barriers. The findings reveal that private sector actors used complex structures involving Special Purpose Vehicles (SPVs), banks and trusts that operated across national jurisdictions to avoid regulatory barriers and redirect economic flows. The findings reveals that there is a revolving door between the public sector and private sector which provides the latter with privilege access to government officials. The findings also highlight that anti-corruption barriers were largely ineffective in making actors accountable for their behaviour.
Recent criticisms have challenged the value of professional codes, arguing that they fail to fulfill either an ethical or a legal function. Some critics have therefore dismissed them as useless or spurious. We contend that such conclusion is fundamentally flawed, as it mistakenly presupposes that professional codes can only make sense if they behave like ethical rulebooks or legal documents. The article begins by distinguishing between professional codes, corporate codes, and professional legislation. It then adopts the framework provided by political minimalism to argue that professional communities are political entities, and that professional codes are tools employed by these communities to promote their ends, both moral and non-moral. By recognizing this political dimension, we can reevaluate professional codes in general, as well as assess specific codes in terms of their effectiveness in advancing the interests of the professional communities that endorse them. The case of professional codes thus illustrates how a failure to differentiate between the ethical and the political can result into misguided accusations.
In business, applying machine learning (mL) algorithms to make decisions in finance is expanding from proprietary trading to making financial decisions that affect everyone. Unfortunately, mL algorithms are statistical methods that lack ethics or fairness. Since many mL algorithms operate as a black box solution, even the users of these techniques can be unaware of ethical issues in finance. Nevertheless, an mL algorithm used as a simple tool with no regard for ethics can make unethical decisions. This paper first details how and when an mL algorithm can make unethical decisions. It then proposes a framework to minimize the risk of an mL algorithm making a prediction considered unethical or contrary to the code of conduct for Chartered Financial Analysts, Certified Financial Planners, or Certified Loan Officers.
