(Ebook) MORAL RESPONSIBILITY OF FIRMS by Eric W. Orts, N. Craig Smith ISBN 9780198738534, 0198738536

(Ebook) MORAL RESPONSIBILITY OF FIRMS by Eric W. Orts, N. Craig Smith ISBN 9780198738534, 0198738536

Whether firms can be said to be moral agents and to have the capacity for moral responsibility has significant practical consequences. In most legal systems in the world, business firms are recognized as persons with the ability to own property, to maintain and defend lawsuits, and to self-organize governance structures. To recognize that these business persons can also act morally or immorally as organizations, however, would justify the imposition of other legal constraints and normative expectations on organizations. In the criminal law, for example, the idea that an organized firm may itself have criminal culpability is accepted in many countries (such as the United States) but rejected in others (such as Germany). This book collects new contributions by leading business scholars in business ethics, philosophy, and related disciplines to extend our understanding of the moral responsibility of firms. Abstract: This book examines whether firms as organizations can be considered morally responsible for their actions. This question has profound practical implications as well as theoretical significance, not least when we are so frequently today confronted with misconduct in business.