Morality, competition, and the firm : the market failures approach to business ethics /

Morality, competition, and the firm : the market failures approach to business ethics /

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Bibliographic Details
Author / Creator:	Heath, Joseph, 1967-
Imprint:	Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press, USA, [2014]
Description:	1 online resource (IX, 412 pages)
Language:	English
Subject:	Business ethics. Profit -- Moral and ethical aspects. Competition. Corporations -- Moral and ethical aspects. Business ethics. Competition. Corporations -- Moral and ethical aspects. Profit -- Moral and ethical aspects.
Format:	E-Resource Book
URL for this record:	http://pi.lib.uchicago.edu/1001/cat/bib/11754400

Hidden Bibliographic Details
ISBN:	9780199990498 0199990492 9780190267704 0190267704 9780199990481 0199990484
Notes:	Includes bibliographical references and index. English. Print version record.
Summary:	"In this collection of provocative essays, Joseph Heath provides a compelling new framework for thinking about the moral obligations that private actors in a market economy have toward each other and to society. In a sharp break with traditional approaches to business ethics, Heath argues that the basic principles of corporate social responsibility are already implicit in the institutional norms that structure both marketplace competition and the modern business corporation. In four new and nine previously published essays, Heath articulates the foundations of a "market failures" approach to business ethics. Rather than bringing moral concerns to bear upon economic activity as a set of foreign or externally imposed constraints, this approach seeks to articulate a robust conception of business ethics derived solely from the basic normative justification for capitalism. The result is a unified theory of business ethics, corporate law, economic regulation, and the welfare state, which offers a reconstruction of the central normative preoccupations in each area that is consistent across all four domains. Beyond the core theory, Heath offers new insights on a wide range of topics in economics and philosophy, from agency theory and risk management to social cooperation and the transaction cost theory of the firm"-- "The essays by Joseph Heath collected in this volume collectively present a program in business ethics that he calls the "market failures" approach. They develop a theoretical framework that lies between two opposing positions in business ethics -- on one hand the "stakeholder" theory, which identifies moral obligations within an organization by identifying its key groups, and the self-explanatory "shareholder primacy" theory. Heath's "market failures" approach lies between these approaches and argues that firms should be guided by the ideal of a perfectly competitive market, and that ethical behavior in this context consists primarily in refraining from taking advantage of imperfections in existing markets. Heath's approach puts particular emphasis on the market as a competitively structured interaction, with different duties owed to individuals inside and outside the firm, and explains why business managers cannot have fiduciary responsibilities toward every stakeholder group. His theory draws on recent work in adversarial ethics, welfare economics, agency theory, and the theory of the ferm, in order to provide an account of business ethics that can be integrated with recent thinking about corporate law and the normative basis of state regulation of the economy"--
Other form:	Print version: Heath, Joseph, 1967- Morality, competition, and the firm 9780199990481

Description
Summary:	In this collection of provocative essays, Joseph Heath provides a compelling new framework for thinking about the moral obligations that private actors in a market economy have toward each other and to society. In a sharp break with traditional approaches to business ethics, Heath argues that the basic principles of corporate social responsibility are already implicit in the institutional norms that structure both marketplace competition and the modern business corporation. In four new and nine previously published essays, Heath articulates the foundations of a "market failures" approach to business ethics. Rather than bringing moral concerns to bear upon economic activity as a set of foreign or externally imposed constraints, this approach seeks to articulate a robust conception of business ethics derived solely from the basic normative justification for capitalism. The result is a unified theory of business ethics, corporate law, economic regulation, and the welfare state, which offers a reconstruction of the central normative preoccupations in each area that is consistent across all four domains. Beyond the core theory, Heath offers new insights on a wide range of topics in economics and philosophy, from agency theory and risk management to social cooperation and the transaction cost theory of the firm.
Physical Description:	1 online resource (IX, 412 pages)
Bibliography:	Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN:	9780199990498 0199990492 9780190267704 0190267704 9780199990481 0199990484