Business ethics in globalization era: A competitive advantage for companies

The more one knows ethics, the more it is used and the more useful it becomes”-Plato, The quote by Plato is a reminder on just how important ethics is and how important it is to educate your employees on proper ethical practices. In this paper we would like to look at the topic of global business ethics and its advantage on companies over another. It is globally believed that the only way to build long-term relations with shareholder value is to incorporate economic, social and environmental codes of conduct into business strategy. Global expansion has brought greater involvement with different cultures (affect of culture on ethical behavior) & socio-economic systems. With this development, business ethics have shown remarkable entry in the globalization era. Thus, the importance of business ethics is integral to the reputation, growth and finances of any organization. All organizations are primarily run for profit and for the benefits of stakeholders so they have a lot of responsibilities towards their internal & external customers and suppliers but some has recognizes their responsibilities to the greater extent and they are working for the communities in which they are located and to the society at large to utilize their business ethics as a source of competitive advantage. This research will explain the growing issues particularly on the following points:

As a competitive advantage

Affect of culture on ethical behavior

Ethics as threat to business competitiveness in case of ethical failure

A decade ago, many companies viewed business ethics only in terms of administrative compliance with legal standards and adherence to internal rules and regulations. Now due to globalization era companies’ records of positive or negative ethical conduct determine their “licence to operate” in some markets…