Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-2brh9 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-22T11:29:16.679Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Social Contract Model of Corporate Purpose and Responsibility

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 February 2016

Nien-hê Hsieh
Nien-hê Hsieh*
Affiliation:
Harvard University
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract:

Of the many developments in business ethics that Thomas Donaldson has helped pioneer, one is the application of social contract theory to address questions about the responsibilities of business actors. In Corporations and Morality, Donaldson develops one of the most sustained and comprehensive accounts that aims to justify the existence of for-profit corporations and to specify and ground their responsibilities. In order to further our understanding about the purpose and responsibilities of productive organizations, and as a contribution to the scholarship on Donaldson’s thought, this paper gathers together the critical responses to Donaldson’s account along with Donaldson’s replies to his critics. The paper argues that we would do well to continue engaging with Donaldson’s account because of its distinctive and challenging conception of the purpose and responsibilities of productive organizations, but that many of the insights to be gained come from reframing the role played by social contract theory.

Keywords

contractarianismcontractualismcorporate purposecorporate responsibilitytheory of the firmThomas Donaldson
Type
Articles
Information
Business Ethics Quarterly , Volume 25 , Issue 4 , October 2015 , pp. 433 - 460
Copyright
Copyright © Society for Business Ethics 2016 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Arneson, Richard. 1987. “Meaningful Work and Market Socialism.” Ethics 97(3): 517–45.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ashford, Elizabeth, and Mulgan, Tim. 2012. “Contractualism.” The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Fall 2012 Edition), edited by Zalta, Edward N.http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2012/entries/contractualism/.Google Scholar
Bishop, John Douglas. 2008. “For Profit Corporations in a Just Society: A Social Contract Argument Concerning the Rights and Responsibilities of Corporations.” Business Ethics Quarterly 18(2): 191–212.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Black, Leeora. 2013. The Social License to Operate: Your Management Framework for Complex Times. Oxford: Sedition Publishing.Google Scholar
Blackburn, Simon. 1999. “Am I Right?” The New York Times February 21. http://www.nytimes.com/books/99/02/21/reviews/990221.21blact.html.Google Scholar
Brock, Gillian. 1998. “Are Corporations Morally Defensible?” Business Ethics Quarterly 8(4): 703–721.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clark, Barry, and Gintis, Herb. 1978. “Rawlsian Justice and Economic Systems.” Philosophy and Public Affairs 7(4): 302–25.Google Scholar
Ciepley, David. 2013. “Beyond Public and Private: Toward a Political Theory of the Corporation.” American Political Science Review 107(1): 139–158.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Coase, Ronald. 1937. “The Nature of the Firm.” Economica, New Series 4(16): 386–405.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cohen, Joshua. 1989. “The Economic Basis of Deliberative Democracy.” Social Philosophy and Policy 6(2): 25–50.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Conry, Edward. 1995. “A Critique of Social Contracts for Business.” Business Ethics Quarterly 5(2): 187–212.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Crawford, Matthew. 2009. Shop Class as Soulcraft: An Inquiry into the Value of Work. New York: Penguin Press.Google Scholar
D’Agostino, Fred, Gaus, Gerald, and Thrasher, John. 2014. “Contemporary Approaches to the Social Contract.” The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Spring 2014 Edition), edited by Zalta, Edward N.http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2014/entries/contractarianism-contemporary/.Google Scholar
Davis, Ian. 2005. “The Biggest Contract.” The Economist May 28. http://www.economist.com/node/4008642.Google Scholar
Donaldson, Thomas. 1982. Corporations & Morality. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.Google Scholar
Donaldson, Thomas. 1986. “Fact, Fiction, and the Social Contract: A Reply to Kultgen.” Business & Professional Ethics Journal 5(1): 40–46.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Donaldson, Thomas. 1990. “Social Contracts and Corporations: A Reply to Hodapp.” Journal of Business Ethics 9(2): 133–37.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Donaldson, Thomas, and Dunfee, Thomas. 1995. “Contractarian Business Ethics: Current Status and Next Steps.” Business Ethics Quarterly 5(2): 173–86.Google Scholar
Donaldson, Thomas, and Dunfee, Thomas. 1999. Ties That Bind: A Social Contracts Approach to Business Ethics. Boston: Harvard Business School Press.Google Scholar
Dunfee, Thomas. 2006. “A Critical Perspective of Integrative Social Contracts Theory: Recurring Criticisms and Next Generation Research Topics.” Journal of Business Ethics 68(3): 303–28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Easterbrook, Frank, and Fischel, Daniel R. 1991. The Economic Structure of Corporate Law. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Freeman, R. Edward, Harrison, Jeffrey, Wicks, Andrew, Parmar, Bidhan, and de Colle, Simone. 2010. Stakeholder Theory: The State of the Art. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Freeman, Samuel. 2007. Rawls. London: Routlegde.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Friedman, Milton. 1962. Capitalism and Freedom. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Friedman, Milton. 1970. “The Social Responsibility of Business Is To Increase Its Profits.” The New York Times Magazine 13 September.Google Scholar
Hampton, Jean. 1997. Political Philosophy. Boulder: Westview Press.Google Scholar
