This book examines whether firms as organizations can be considered morally responsible for their actions. This question has profound practical implications as well as theoretical significance, not least when we are so frequently today confronted with misconduct in business.

• Preface


• Introduction


• The Moral Responsibility of Firms: Renewed Interest in a Perennial Question of Business Ethics


• Part One


• 1: Philip Pettit: The Conversable, Responsible Corporation


• 2: Michael E. Bratman: The Intentions of a Group


• 3: Peter A. French: The Diachronic Moral Responsibility of Firm


• 4: Waheed Hussain and Joakim Sandberg: Normative Functionalism about Corporate Moral Agency


• Part Two


• 5: John Hasnas: The Phantom Menace of the Responsibility Deficit


• 6: Ian Maitland: How Corporate Responsibility Undermines True Responsibility


• 7: David Rönnegard and Manuel Velasquez: On (Not) Attributing Moral Responsibility to Organizations


• 8: Amy J. Sepinwall: Blame, Emotion, and the Corporation


• Part Three


• 9: Kendy Hess: The Unrecognized Consensus about Firm Moral Responsibility


• 10: Nien-hê Hsieh: Corporate Moral Agency, Positive Duties, and Purpose


• Conclusion


• The Moral Responsibility of Firms: Past, Present, and Future

Eric W. Orts is the Guardsmark Professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. He is a professor in the Legal Studies and Business Ethics Department with a joint appointment in the Management Department. He directs the Initiative for Global Environmental Leadership (IGEL) and serves also as an academic co-director of the FINRA at Wharton Institute for securities compliance and regulatory professionals. His primary research and teaching interests are in corporate governance, environmental law and policy, and professional ethics. His scholarly work is widely published in academic journals and books. Prior to joining Wharton's faculty in 1991, Orts practiced law at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison in New York City. Orts is a member of the bar of New York and the District of Columbia, and an elected member of the American Law Institute.
N. Craig Smith is the INSEAD Chaired Professor of Ethics and Social Responsibility at INSEAD, France and the Academic Director of the Corporate Social Responsibility and Ethics Research Group in the INSEAD Social Innovation Centre. He was previously on the faculties of London Business School, Georgetown University, and Harvard Business School. His research is at the intersection of business and society, encompassing business ethics, corporate social responsibility, and sustainability. As well as a broad interest in organizational or managerial good and bad conduct, at the core of much of his research is a focus on developing understanding of corporate accountability. His current research projects examine the purpose of the firm, social contract theory, stakeholder theory, strategic drivers of CSR/sustainability, marketing ethics, and sustainable consumption. He is the author, coauthor or coeditor of six books and over thirty academic journal articles.