Entscheidungsfreiheit als Grundlage wirtschaftswissenschaftlicher Forschung – Bezüge zwischen Betriebswirtschaftslehre, Ethik und Neurobiologie

Abstract

This paper analyses whether freedom of decision as a crucial precondition of normative decision theory is questioned by ethics and neurobiology. It argues for an understanding of business ethics which sees the economic agents’ freedom of decision as the necessary basis for handling ethical questions in business practice, rather than as a limitation to this end. Analysing free will as a main object of scrutiny in neurobiology, it is hypothesised that acting in reality lies between plain determination on the one extreme and complete autonomy on the other. It supports the proposition in decision theory that managerial decisions are taken within the conditions of a certain framework. However, in the light of the recent developments in behavioural economics, ethics and neurobiology, it argues for the extension of this concept by consciously or unknowingly anchored norms.