Europe, Business Ethics In

Abstract

AbstractWe compare the present state of business ethics in Europe with the situation as described by Enderle in 1996. At that time business ethics was still dominated by a mainly philosophical, normative analysis of business issues with a maximum of 25 chairs in business ethics all over Europe. It has since expanded significantly in numbers as well as diversified into many different domains. We find this rich diversity in the conception of business ethics back in teaching, research, training, and company practice. Decisive for the expansion of business ethics in Europe has been the advance of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and the official backing of CSR by the European Commission. We further argue that the prevalence and importance of business ethics and CSR differs throughout Europe. A rough approximation based on a literature review and a survey among European Business Ethics Network (EBEN) members suggests that it is more important and more developed in core and Nordic European countries and somewhat less in Southern and Central European countries. The eastern most countries such as Belarus and Bulgaria remain a challenge.