Hostname: page-component-669899f699-vbsjw Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-05-05T18:57:58.922Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Does Global Business Have a Responsibility to Promote Just Institutions?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 January 2015

Nien-hê Hsieh
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract:

Drawing upon John Rawls's framework in The Law of Peoples, this paper argues that MNEs have a responsibility to promote well-ordered social and political institutions in host countries that lack them. This responsibility is grounded in a negative duty not to cause harm. In addition to addressing the objection that promoting well-ordered institutions represents unjustified interference by MNEs, the paper provides guidance for managers of MNEs operating in host countries that lack just institutions. The paper argues for understanding corporate responsibility in relation to the specific institutional environment in which MNEs operate.

Type
Articles
Information
Business Ethics Quarterly , Volume 19 , Issue 2 , April 2009 , pp. 251 - 273
Copyright
Copyright © Society for Business Ethics 2009

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.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Anderson, E. 1993. Value in ethics and economics. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Birch, D. 2001. Corporate citizenship: Rethinking business beyond social responsibility. In Mcintosh, M. (Ed.), Perspectives on Corporate Citizenship: 53–65. Sheffield: Greenleaf.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chevron, Texaco. 2002. Chevron Texaco issues statement on U.S. Circuit Court decision affirming dismissal of Ecuador litigation. Press release. August 19, 2002.Google Scholar
Cohan, J. 2001. Environmental rights of indigenous peoples. UCLA Journal of Environmental Law and Policy, 20: 133–85.Google Scholar
CSR Wire. 2007. Companies, human rights groups, investors, academics and technology leaders to address international free expression and privacy challenges. Online posting. http://www.csrwire.com/PressRelease.php?id=7272. Accessed on April 15, 2007.Google Scholar
Doh, J., Rodriguez, P., Uhlenbruck, K., Collins, J., & Eden, L. 2003. Coping with corruption in foreign markets. Academy of Management Executive, 17: 114–27.Google Scholar
Donaldson, T. 1989. Moral minimums for multinationals. Ethics and International Affairs, 3: 163–82.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dunfee, T. 2006. Do firms with unique competencies for rescuing victims of human catastrophes have special obligations? Corporate responsibility and the AIDS catastrophe in Sub-Saharan Africa. Business Ethics Quarterly, 16: 185–210.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dworkin, G. 1983. Paternalism. in Sartorius, R. (Ed.), Paternalism: 19–34. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.Google Scholar
Friedman, M. 1970. The social responsibility of business is to increase its profits. The New York Times Magazine (13 September): 32.Google Scholar
Heath, J. 2006. Business ethics without stakeholders. Business Ethics Quarterly, 16: 533–57.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Herman, B. 1993. The practice of moral judgment. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Hsieh, N. 2004. The obligations of transnational corporations: Rawlsian justice and the duty of assistance. Business Ethics Quarterly, 14: 643–61.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Huber, E., Rueschemeyer, D., & Stephens, J. 1993. The impact of economic development on democracy. Journal of Economic Perspectives, 7: 71–86.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kinley, D., & Tadaki, J. 2004. From talk to walk: The emergence of human rights responsibilities for corporations at international law. Virginia Journal of International Law, 44: 931–1022.Google Scholar
Kwok, C., & Tadesse, S. 2006. The MNC as an agent of change for host-country institutions: FDI and corruption. Journal of International Business Studies, 37: 767–85.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Logsdon, J., & Wood, D. 2002. Global corporate citizenship: From domestic to global level of analysis. Business Ethics Quarterly, 12: 155–87.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Matten, D., & Crane, A. 2005. Corporate citizenship: Towards an extended theoretical conceptualization. Academy of Management Review, 30: 166–79.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mehmet, O. 1999. Cultural relativism and human rights: The debate over labour standards and “Asian values.” In Mehmet, O., Mendes, E., & Sinding, R. (Eds.), Towards a fair global labour market: Avoiding a new slave trade: 170–93. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Melé, D. 2008. Corporate social responsibility theories. In Crane, A., McWilliams, A., Matten, D., Moon, J. & Siegel, D. (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of corporate social responsibility: 47–82. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Moon, J., Crane, A. & Matten, D. 2005. Can corporations be citizens? Corporate citizenship as a metaphor for business participation in society. Business Ethics Quarterly, 15: 429–53.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Murphy, L. 2000. Moral demands in nonideal theory. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Néron, Y.-P., & Norman, W. 2008. Citizen, inc.: Do we really want businesses to be good corporate citizens? Business Ethics Quarterly, 18: 1–26.Google Scholar
O'Neill, O. 2001. Agents of justice. In Pogge, T. (Ed.), Global justice: 188–203. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Palazzo, G., & Scherer, A. G. 2006. Corporate legitimacy as deliberation: A communicative framework. Journal of Business Ethics, 66: 71–88.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Prahalad, C. K. 2004. The fortune at the bottom of the pyramid. Philadelphia: Wharton School Publishing.Google Scholar
Przeworski, A., Alvarez, M., Cheibub, J. & Limongi, F. 2000. Democracy and development: Political institutions and well-being in the world, 1950–1990. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rawls, J. 1999a. The law of peoples. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Rawls, J. 1999b. A theory of justice. Revised edition. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ruggie, J. 2008. Promotion and protection of all human rights, civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights, including the right to development. Report to the Human Rights Council.Google Scholar
Scherer, A. G., & Palazzo, G. 2007. Toward a political conception for corporate responsibility: Business and society seen from a Habermasian perspective. Academy of Management Review, 32: 1096–1120.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Scherer, A. G., & Palazzo, G. 2008. Globalization and corporate social responsibility. In Crane, A., McWilliams, A., Matten, D., Moon, J. & Siegel, D. (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of corporate social responsibility: 414–31. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Scherer, A. G., Palazzo, G., & Baumann, D. 2006. Global rules and private actors. Toward a new role for the transnational corporation in global governance. Business Ethics Quarterly, 16: 505–32.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Scherer, A. G., & Smid, M. 2000. The downward spiral and the U.S. model principles. Why MNEs should take responsibility for the improvement of world-wide social and environmental conditions. Management International Review, 40: 351–71.Google Scholar
Seidman, G. W. 2003. Monitoring multinationals: Lessons from the anti-apartheid era. Politics and Society, 31: 381–407.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sen, A. 1999. Development as freedom. New York: Knopf.Google Scholar
Shiffrin, S. 2000. Paternalism, unconscionability doctrine, and accommodation. Philosophy & Public Affairs, 29: 205–50.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shun, K. & Wong, D. (Eds.). 2004. Confucian ethics: A comparative study of self, autonomy, and community. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Statoil. 2007. Statoil in Venezuela. Online posting. http://www.statoilnorge.no/statoilcom/hms/svg03116.nsf/UNID/0574AFEF513F6A6DC1256D49002E4F7C?OpenDocument. Accessed April 15, 2007.Google Scholar
UNAIDS. 2005. Access to treatment in the private-sector workplace. Geneva: UNAIDS.Google Scholar
UNAIDS. 2008. Report on the global AIDS epidemic. Geneva: UNAIDS.Google Scholar
UNDP. 2007. Measuring human development: A primer. New York: United National Development Programme.Google Scholar
Walsh, J. P., Weber, K., & Margolis, J. D. 2003. Social issues and management: Our lost cause found. Journal of Management, 29: 859–81.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Windsor, D. 2001. The future of corporate social responsibility. International Journal of Organizational Analysis, 9: 225–56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar