Abstract
The story of Aaron Feuerstein is now old news but it was so spectacular in the late 1990s that it quickly made it into dozens of business ethics textbooks and anthologies. Until under his leadership as the President and CEO of Malden Mills Industries, Inc., a textile company (best known for Polartec) in Lawrence, Massachusetts, Malden Mills was taken by many CSR proponents to be the archetype of the socially responsible firm. However, the very virtues for which Malden Mills is lauded among CSR proponents are recognized also to be significant causes of Malden Mills’ recent bankruptcy and Feuerstein’s fall from leadership. Consequently, there is a strong argument to be made that passing the CSR test meant, for Malden Mills, failing the market test. Our discussion explores the implications of the principle ought implies can for CSR. If the Feuerstein-led Malden Mills is the archetype of a socially responsible firm, Malden Mills’ subsequent bankruptcy suggests some cherished notions of CSR must be reexamined in light of their failure to satisfy ought implies can. A CSR worth paying attention to ought to be mindful not just of the intentions that inform socially responsible action but also the effects of that action.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
R. Edward Freeman and Patricia H. Werhane, “Corporate Responsibility,” in A Companion to Applied Ethics, ed. by R.G. Frey, C.H. Wellman (New York: Blackwell Publishing, 2003) 552, 553.
- 2.
“Corporate Social Responsibility: Good Citizenship or Investor Rip-off?,” The Wall Street Journal, January 9, 2006, R6.
- 3.
Roger Martin, “The Virtue Matrix,” Rotman Management, Spring/Summer 2003, 7, 8.
- 4.
R.T. DeGeorge, “The Status of Business Ethics,” Research Workshop, Stanford University, August 1985, 14–17.
- 5.
Sandra Waddock, “Corporate Citizenship” in The Blackwell Encyclopedia of Management: Business Ethics, Second Edition, ed. by P.H. Werhane, R.E. Freeman (New York: Blackwell Publishing, 2005), 114.
- 6.
Matt Bai, “New World Economy”, New York Times Magazine, December 18, 2005, 15, 16.
- 7.
David Wallechinsky, “Is the American Dream Still Possible?,” Parade Magazine, April 23, 2006, 5.
- 8.
“Corporate Social Responsibility: Good Citizenship or Investor Rip-off?,” The Wall Street Journal, January 9, 2006, R6.
- 9.
“Competing Vision at Malden Mills” in John R. Boatright, Ethics and the Conduct of Business, 5th Edition (Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 2007), 364–366.
- 10.
Radley Balko, “Altruism? Bah, Humbug,” Apple Daily, December 24, 2004 [Accessed via World Wide Web at http://www.cato.org/dailys/12-24-04.html on September 15, 2006].
- 11.
Balko, “Altruism? Bah, Humbug,” op.cit.
- 12.
This negative corollary is just an application of modus tollens. Let Oa = ought to perform a and let Ca = can perform a. Adopt as conventional logical operators “→” for “implies” and “~” for “not.” “Ought to perform a implies can perform a” is expressed as: Oa→Ca. “Cannot perform a” is expressed as: ~Ca. From Oa→Ca and ~Ca, it follows by modus tollens that ~Oa.
- 13.
Jack Welch with Suzy Welch, Winning (New York: HarperCollins, 2005).
- 14.
Kenneth E. Goodpaster, “Business Ethics and Stakeholder Analysis,” Business Ethics Quarterly 1(1) (1991): 53–73.
- 15.
See, e.g., Franklin Foer, “Meet the New New Left: Bold, Fun and Stupid,” The New Republic, May 1, 2000 (arguing that “anarchy is socialism without the state” is the closest thing to an idea informing antiglobalization protesters’ activities—and it’s not very close) [Accessed via World Wide Web at http://web.nps.navy.mil/~relooney/3040_1432.htm on September 15, 2006].
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2014 Springer International Publishing Switzerland
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Gini, A., Marcoux, A.M. (2014). When Being a Good Company Isn’t Good Enough: The Malden Mills Case. In: Okonkwo, B. (eds) Christian Ethics and Corporate Culture. CSR, Sustainability, Ethics & Governance. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-00939-1_10
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-00939-1_10
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-00938-4
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-00939-1
eBook Packages: Business and EconomicsBusiness and Management (R0)