Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-8bhkd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-10T17:18:16.377Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Towards an Ethical Wealth of Nations: An Institutional Perspective on the Relation between Ethical Values and National Economic Prosperity

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 February 2016

Peter L. Jennings  and
Manuel Velasquez
Peter L. Jennings
Affiliation:
Santa Clara University
Manuel Velasquez
Affiliation:
Santa Clara University
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract:

In this paper we examine how ethical values contribute to national economic prosperity. We extend the concept of an ethical wealth of nations first introduced by Donaldson in which he proposed four categories of ethical values—fairer distribution of goods, better government, ingrained social cooperation, and inculcation of economic duties—that can drive economic performance, but only if citizens ascribe “intrinsic value” to them independent of their economic interests. Our analysis draws on institutional economics and sociology research to show that if ethical values are to drive economic performance, they must also be supported by the institutional fabric of the nation. We embed an expanded set of ethical values in a set of democratic, free market and civil society institutions spanning three sectors of society—political, economic and cultural respectively. We conclude by discussing the implications of our institutional framework for moral education.

Keywords

Ethicsvaluesinstitutionswealth of nationsresponsible leadershipmoral education
Type
Articles
Information
Business Ethics Quarterly , Volume 25 , Issue 4 , October 2015 , pp. 461 - 488
Copyright
Copyright © Society for Business Ethics 2016 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Acemoglu, D., & Robinson, J. A. 2012. Why nations fail: The origins of power, prosperity and poverty. New York: Crown Business.Google Scholar
Bellah, R., Madsen, R., Sullivan, W., Swidler, A, & Tipton, S. 1991. The good society. New York: Knopf.Google Scholar
Boatright, J. 2010. Business ethics: Where should the focus be? Business Ethics Quarterly, 20: 711–12.Google Scholar
Bogle, J. C. 2005. The battle for the soul of capitalism. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Bok, D. 2001. The trouble with government. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Burns, J. 1978. Leadership. New York: Harper & Row.Google Scholar
Carroll, A. 2010. Reflections on the business ethics field and Business Ethics Quarterly. Business Ethics Quarterly, 20: 715–17.Google Scholar
Costa-Font, J., Jofre-Bonet, M., & Yen, S. T. 2013. Not all incentives wash out the warm glow: The case of blood donation revisited. Kyklos, 66: 529–51.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dewey, J., 1927. The public and its problems. Denver: A. Swallow.Google Scholar
DiMaggio, P. J., & Powell, W. W. 1991. Institutional isomorphism and collective rationality. In Powell, W. W. & DiMaggio, P. (Eds.), The new institutionalism in organizational analysis: 63–82. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Donaldson, T. 2001. The ethical wealth of nations. Journal of Business Ethics, 31: 25–36.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Donaldson, T. 2010. The values realignment in modern industrial society. Business Ethics Quarterly, 20: 728–9.Google Scholar
Donaldson, T., & Freeman, R. E. 1994. Business as a humanity. New York: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eberstadt, N. 2012. A nation of takers: America’s entitlement epidemic. Conshohocken, PA: Templeton Press.Google Scholar
Elkind, P. 2013, July 1. The confessions of Andy Fastow. @ForuneMagazine. Accessed online August 1, 2014 at http://fortune.com/2013/07/01/the-confessions-of-andy-fastow/Google Scholar
Ferguson, N. 2013. The great degeneration: How institutions decay and economies die. New York: Penguin Group.Google Scholar
Finkel, N. J., & Moghaddam, F. M. 2005. The psychology of rights and duties: Empirical contributions and normative commentaries. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Frank, R. H. 1996. Can socially responsible firms survive in a competitive environment? In Messick, D. M. & Tenbrunsel, A. E. (Eds.), Codes of conduct: Behavioral research into business ethics: 86–103. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.Google Scholar
Friedman, B. 2005. The moral consequences of economic growth. New York: Knopf.Google Scholar
Fukuyama, F. 1995. Trust: The social virtues and the creation of prosperity. New York: Free Press.Google Scholar
Fukuyama, F. 2013, December 8. The decay of American political institutions. The American Interest. Accessed online, August 1, 2014 at http://www.the-american-interest.com/articles/2013/12/08/the-decay-of-american-political-institutions/.Google Scholar
Fuller, L. L. 1969. The morality of law. New Haven: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Galston, W. A. 2009. Defending liberty: Liberal democracy and the limits of public power. In Faulkner, R. & Shell, S. (Eds.), America at risk: Threats to liberal self-government in an age of uncertainty: 57–74. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press.Google Scholar
Ghoshal, S. 2005. Bad management theories are destroying good management practices. Academy of Management Learning & Education, 4: 75–91.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gilder, G. 1981. Moral sources of capitalism. Society, 18: 24–27.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gregg, S. 2007. Commercial society: Foundations and challenges in a global age. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books.Google Scholar
Hanley, R. P. 2009. Adam Smith and the character of virtue. New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hambrick, D. C. 2005. Just how bad are our theories? A response to Ghoshal. Academy of Management Learning & Education, 4: 104–107.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Heclo, H. 2008. On thinking institutionally. Boulder, CO: Paradigm Publishers.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Heclo, I. 2009. The corruption of democratic leadership. In Faulkner, R. & Shell, S. (Eds.), America at risk: Threats to liberal self-government in an age of uncertainty: 249–66. Ann Arbor, MI: The University of Michigan Press.Google Scholar
Hirsch, P. 1976. The social limits of growth. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kagan, R. A. 2003. Adversarial legalism: The American way of law. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Kellerman, B. 2012. The end of leadership. New York: Harper Collins.Google Scholar
