Buiıness Ethics, Corporate Social Responsibility And Multinatıonal Compniıes

Abstract

Abstract In the world of business in the twenty-first century, products, capital, and personnel are becoming intertwined, as business entities increasingly consider their market areas as being global rather than simply domestic or even foreign. More and more companies, some of which have annual sales levels larger than the gross national products of some countries, consider every corner of the globe a feasible source of raw materials and labor or a new market possibility. Domestic business ethics and social responsibility topics will continue to be a top priority, but global business ethics require more attention from multinational companies. Practises of multinational companies regarding child labour, environmental harm, bribery and corruption are generally debated. In this article, these problems are examined in detail and international codes of conduct for multinational companies are discussed. Moreover, through the examination of web sites of the top 20 of 2009 Fortune Global 500 list companies, the question whether big multinationals have their own ethical codes of conduct has been answered.