Business ethics as a discipline leans on cases but flourishes by thorough analysis and reflection. The present volume offers both. After three introductory chapters into business ethics eight recent European cases, mainly stemming from The Netherlands and Belgium and all of them with a clear moral impact, are extensively described and analysed. Among them are the Lernout and Hauspie speech technology disaster, Heineken's struggle with the promotion girls selling beer in Cambodia, cartels in the Dutch construction industry, the pharmaceutical industry and the Aids crisis, and Unilever allegedly making use of child labour in the cotton industry in India. Each case is followed by two expert comments, from the fields of general ethics, but also of law, economics, management and organisation theory, sociology and social psychology. Cases and comments together offer an unique entrance in varieties of moral reasoning and in the personal and institutional dimensions to be taken into account when facing a corporate case saturated with moral ambiguities. This book will be of interest to researchers as well as teachers of undergraduate and graduate courses in Business Ethics, Business in Society, Management and Organisation Theory and Strategic Management. It will also be useful for business practitioners eager to find moral guidance in their specific field.

Inhalt

Preface.- Acknowledgements.- Table of Contents.- PART I: Theory.- Chapter 1 Business Ethics: Cases, Codes and Institutions; Henk van Luijk.- Chapter 2 Moral Competence; Henk van Luijk and Wim Dubbink.- Chapter 3 Institutions and the Institutional Turn in Business Ethics; Wim Dubbink.- PART II: Cases.- Chapter 4.1 The Pharmaceutical Industry and the Aids Crisis; Marcel Verweij.- 4.2 The Struggle against AIDS and the Pharmaceuticals Industry: Are There Limits to the Moral Obligation to Do Good? Mariëtte van den Hoven.- 4.3 Special duties and the AIDS-crisis: a commentary on the Roche case Jan Vorstenbosch.- Chapter 5.1 Heineken and Promotion Girls in Cambodia; Rosalie Feilzer and Frans Paul van der Putten.- 5.2 Obscured authority; Raoul Wirtz, Edgar Karssing, Gemma Crijns.- 5.3 Heineken between Moral Motives and Self-interest; Frank den Hond.- Chapter 6.1 Heineken and Promotion Girls in Cambodia, Part 2; Frans Paul van der Putten.- 6.2 Legitimacy as Moral Exchange? Frank de Bakker.- 6.3 How to Deal with the Side Effects of Delivering Beer? Peter Koslowski.- Chapter 7.1 A Disputed Contract: IHC Caland in Burma; Frank de Bakker and Frank den Hondt.- 7.2 Dredgers on land; Pieter Ippel.- 7.3 IHC Caland in Burma: An Analysis; Johan Graafland.- Chapter 8.1 The ICE Train Accident near Eschede; Michiel Brumsen .- 8.2 Collective Responsibility and the Virtue of Accuracy; Bert van de Ven.- 8.3 Technology as material ethics; Tsjalling Swierstra.- Chapter 9.1 A Matter Of Involvement: Unilever and Indian Cottonseed Cultivation; Wim Dubbink.- 9.2 The Scope of Chain Responsibility; Jos Kole.- 9.3 Child labour, companies, and precautions; Robert Heeger.- Chapter 10.1 Rise and Fall of Silicon Valley in Flanders: Lernout & Hauspie Speech Products; Marc Buelens and Eva Cools.- 10.2 Law versus Community;Luc Van Liedekerke.- 10.3 Lernout & Hauspie: Chronicle of a Bankruptcy foretold; Dick de Gilder.- Chapter 11.1 Construction Fraud ; Johan Graafland and Luc van Liedekerke.- 11.2 The Moral Assimilation of the Market; Bert Musschenga.- 11.3 Fraud, Excuse and Responsibility; Marcel Verweij.- Index.- About the authors.