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8Grounding and Limiting Political Corporate Social Responsibility (PCSR) Using a Neo-Aristotelian ApproachPhilosophy Today 68 (2): 341-361. 2024.This paper offers a neo-Aristotelian approach to PCSR aimed at enabling us to more systematically ascertain which sorts of corporate political activities, if any, might be politically acceptable. Part 1 sketches Aristotle’s account of the “political.” Aristotelian politics have at least four key dimensions. When we speak of PCSR, we should, from this Aristotelian perspective, evaluate how specific behaviors accord with or undermine these four aspects of political life. Part 2 of the paper explor…Read more
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9Some Modest Proposals for Improving Business Ethics from Primarily an Aristotelian PerspectiveJournal of Human Values 30 (1): 38-51. 2024.The long-term health of business ethics is suspect. In particular, there are some troubling trends within the discipline’s methodology that should be closely monitored and, in some cases, countered. Furthermore, business ethicists and management theorists should take some steps to make business ethics more robust and more relevant to actual business practice. Part 1 of this article argues that, while the dominance of the social science approach should be curtailed, relations between normative an…Read more
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5Aesthetics and Business Ethics (edited book)Imprint: Springer. 2014.Ludwig Wittgenstein famously said, "Ethics is aesthetics." It is unclear what such a claim might mean and whether it is true. This book explores contentious issues arising at the interface of ethics and aesthetics. The contributions reflect on the status of aesthetic en ethical judgments, the relation of aesthetic beauty and ethical goodness and art and character development. The book further considers the potential role art could play in ethical analysis and in the classroom and explores in wha…Read more
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Chinese Approach to Business EthicsIn Deborah C. Poff & Alex C. Michalos (eds.), Encyclopedia of Business and Professional Ethics, Springer Verlag. pp. 335-337. 2021.
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16Narrative Business Ethics Versus Narratives Within Business Ethics: Problems and Possibilities From an Aristotelian Virtue Ethics PerspectiveJournal of Business Ethics 189 (4): 763-779. 2024.Applied ethicists’ interest in narratives and narratives ethics has grown steadily. Some thinkers position narratives as supplements to ethics, while others see narratives as new form of ethics comparable to virtue or deontological ethics. In this paper, I analyze some of the main ethical claims being made on behalf of business and literary narratives from the perspective of Aristotelian virtue ethics. I argue that, while narratives can significantly contribute to the development of our characte…Read more
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2Snow Brand Milk Products (C)Journal of Business Ethics Education 7 125-127. 2010.In the C case, the turnaround at SBM has been effected. Most significant is the company’s realization that it exists to serve the consumer and, through that service, the broader society. This brief case outlines the successes Hiwasa pushed SBM management to accomplish and introduces the challenges the company faced in 2009: primarily, continuing to build its corporate social responsibility approach and addressing environmental and social issues.
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7Capitalism & ethicsBusiness Ethics, the Environment and Responsibility 32 (S1): 1-3. 2023.Business Ethics, the Environment &Responsibility, Volume 32, Issue S1, Page 1-3, April 2023.
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16Applying Aristotelian and Confucian Virtue Ethics to Humane Work in the Business ContextHumanistic Management Journal 7 (2): 189-209. 2022.What is humane work? What does such work look like in a business context? This paper articulates two ways of thinking about humane work using an Aristotelian and a Confucian virtue ethics approach. This approach reveals the need to think about (1) work’s connection not merely with autonomy but with self-refinement and self-perfection, with craft, and with the production of genuinely good goods; (2) possible dangers (e.g., the risk of generating envy) of focusing too much on pay issues in connect…Read more
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4The Ethics of Biobusiness, Technology, and Genetic EngineeringBulletin of Science, Technology and Society 20 (1): 10-18. 2000.When we think of ethics in medicine or business, we typically focus on whether the dignity and autonomy of patients and stakeholders are being respected. Ethicists have devoted a great deal of energy to showing how particular practices either foster or damage healthy personal relations. It is my contention that these analyses, while sometimes insightful, do not grapple with the key question: What does it mean to act in an increasingly technological age? Is it legitimate simply to apply some set …Read more
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27A virtue ethics critique of ethical dimensions of behavioral economicsBusiness and Society Review 125 (2): 241-260. 2020.Behavioral economics is the latest trendy form of economics. Increasingly theorists are advocating using behavioral economics to do normative ethics or claiming that the behavioralists’ findings render normative claims otiose. I argue in this paper that we should be extremely wary when it comes to accepting any such normative pronouncements. I argue that behavioral economics: (a) minimizes and/or misunderstands the role that character and architectonic life goals play in accounting for the why o…Read more
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10Toward a New (Old) Theory of Responsibility: Moving Beyond AccountabilitySpringer Verlag. 2019.This book offers a much needed overview of the neglected notion of responsibility. Instead of offering vague talk about “individual responsibility” or “corporate responsibility,” Daryl Koehn examines in detail four accounts of responsibility, taking care to specify what responsibility does and does not mean in each account. She argues for a return to the ancient concept of Socratic dialogical responsibility, a concept that avoids many of the problems inherent in the other accounts. After examini…Read more
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44How Would Confucian Virtue Ethics for Business Differ from Aristotelian Virtue Ethics?Journal of Business Ethics 165 (2): 205-219. 2020.Confucianism is potentially relevant to business ethics and business practice in many ways. Although some scholars have seen Confucian thought as applicable to corporate social responsibility :433–451, 2009) and to corporate governance :30–43, 2013), only a few business ethicists :415–431, 2001b; Journal of Business Ethics 116:703–715, 2013; Romar in Journal of Business Ethics 38:119–131, 2002; Lam in The Analects, Penguin Classics, London, 2003; Chan in Journal of Business Ethics 77:347–360, 20…Read more
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18Re-Thinking Power - Kinds of PowerJames Hillman New York: Doubleday, 1995Business Ethics Quarterly 8 (1): 179-186. 1998.
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16Management Ethics: Integrity at Work, Joseph A. Petrick and John F. QuinnBusiness Ethics Quarterly 9 (4): 713-717. 1999.
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3Spotting Ethical Spin-Offs: A Review of Michael Santoro’s Profits and Principles - Profits and Principles: Global Capitalism and Human Rights in ChinaMichael A. Santoro Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 2000 $26.00 (review)Business Ethics Quarterly 13 (2): 257-260. 2003.
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12Snow Brand Milk Products (B)Journal of Business Ethics Education 7 117-124. 2010.The B case jumps ahead several years and outlines the turnaround efforts SBM undertook to address its grave missteps: shifting to a consumer-oriented, integrity-focused management style; providing greater transparency and communication; and establishing a corporate ethics committee and a Snow Brands Code of Conduct. In June 2002, after much consideration and reflection on Snow Brand’s issues (as outlined in the A case), Hiwasa joined its new board as its sole outside director, serving as the imp…Read more
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16Snow Brand Milk Products (A)Journal of Business Ethics Education 7 103-116. 2010.This three-case series examines the dilemma that faced the Japanese company Snow Brand Milk Products (SBM) as it confronted the task of rebuilding and revitalization after a series of scandals, many self-induced, had threatened the company’s future. The A case begins in spring 2002 when leading consumer activist Nobuko Hiwasa was invited to join Snow Brand’s board of directors. The CEO wanted her to assist in SBM’s revitalization efforts, which were beingimplemented in the wake of two recent sca…Read more
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15Do Investors See Value in Ethically Sound CEO Apologies? Investigating Stock Market Reaction to CEO ApologiesJournal of Business Ethics 152 (2): 311-322. 2018.Since the late 1990s, the number of apologies being offered by CEOs of large companies has exploded. Communication and management scholars have analyzed whether and why some of these apologies are more effective or more ethical than others. Most of these analyses, however, have remained at the anecdotal level. Moreover, the practical, economic consequences of apologies have not been examined. Almost no rigorous or systematic empirical work exists that examines whether stakeholders reward firms w…Read more
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Review of Virtue in Business: Conversations with Aristotle by Edwin Hartman (review)Journal of Business Ethics 142 (3): 617-619. 2017.
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5Reframing Economic Ethics: The Philosophical Foundations of Humanistic Management, by Claus Dierksmeier. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2016. 127 pp. ISBN: 978-3-3193-2299-5 (review)Business Ethics Quarterly 27 (3): 459-462. 2017.
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26Rethinking the Responsibility of International CorporationsBusiness Ethics Quarterly 3 (2): 177-183. 1993.
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12Snow Brand Milk Products (A)Journal of Business Ethics Education 7 103-116. 2010.This three-case series examines the dilemma that faced the Japanese company Snow Brand Milk Products (SBM) as it confronted the task of rebuilding and revitalization after a series of scandals, many self-induced, had threatened the company’s future. The A case begins in spring 2002 when leading consumer activist Nobuko Hiwasa was invited to join Snow Brand’s board of directors. The CEO wanted her to assist in SBM’s revitalization efforts, which were beingimplemented in the wake of two recent sca…Read more
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61Post-credit crisis: what new concepts are needed? Which old notions or practices should be abandoned? (review)Asian Journal of Business Ethics 1 (1): 35-45. 2012.The recent financial meltdown in the US mortgage markets and the ongoing budgetary crises in Europe suggest that we are at an economic and ethical crossroads. What has caused the problems? Do we need to rethink in some fundamental way our ethical notions and some of our practices? These questions clearly are not separable, for, as I shall argue, some of our ideas about corporate responsibilities, technological innovations, and nation states’ ability to regulate corporations have been a cause of …Read more
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23Why Saying "I'm Sorry" Isn't Good EnoughBusiness Ethics Quarterly 23 (2): 239-268. 2013.The number of corporate apologies has increased dramatically during the past decade. This article delves into the ethics of apologies offered by chief executive officers (CEOs). It examines ways in which public apologies on the part of a representative (CEO) of a corporate body (the firm) differ from both private, interpersonal apologies, on the one hand, and nation-state/collective apologies, on the other. The article then seeks to ground ethically desirable elements of a corporate apology in t…Read more
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54Traversing the InfernoBusiness Ethics Quarterly 10 (1): 255-268. 2000.The discipline of business ethics traditionally has paid too much attention to articulating and applying the moral law and has devoted too little thinking to the nature and consequences of evil for our souls. For purposes of this discussion, I shall limit myself to Dante’s vision of evil as a diminution of human being. On his journey through hell, Dante encounters the shades—people who, through their own actions, have rendered themselves less than fully human. This paper concentrates especially …Read more
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96Ethical issues connected with multi-level marketing schemesJournal of Business Ethics 29 (1-2). 2001.Multi-level marketing (MLM) schemes are one of the fastest growing types of business. However, little has been written about the ethics of MLMs. This oversight is somewhat surprising, especially because some prominent MLMs have been accused of being pyramid schemes. Pyramid schemes were the number one type of internet fraud in 1996, and the fourth most common form of internet fraud in 1997 (National Consumers League, 1997). This paper examines the nature of MLMs and their similarities with and d…Read more
Areas of Specialization
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Philosophy of Action |
Aesthetics |
Applied Ethics |
Normative Ethics |
Ancient Greek and Roman Philosophy |
Asian Philosophy |