Heath, Joseph, Moriarty, Jeffrey, and Norman, Wayne. 2010. “Business Ethics and (or as) Political Philosophy.” Business Ethics Quarterly 20(3): 427–52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hodapp, Paul. 1990. “Can There Be a Social Contract with Business?” Journal of Business Ethics 9(2): 127–131.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Holton, John. 1992. Political Obligation. London: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Hsieh, Nien-hê. 2008. “Justice in Production.” Journal of Political Philosophy 16(1): 72–100.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hsieh, Nien-hê. 2009. “The Normative Study of Business Organizations: A Rawlsian Approach.” In Normative Theory and Business Ethics, edited by Smith, Jeffery, 93–117. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield.Google Scholar
Hsieh, Nien-hê. 2013. “Work.” In The Routledge Companion to Social and Political Philosophy, edited by Gaus, Gerald and D’Agostino, Fred, 755–64. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Hsieh, Nien-hê. 2015. “Managerial Responsibility and the Purpose of Business: Doing One’s Job Well.” In Ethical Innovation in Business and the Economy: Studies in Transatlantic Business Ethics, edited by Enderle, Georges and Murphy, Patrick E., 95–118. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.Google Scholar
Jensen, Michael. 2002. “Value Maximization, Stakeholder Theory, and the Corporate Objective Function.” Business Ethics Quarterly 12(2): 235–56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Klein, Paul. 2012. “Three Ways to Secure Your Social License to Operate in 2013.” Forbes. http://www.forbes.com/sites/csr/2012/12/28/three-ways-to-secure-your-social-license-to-operate-in-2013/.Google Scholar
Krouse, Richard, and McPherson, Michael. 1988. “Capitalism, ‘Property-Owning Democracy,’ and the Welfare State.” In Democracy and the Welfare State, edited by Gutmann, Amy, 79–105. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Kultgen, John. 1986. “Donaldson’s Social Contract for Business.” Business & Professional Ethics Journal 5(1): 28–39.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Levitt, Leo. 1986. “Commentary on Donaldson’s Social Contract for Business.” Business & Professional Ethics Journal 5(1): 47–50.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McGinn, Colin. 1999. “Reasons and Unreasons.” The New Republic May 24.Google Scholar
McMahon, Christopher. 2013. Public Capitalism. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.Google Scholar
O’Neill, Martin, and Williamson, Thad, eds. 2012. Property-Owning Democracy: Rawls and Beyond. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Peffer, Rodney. 1990. Marxism, Morality, and Social Justice. Princeton: Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Peffer, Rodney. 1994. “Towards a More Adequate Rawlsian Theory of Social Justice.” Pacific Philosophical Quarterly 75(3–4): 251–71.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pettit, Philip. 1999. “Doing unto others.” Times Literary Supplement June 25.Google Scholar
Porter, Michael, and Kramer, Mark. 2011. “Creating Shared Value: The Link Between Competitive Advantage and Corporate Social Responsibility.” Harvard Business Review 89(1/2): 62–77.Google Scholar
Rawls, John. 1971. A Theory of Justice. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, Belknap Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rawls, John. 1999. A Theory of Justice, revised edition. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, Belknap Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rawls, John. 2001. Justice as Fairness: A Restatement, edited by Kelly, Erin. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, Belknap Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ridge, Michael. 2001. “Debate: Saving Scanlon: Contractualism and Agent-Relativity.” The Journal of Political Philosophy 9(4): 472–81.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ridge, Michael. 2011. “Reasons for Action: Agent-Neutral vs. Agent-Relative.” The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Winter 2011 Edition), edited by Zalta, Edward N.http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2011/entries/reasons-agent/.Google Scholar
Scanlon, T. M. 1998. What We Owe to Each Other. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, Belknap Press.Google Scholar
Singer, Abraham. 2015. “There Is No Rawlsian Theory of Corporate Governance.” Business Ethics Quarterly 25(1): 65–92.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smith, Jeffery. 2014. “Corporate Social Purpose and the Task of Management.” In Corporations and Citizenship, edited by Urban, Greg, 57–73. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sollars, Gordon. 2002. “The Corporation as Actual Agreement.” Business Ethics Quarterly 12(3): 351–69.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stout, Lynn. 2012. The Shareholder Value Myth: How Putting Shareholders First Harms Investors, Corporations, and the Public. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler Publishers.Google Scholar
Wempe, Ben. 2004. “On the use of the social contract model in business ethics.” Business Ethics: A European Review 13(4): 332–41.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wempe, Ben. 2008. “Four Design Criteria for any Future Contractarian Theory of Business Ethics.” Journal of Business Ethics 81(3): 697–714.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wempe, Ben. 2009a. “Contractarian Business Ethics Today.” In Normative Theory and Business Ethics, edited by Smith, Jeffery, 73–92. UK: Rowman & Littlefield.Google Scholar
Wempe, Ben. 2009b. “Extant Social Contracts and the Question of Business Ethics.” Journal of Business Ethics 88(Supplement 4): 741–50.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Young, Iris Marion. 1979. “Self-Determination as Principle of Justice.” The Philosophical Forum 11(1): 30–46.Google Scholar