Fundamental market conditions are used to classify and analyze business and society problems. These market conditions are analyzed in terms of their economic, ethical, and legal aspects. It is argued that these three forms of analyses are complementary. This complementarity allows these three analyses to be integrated into a framework that provides a methodologically complete wav of analyzing problems in business and society.

Existing research on ethics governance programs has often treated them simply as managerial tools aimed at fostering ethical action. This paper appeals to economic, institutional and structural perspectives in order to advance a fuller conception of the role of ethics governance programs in contemporary organizations.

Empirical research on organizational codes of ethics largely has concentrated on providing summary descriptive statistics of code usage and/or content analyses of codes. Although useful, such research leaves unaddressed many important questions regarding codes. By raising a new set of issues concerning codes, this paper is intended to redirect code research so as to deepen our understanding of the multifarious character of codes.

Theories of organizational justice and persuasive communication suggest that the presence of sanctions and justificatory rationales in ethics codes will be related positively to code recipients' recall of code content and perceptions of organizational justice. This study shows that rationales are associated with a small but significant increase in perceptions of organizational procedural justice, but that rationales and sanctions generally show no relationship to distributive justice perceptions and accurate content recall. These results suggest that common prescriptions regarding ethics code design are of uncertain value apart from further research into relationships among the intended and perceived purposes of codes, the organizational settings in which the are applied, and a wide variety of code designs.

This paper examines the concept of legitimacy, especially how it is lost and how it may be regained, using the tobacco and gambling industries as a focus. Not just social, but political, economic, and even technological forces as well, have contributed to the very significant changes for these industries. In addition, the paper suggests that the strategies and tactics of managers, especially marketers, have an interactive effect.

Since Congress passed the Comprehensive Environmental Response Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA) in 1980, the law governing lender liability for toxic waste clean up has been the source of confusion and concern, particularly for the banking industry. This article reviews the legal history of lender liability under CERCLA, including court cases, and the 1992 Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulation. Defects in the law and the subsequent impact on business are discussed. Business and environmental interests are considered in the assessment of an equitable solution of the ongoing dispute surrounding lender liability.

Current theories of ethical corporate behavior presume regulation of potential employer opportunism primarily through the influence of external stakeholders. This paper proposes the enfranchisement of internal constituencies to accomplish internal ethical governance. Coactivational theory is called upon to support ownership-based enfranchisement through use of a corporate equity plan. A case example is presented.

Positive science is misrepresented by social science scholars. This paper defends science, explains how it embraces social construction of reality, and demonstrates its productive application in studying business, society, and ethics.

In order to determine whether a market economy must be capitalist, a list of necessary conditions for making a business count as capitalist is propounded. The necessary conditions settled on are private ownership, profit, and ownership and (ultimate) control by capital. This set of conditions demonstrates that markets need not be capitalist. It is recommended on the grounds of linguistic correctness, providing a useful classificatory schema for different types of enterprise, and clarifying just what it is that market socialism has to be objecting to in capitalism - thereby raising the question whether socialists, of the market variety at least, must be anti-capitalist.

Christian social thought has much to offer the management professions beyond a mere "scolding" of modem business practices. It provides: 1) a perspective for viewing management in a larger context, 2) a basis for integrating business on both the individual and organizational levels, and 3) a friendly" critique. This critique both reinforces existing management practices and suggests new directions for further improvement

Discussions of the processes by which exchange takes place within and between organizations generally have been explored within one of two dominant frameworks: institutional economics and interorganizational relations. In neither of these two paradigms is the role of trust given much attention. Further, research conducted within these frameworks largely focuses on issues that arise once the organizations have agreed to transact. Processes and issues ex ante contract are largely ignored.

Employment discrimination is examined using the markets and hierarchies perspective in organization theory. Markets and hierarchies, employment discrimination, and scholarly thoughts on employment discrimination are presented. This is followed by an discussion of the usefulness of the markets and hierarchies perspective in making employment decisions.

Collusion is the classic form of collaboration between competitors in an industry. While attractive to industry participants as a means of limiting competitive uncertainty this form of collaboration has generally negative social welfare consequences. More recently, other forms of intra-industry collaboration have received attention as means to manage interdependencies, reduce uncertainty, facilitate transactions when markets fail, and enhance the exchange of organizational know-how. However, collaboration entails risks both for participants and society as a whole. This paper explores forms of intraindustry collaboration and examines the participant and social risks associated with each form of collaborative activity.

Cross-cultural ethical conflicts are a concern for managers as business enterprises become increasingly global. In order to begin to appraise cultural differences and similarities in ethical reasoning the Boyce and Jensen moral reasoning questionnaire was used in six countries. There were some unique characteristics for the respondents of each country, but perhaps more significant was the degree of similarity across cultures.

This paper considers global environmental problems in terms of prevailing technologies and their use by multinational businesses. Such uses (and some technologies) are herein characterized as unethical for failing to adhere to an adaptation of an ancient maxim of Roman and common law: to use one’s land so as not to injure others. The known and potential degradation of the international environment largely results from the use of technologies that impose significant harm or costs on others. In formulating an adequate environmental ethics for the global environment, the ancient maxim is here reconsidered, along with its more recent expression through international policy consensus: Principle 21 of the Stockholm Declarations of 1972.

The individualist ethic that underlies many of the economic and cultural successes of the United States is poorly represented in today's moral literature. By distinguishing and exploring this Self-interested approach to ethics from a narrow self-interested one, new possibilities may arise for better business-ethics instruction and better international understanding of capitalism. A moral theory of Aristotelian-based individualism appears to best fit this fundamental American value and deserves further study.

Highlighting and drawing upon our normative position, we use Kolb's experiential learning cycle to envisage key concepts of a process intended to increase the students' ethical awareness. Emphasis is on the whole learning process. Special attention is given to the use of small groups, respect for others, and the distinction between learning and teaching.

The changing economic order in Russia and in the other republics of the former Soviet Union has created opportunities for American business schools to extend their educational mission to include citizens of these emerging democracies. In addition to their country’s political instability, the Russians as the persona of "Homo Sovieticus" ( Ash, 1992) present a people and a culture that can be enigmatic to the American business university professor. The aim of this study is to help the academic entrepreneurs of America develop some understanding of their Russian customers.

The nature of the wealth of nations has rarely been questioned in the two hundred plus years since Adam Smith wrote his treatise on the subject. This paper is in the form of a preliminary essay inquiring into what was considered the wealth of nations in 1776 and what might be considered the wealth of nations today. The importance of such an inquiry to business is discussed.