Moral commitments and the societal role of business: An ordonomic approach to corporate citizenship

Ingo Pies, Stefan Hielscher, Markus Beckmann

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

115 Citations (SciVal)

Abstract

This article introduces an "ordonomic" approach to corporate citizenship. We believe that ordonomics offers a conceptual framework for analyzing both the social structure and the semantics of moral commitments. We claim that such an analysis can provide theoretical guidance for the changing role of business in society, especially in regard to the expectation and trend that businesses take a political role and act as corporate citizens. The systematic raison d'être of corporate citizenship is that business firms can and-judged by the criterion of prudent self-interest-"should" take on an active role in rule-finding discourses and rule-setting processes with the intent of realizing a win-win outcome of the economic game. We identify-and illustrate-four ways that corporate citizens can employ moral commitments as a factor of production to enhance their processes of economic value creation.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)375-401
Number of pages27
JournalBusiness Ethics Quarterly
Volume19
Issue number3
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Jul 2009

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Moral commitments and the societal role of business: An ordonomic approach to corporate citizenship'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this