ABSTRACT
Ethics has been described as “one of the most important, yet overlooked and misunderstood concepts in corporate America and schools of business”. This chapter takes a cultural approach to decipher ethics, drawing from sociology, anthropology, and the humanities in directing attention to social representations, discourses, and practices, as actors within various fields produce and enact what becomes recognized as ethical and unethical within market systems. It emphasizes ethics in explicit codes as well as implicit, generally accepted ideals and standards that guide managers in word and deed in social and marketing fields. The cultural approach to market ethics builds upon the philosophical foundations of ethics. Both deontological and teleological principles are relevant. Deontological concerns regard ethical behavior, while teleological concerns evaluate the egoistic or social utilitarian interests and effects of particular courses of action. Work on international business ethics has noted differences in negotiation strategies, acceptable levels of profit, fixed prices, and usury laws.