Khurana, R. 2007. From higher aims to hired hands: The social transformation of American business schools and the unfulfilled promise of management. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kirk, R. 2004. The roots of the American order. Wilmington, DE: ISI Books.Google Scholar
Knack, S., & Keefer, P. 1997. Does social capital have an economic payoff? A cross-country investigation. Quarterly Journal of Economics, 112: 1251–88.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Light, P. 2008. A government ill-executed: The decline of the federal service and how to reverse it. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Lippmann, W. 1937. The good society. Boston: Little, Brown.Google Scholar
Mackey, J., & Sisodia, R. 2013. Conscious capitalism: Liberating the heroic spirit of business. Boston, MA: Harvard Business Review Press.Google Scholar
Mitchell, T. R., & Scott, W. G. 1987. Leadership failures, the distrusting public, and prospects of the administrative state. Public Administration Review, 47: 445–52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Novak, M. 1991. The spirit of democratic capitalism. Lanham, MD: Madison Books.Google Scholar
North, D. 1990. Institutions, institutional change, and economic performance. Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
North, D. C., Wallis, J. J., & Weingast, B. R. 2009. Violence and social orders: A conceptual framework for interpreting recorded human history. New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ordóñez, L. D., Schweitzer, M. E., Galinsky, A. D., & Bazerman, M. H. 2009. Goals gone wild: The systematic side effects of overprescribing goal setting. Academy of Management Perspectives, 23: 6–16.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Patterson, O. 1991. Freedom: Freedom in the making in Western culture (Volume 1). New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Patterson, O. 2008. Freedom, slavery, and the modern construction of rights. In Joas, H. & Wiegandt, K. (Eds.), The cultural values of Europe: 115–51. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Piketty, T. 2014. Capital in the twenty-first century. Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Porter, M. E., & Kramer, M. R. 2006. The link between competitive advantage and corporate social responsibility. Harvard Business Review, 84: 78–92.Google ScholarPubMed
Porter, M. E., & Rivkin, J. W. 2012. The looming challenge to US competitiveness. Harvard Business Review, 90: 54–61.Google Scholar
Putnam, R. 2000. Bowling alone: The collapse and revival of American community. New York: Simon & Schuster.Google Scholar
Quinn, D. P., & Jones, T. M. (1995). An agent morality view of business policy. Academy of Management Review, 20: 22–42.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Radin, M. J. 2001. Contested Commodities. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rauch, J. 1998, September, 19. “Tunnel Vision.” The dawn of microgovernment. National Journal. Accessed online, August 1, 2014 at http://www.jonathanrauch.com/jrauch_articles/microgovernment_rules_without_reason/index.htmlGoogle Scholar
Rawls, J. 1971. A theory of justice. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Robinson, J., Acemoglu, D., & Johnson, S. 2005. Institutions as a fundamental cause of long-run growth. Handbook of Economic Growth, 1: 386–472.Google Scholar
Rodrik, D., Subramanian, A., & Trebbi, F. 2004. Institutions rule: The primacy of institutions over geography and integration in economic development. Journal of Economic Growth, 9: 131–65.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sandel, M. J. 1998. Liberalism and the limits of justice (2nd Ed.). Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sandel, M. J. 2012. What money can’t buy: The moral limits of markets. New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux.Google Scholar
Schuck, P. H. 2014. Why government fails so often and how it can do better. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Schweitzer, M. E., Ordóñez, L., & Douma, B. (2004). Goal setting as a motivator of unethical behavior. Academy of Management Journal, 47: 422–32.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Searle, J. 1995. The construction of social reality. New York: Simon & Schuster.Google Scholar
Searle, J. 2005. What is an institution? Journal of Institutional Economics, 1: 1–22.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Searle, J. 2010. Making the social world: The structure of human civilization. New York: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Selznick, P. 1957. Leadership in administration: A sociological interpretation. New York: Harper & Row.Google Scholar
Selznick, P. 1992. The moral commonwealth: Social theory and the promise of community. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Sen, A. 1985. The moral standing of the market. In Paul, E., Paul, J., & Miller, F. (Eds.), Ethics and economics: 1–20. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Sen, A. 1997. Economics, business principles and moral sentiments. Business Ethics Quarterly, 7: 5–15.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Solomon, R. C. 1993. Ethics and excellence: Cooperation and integrity in business. NY: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Sullivan, W. M. 2005. Work and integrity: The crisis and promise of professionalism in America. San Francisco: Jossey Bass.Google Scholar
Titmuss, R. M. 1970. The gift relationship: From human blood to social policy. London: Allen and Unwin.Google Scholar
Taylor, C. 1991. The ethics of authenticity. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Tocqueville, A. 1994. Democracy in America. New York: Everyman’s Library.Google Scholar
Useem, M. 1996. Investor capitalism: How money managers are changing the face of corporate America. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Wilson, J. Q. 1995. Political organizations. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wilson, J. Q., & DiIulio, J. J. 2011. American government: Institutions and policies, the essentials. Boston, MA: Wadsworth.Google Scholar
Winston, C. 2006. Government failure versus market failure: Microeconomic policy research and government performance. WashingtonD.C.: Brookings Institute Press.Google Scholar
Wolf, C. 1979. A theory of ‘non-market’ failures. The Public Interest, 55: 114–33.Google Scholar
Zingales, L. 2012. A capitalism for the people: Recapturing the lost genius of American prosperity. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar