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Do Firms with Unique Competencies for Rescuing Victims of Human Catastrophes Have Special Obligations? Corporate Responsibility and the Aids Catastrophe in Sub-Saharan Africa

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 January 2015

Thomas W. Dunfee
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Abstract

Firms possessing a unique competency to rescue the victims of a human catastrophe have a minimum moral obligation to devote substantial resources toward best efforts to aid the victims. The minimum amount that firms should devote to rescue is the largest sum of their most recent year’s investment in social initiatives, their five-year trend, their industry’s average, or the national average. Financial exigency may justify a lower level of investment. Alternative social investments may be continued if they have an equally compelling rationale. These duties apply to the global pharmaceutical companies in the context of the AIDS pandemic in sub-Saharan Africa.

Type
Special Forum
Information
Business Ethics Quarterly , Volume 16 , Issue 2 , April 2006 , pp. 185 - 210
Copyright
Copyright © Society for Business Ethics 2006

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