The Ethical Rational of Business for the Poor – Integrating the Concepts Bottom of the Pyramid, Sustainable Development, and Corporate Citizenship

Abstract

The first United Nations Millennium Development Goal calls for a distinct reduction of worldwide poverty. It is now widely accepted that the private sector is a crucial partner in achieving this ambitious target. Building on this insight, the ‘Bottom of the Pyramid’ concept provides a framework that highlights the untapped opportunities with the ‘poorest of the poor,’ while at the same time acknowledging the abilities and resources of private enterprises for poverty alleviation.This paper connects the idea of business with the poor to sustainable development and especially to the notions of inter- and intragenerational justice. These principles of justice can be linked with the ‘Bottom of the Pyramid’ approach directly through the Rawlsian principles to foster holistic thinking. On this basis, the paper offers a normative-ethical reasoning of corporations’ possible responsibilities for the poorest of the poor. Today’s state of worldwide inequalities is likely to generate future tensions between the privileged western world and the uncounted mass of poor (let alone the ethical dubiousness of this status). However, it is at the same time problematic if not even impossible to improve the situation of the poor by simply copying the resource intensive western way of living to the ‘Bottom of the Pyramid’ due to the limited carrying capacity of the earth. After highlighting possible moral dilemmas which may occur through such a potential trade off, this paper concludes with an outlook on how the concepts ‘Bottom of the Pyramid’ and sustainable development could be combined.