FOCUS: Risks in Business Ethics and Venture Capital

By creating new ventures and new job opportunities venture capital is essential to a dynamic economy. But it should also be fair and ethical at every stage. Professor Fassin explores the various ethical issues which arise between venture capitalists, entrepreneurs and investors. He teaches at the University of Mons (FUCAM) and has written widely on management. From 1988-1991 he was Secretary General of the European Venture Capital Association. He is partner of the Veerick School of Management of the University of Ghent.     

FOCUS: Investment

'Although the empirical and conceptual underpinnings of New Finance have been rigorously tested, its ethical underpinnings have not been explored.'These are seen to derive from the social remoteness of late twentieth century individualism, which needs to be countered by sensitivity to the social context of finance and to the developmental nature of ethical behaviour. The author is Fellow in Finance at Templeton College, Oxford.     

FOCUS: Equal Opportunities: The Challenges for Business

The equal opportunities issue constitutes one of the biggest ethical and practical challenges ever faced by business, because it strikes at fundamental cultural assumptions about the purpose and responsibilities of business and the rights of individuals which are ingrained from childhood. The author is chairman of Business in the Community's'Opportunity 2000'.     

FOCUS: Changing Regulations

When bad business behaviour is so much in the news is this a time for tighter regulation? But can standards be set for “good behaviour” in business? The author is Senior Lecturer in Public Relations and Philosophy at Leeds Business School, Leeds Metropolitan University, Leeds LS2 8AF.     

FOCUS: The Volkswagen Experience of Investing in Central Europe

The Chairman of Volkswagen's Board of Management made the following presentation in London last November at a Conference on'Business and Moral Standards in Post-Communist Europe', held under the auspices of the Cardinal Archbishop of Westminster and sponsored by the Sedgwick Group and KPMG Peat Marwick. Dr Hahn's lecture is reproduced with permission.     

FOCUS: The Ethics of HIV/AIDS and the Workplace

How should companies handle the issue of HIV/AIDS and cope with the ethical dilemmas which result? Should they adopt a defensive policy or aim for a more humanistic policy? Dr Goss is Senior Lecturer in Organizational Behaviour in the University of Portsmouth Business School.     

FOCUS: Guidance for British Managers

In 1990-92 Britain's Institute of Management commissioned a working party of its Professional Practice Committee to review the Institute's Code of Conduct and Guides to Professional Management Practice. Sheila Evers, currently Vice-Chairman of the Institute of Management, chaired the working party; and based on further discussions she has now written and compiled a supporting document, "The Manager as a Professional", with checklists for the individual manager. Copyright of the documents, reproduced here with permission, rests with The Institute of Management, which is, however, willing to permit their being used and quoted with due acknowledgement.     

FOCUS: Business Ethics in Austria

Our Associate Editor for Austria describes the unique national features which underlie the recent development of modern business ethics in his country. Univ.-Prof. Dr Franz Rupert Hrubi is a member of the Abteilung für Philosophie, the University of Economics and Business Administration, A 1090 Vienna, Schlagergasse 6, Austria.     

FOCUS: Moral Responsibilities to Competitors

Are there any moral restraints on how a company should behave towards its competitors, or is all fair in love, war - and business? Dr Higginson is Director of the Ridley Hall Foundation, Cambridge CB3 9HG. The Foundation is concerned with the application of Christian faith and values in business, and conducts research, seminars, publications and speaking engagements to that end. This paper was first presented at a Seminar on Teaching Business Ethics held at London Business School on Friday, 10 March, 1995.     

商海拾趣

随着经济全球化和科技进步在经济各领域不断深入,世界必将进行新一轮产业结构调整升级,由此带来新一轮全球产业转移。新一轮国际产业转移为发展中经济体由产业链低端向高端升级,由生产制造向高端服务转型创造了新机遇,为转变经济发展方式开拓新空间和路径。     

FOCUS: Ethics in Need of Regulation

How much real impact on business behaviour is achieved by ethical debate and discussion? The author contends that little ethical change will come about unless it is the subject of regulation and institutions, as instanced in equal opportunities, corporate governance and the quality of financial services. Dr Clarke is a member of the Department of Sociology, University of Liverpool, P.O. Box 147, Liverpool L69 3BX.     

FOCUS: Sex-Discrimination in Job Evaluation

Job evaluation systems are becoming increasingly important in Europe to counter sex-discrimination, but evaluation criteria can themselves be discriminatory. Dr Jeanne de Bruijn is Professor in Women and Policy at the Free University of Amsterdam.     

FOCUS: The Social Responsibility of Business: Who Are the Responsible Agents?

Resolving the strongly polarised debate about whether or not business has social responsibilities may call for distinguishing more clearly between a business as a non-moral agent with a purely financial raison d'être and its managers who may have wider and more complex commitments. The author worked as a financial manager in industry and taught at City University Business School for many years, and also served on the professional conduct appeal committee of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales. He is currently co-writing his third book, a study on business strategy.     

FOCUS: Ethics in Business and Health

"The NHS may not, on a tight definition, be a business, but it has an obligation to its financial stakeholders (the tax-payers), and this implies an ethical obligation to be business- like. This means it must be as well-managed as it is well-meaning." The author is Chairman of St George's Healthcare NHS Trust. Until 1988 she was Head of the Department of Politics at Queen Mary and Westfield College, University of London, where she is now Visiting Professor. She is a non-executive director of Norwich Union and of the HMV Group and her most recent book is Business Ethics at Work , Cambridge University Press, 1995.     

FOCUS: Key Issues in Ethical Investment

Welcome precision is brought to the idea, history, types and motives of ethical investment in what will become an authoritative review of the subject. Marc Cooper is a postgraduate researcher at the European Business Management School, University of Wales, and Bodo Schlegelmilch, recently British Rail Professor of Marketing there, has recently been appointed Professor of Marketing at the American Graduate School of International Management (Thunderbird), Phoenix, Arizona.     

FOCUS: Ethical Problems in Ethics Research

Current research in business ethics gives serious cause for concern because it may be designed more to advance academic careers than to encourage ethical business. The author is completing his doctoral thesis in business ethics at the Management School, Imperial College, London.     

FOCUS: Health Care as Business Introduction

One of the commonest complaints in Britain against the current National Health Service is that business and commercial values are being allowed, and even encouraged, to dominate the more humane values involved in caring for people in their weakness. What is the situation and where are the problems, and what can Britain learn from Germany and Holland? We are grateful to the distinguished author on business ethics and member of our Editorial Board, Professor Tom Sorell, for undertaking the production of this FOCUS section of the October Review on such a sensitive and topical issue.