ABSTRACT
Business leaders and companies that operate according to high standards of conduct and integrity, and with a commitment to positive action to mitigate and reduce negative social and environmental impacts, recognise the changing landscape as an opportunity to influence and shape the standards for corporate best practice. True confidence in business integrity comes not from tacking on something additional or peripheral to the business objective—being profitable and successful— but from the commitment to make higher standards of conduct an integral part of how business goals are pursued. In the United States, the political response is repeated passage of swift, wide-reaching prescriptive legislation in response to a call for action from the highest level of government. Other nations, such as the United Kingdom, have resolved to strengthen but continue with hybrid system of norms, principles and rules directed at the behavioural and cultural roots of business conduct.
