Abstract
Increasingly research in the field of business and society suggests that ethics and corporate social responsibility can be profitable. Yet this work raises a troubling question: Is it ethical to use ethics and social responsibility in a strategic way? Is it possible to be ethical or socially responsible for the wrong reason? In this article, we define a strategy concept in order to situate the different approaches to the strategic use of ethics and social responsibility found in the current literature. We then analyze the ethics of such approaches using both utilitarianism and deontology and end by defining limits to the strategic use of ethics.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Abbott, A.: 1983, ‘Professional Ethics’, American Journal of Sociology 88(5), 855–885.
Andrews, K.: 1967, A Concept of Corporate Strategy (Irwin, Homewood, IL).
Ansoff, I.: 1965, Corporate Strategy (McGraw Hill, New York).
Barnard, C.: 1938, The Functions of the Executive (Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA).
Bercovitch, S.: 1986, The Puritan Origins of the American Self (Yale University Press, New Haven, CT).
Bower, J. L., C. A. Bartlett, H. Uyterhoeven and R. Walton: 1995, Business Policy: Managing Strategic Processes, 8th edition (Richard D. Irwin, Chicago, IL).
Burke, L. and J. Logsdon: 1996, ‘How Corporate Social Responsibility Pays Off’, Long Range Planning 29, 495–502.
Chandler, A.: 1962, Strategy and Structure: Chapters in the History of American Industrial Enterprise (MIT Press, Cambridge, MA).
Cochran, P. L. and R. A. Wood: 1984, ‘Corporate Social Responsibility and Financial Performance’, Academy of Management Journal 27, 42–56.
Cummings, S.: 1993, ‘Brief Case: The First Strategists’, Long Range Planning 18, 133–135.
Dennett, D. C.: 1989, The Intentional Stance (M.I.T. Press, Cambridge, MA).
File, K. M. and R. A. Prince: 1998, ‘Cause Related Marketing and Corporate Philanthropy in the Privately Held Enterprise’, Journal of Business Ethics 17, 1529–1539.
Foucault, M.: 1972, The Archaeology of Knowledge (trans. A. M. Sheridan Smith) (Pantheon, New York, NY).
Frederick, W. C.: 1986, ‘Toward CSR3: Why Ethical Analysis is Indispensable and Unavoidable in Corporate Affairs’, California Management Review 28, 126–141.
Frederick, W. C.: 1994, ‘From CSR1 to CSR2: The Maturing of Business-and-society Thought’, Business & Society 33, 150–164.
Freeman, R. E.: 1984, Strategic Management: A Stakeholder Approach (Pitman, Boston, MA).
Freeman, R. E. and D. R. Gilbert, Jr.: 1988, Corporate Strategy and the Search for Ethics (Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ).
Friedman, M.: 1962, Capitalism and Freedom (University of Chicago Press, Chicago, IL).
Fundación Empresa y Sociedad: 1997, La Estrategia Social de la Empresa: Un Enfoque de Valor (Fundación Empresa y Sociedad, Madrid).
Grant, R.: 1993, Contemporary Strategy Analysis (Blackwell, London).
Hax, A. C. and N. S. Majluf: 1996, The Strategy Concept and Process: A Pragmatic Approach, 2nd ed. (Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, NJ).
Hosmer, L. T.: 1987, The Ethics of Management (Irwin, Homewood, IL).
Husted, B. W. and D. B. Allen: 1998, ‘Corporate Social Strategy: Toward a Strategic Approach to Social Issues in Management’, paper presented at the Academy of Management meetings, San Diego, California.
Judge, Jr., W. Q. and H. Krishnan: 1994, ‘An Empirical Investigation of the Scope of a Firm's Enterprise Strategy’, Business & Society 33, 167–190.
Kant, I.: 1964, Groundwork of the Metaphysic of Morals (Harper & Row, New York, NY).
Lyotard, J.-F.: 1984, The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge (University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis, MN).
Mullen, J.: 1997, ‘Performance-based Corporate Philanthropy: How "Giving Smart" Can Further Corporate Goals’, Public Relations Quarterly 42 (2), 42–48.
Nelson, R and S. Winter: 1982, An Evolutionary Theory of Economic Change (Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA).
Papdakis, V. M., S. Lioukas and D. Chambers: 1998, ‘Strategic Decision-making Processes: The Role of Management and Context’, Strategic Management Journal 19, 115–147.
Peel, M.: 1998, ‘Mind Your Business’, Financial Times (Supplement on Responsible Business), May 20, 26–27.
Peteraf, M. A.: 1993, ‘The Cornerstones of Competitive Advantage: A Resource-based View’, Strategic Management Journal 14, 179–191.
Polonsky, M. J.: 1997, ‘Broadening the Stakeholder Strategy Mix’, in J. Weber and K. Rehbein (eds.), Proceedings of the Eighth Annual Conference of the International Association for Business and Society, pp. 377–382.
Porter, M. E.: 1980, Competitive Strategy: Techniques for Analyzing Industries and Competitors (Free Press, New York, NY).
Prahalad, C. K. and G. Hamel: 1990, ‘The Core Competence of the Corporation’, Harvard Business Review 68 (May/June), 79–91.
Riesman, D., N. Glazer and R. Denny: 1950, The Lonely Crowd: A Study of the Changing American Character (Yale University Press, New Haven, CT).
Rorty, R.: 1979, Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature (Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ).
Savage, G. T., T. W. Nix, C. J. Whitehead and J. D. Blair: 1991, ‘Strategies for Assessing and Managing Organizational Stakeholders’, The Executive 5, 61–75.
Schendel, D. and C. Hofer: 1979, ‘Introduction’, in D. Schendel and C. Hofer (eds.), Strategic Management: A New View of Business Policy and Planning (Little Brown, Boston, MA), pp. 1–12.
Searle, J. R.: 1996, The Construction of Social Reality (Free Press, New York, NY).
Shaffer, B.: 1992, ‘Regulation, Competition and Strategy: The Case of Automotive Fuel Economy Standards’, in J. Post (ed.), Research in Corporate Social Performance and Policy 13, 191–218 (JAI Press, Greenwich, CT).
Shilts, R.: 1995, And the Band Played On: Politics, People and the AIDS Epidemic (Penguin Books, New York, NY).
Smart, J. J. C. and B. Williams: 1973, Utilitarianism: For & Against (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK).
Taylor, F. A.: 1911, The Principles of Management (W.W. Norton & Co., Inc., New York, NY).
Tichy, N. M., A. R. McGill and L. St. Clair: 1997, Corporate Global Citizenship: Doing Business in the Public Eye (The New Lexington Press, San Francisco, CA).
Varadarajan, P. R. and A. Menon: 1988, ‘Cause Related Marketing: A Coalignment of Marketing Strategy and Corporate Philanthropy’, Journal of Marketing 52, 58–74.
Von Clausewitz, K.: 1982, On War (Penguin, London).
Waddock, S. and S. B. Graves: 1997, ‘The Corporate Social Performance-financial Performance Link’, Strategic Management Journal 18, 303–319.
Wood, D. J.: 1986, Strategic Uses of Public Policy: Business and Government in the Progressive Era (Pitman Publishing Co., Boston, MA).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Husted, B.W., Allen, D.B. Is It Ethical to Use Ethics as Strategy?. Journal of Business Ethics 27, 21–31 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1006422704548
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1006422704548