Cambridge Handbook of Research Approaches to Business Ethics and Corporate Responsibility

Description

While there is a large and ever-expanding body of work on the fields of business ethics and corporate social responsibility (CSR), there is a noted absence of a single source on the methodology and research approaches to these fields. In this book, the first of its kind, leading scholars in the fields gather to analyse a range of philosophical and empirical approaches to research in business ethics and CSR. It covers such sections as historical approaches, normative and behavioural methodologies, quantitative, qualitative and experimental perspectives, grounded theory and case methodologies, and finally a section on the role of the researcher in research projects. This book is a valuable and essential read for all researchers in business ethics and CSR, not only for those starting out in the fields, but also for seasoned scholars and academics.

Patricia H. Werhane is the Wicklander Chair Emerita at DePaul University, Chicago, and Ruffin Professor Emerita at the University of Virginia. She is the founding editor of Business Ethics Quarterly, a Rockefeller Fellow at Dartmouth College, New Hampshire,, Visiting Professor at the University of Cambridge, and Erskine Visiting Fellow at the University of Canterbury. In 2008 she was listed as one of the 100 most influential people in business ethics by Ethisphere Magazine. She is the author or editor of over twenty-five books, including Obstacles to Ethical Decision-Making (Cambridge, 2014) and Corporate Responsibility (Cambridge, 2012), as well as Moral Imagination and Management Decision-Making (1999). She is also the co-producer of an Emmy award-winning documentary series, Big Questions. R. Edward Freeman is Elis and Signe Olsson Professor of Business Administration at the Darden School of Business, and a Senior Fellow at the Olsson Center for Applied Ethics and Academic Director of the Business Roundtable Institute for Corporate Ethics. In March 2010, the University of Virginia's Board of Visitors named Freeman as a University Professor, the first faculty member in the Darden School's history given this rare honor. At its 2010 annual meeting, the Society for Business Ethics presented Professor Freeman with its 'Outstanding Contributions to Scholarship Award' for his stakeholder theory work, to which there has currently been more than 50,000 citations. Ed Freeman also serves as co-editor in chief of the Journal of Business Ethics. His latest books include, Bridging the Values Gap (2015) and Stakeholder Theory: The State of the Art (Cambridge, 2010). Freeman may be best known for his award-winning book Strategic Management: A Stakeholder Approach (Cambridge, 2010) originally published in 1984 and reprinted in 2010. Sergiy Dmytriyev is pursuing a doctorate in Management at the Darden School of Business, the University of Virginia. His research interests include supererogation in organizations, stakeholder engagement and responsibility, company success, value from disagreements, and meaning in life. Prior to working at the Darden School, he worked for Procter and Gamble, Bain and Company, and Monsanto in Eastern Europe. As a management consultant at Bain, he conducted multiple projects on strategy development, transformation, and organization redesign for clients in the financial services, airline, oil and gas, FMCG, and real estate industries.

'This Handbook provides a much-needed holistic overview of the various research methods available to business ethicists. The book's focus on methods tailored to the normative character of the business ethics discipline makes it especially valuable. New and established ethics scholars alike will appreciate the Handbook's comprehensiveness.' Daryl Koehn, Wicklander Chair in Professional Ethics, DePaul Univeristy, Chicago 'This Handbook almost makes me wish I were back at the beginning of my career and had the advantage of this wonderful smorgasbord of research approaches to business ethics and corporate responsibility in one place. Happily, it is never too late to register the value of the range of possible methodologies represented here. Read, and be inspired.' Laura J. Spence, Royal Holloway, University of London 'Business ethics researchers with a favored methodology and those still searching for one will find much in this broad ranging and urgently needed volume to stimulate their thinking and perhaps challenge their assumptions about the best ways to approach topics in this expanding field of scholarship.' John R. Boatright, Raymond C. Baumhart, SJ, Professor of Business Ethics Emeritus, Loyola University, Chicago 'Contemporary business ethics scholarship is a multidisciplinary field of inquiry, one that includes normative scholarship, conceptual scholarship, and descriptive social science scholarship. Because of its multidisciplinary nature, it can be challenging for younger scholars and those new to the field to produce contributions that are both theoretically sophisticated and methodologically rigorous. Werhane, Freeman, and Dmytriyev have made a significant contribution to the field by compiling authoritative essays on many of the most significant methods used in business ethics scholarship. The Handbook should be of particular value for doctoral education and as a resource for emerging scholars.' Denis G. Arnold, Jule and Marguerite Surtman Distinguished Professor of Business Ethics, Belk College of Business, University of North Carolina, Charlotte 'Reading this book is the closest thing I can imagine to actually taking an intensive doctoral seminar with Professors Werhane and Freeman - two of the most important founding figures in business ethics - while seated beside Mr Dmytriyev and some other current and past students, among several additional and knowledgeable guests who are also important voices in the field.' Christopher Michaelson, David A. and Barbara Koch Distinguished Professor of Business Ethics and Social Responsibility, Associate Professor, Ethics and Business Law, University of St Thomas 'This book represents a contribution to the field of business ethics that is long overdue. The compilation of research methods that are available for business ethics scholars is both comprehensive and current. It underlines that methodology is a relevant tool for answering critical moral questions business ethics scholars should pursue. It should be a resource on every business ethics scholar's desk.' Dawn R. Elm, David A. and Barbara Koch Distinguished Professor of Business Ethics and Leadership, Executive Director, Society for Business Ethics, University of St. Thomas