Die Room for Ethics in Business following the German Roots of Social Market Economy

Befähigung zu gerechten internationalen Beziehungen durch Kommunikations- und Informationsdesign

Abstract

The current global financial and economic crisis has created an unprecedented recession and very high employment in addition to huge environmental and social problems. All these have stimulated discussions among economists regarding the need for a new paradigm allowing »fairness«, »ethics«, »social and ecologic responsibility« and »sustainability« to come to the fore in the economic system. Today, even liberal economists admit that the current situation is connected to the orthodox Neoclassical Economic Theory claiming that all economic agents act only for their very own interests and profits. This is reflected in »the shareholders’ wealth maximisation« approach of the Anglo-American stock-market-based economic system. In this paper, we have attempted to construct a simple conceptual framework to integrate ethics or moral values with strategic management for business sustainability by focussing on the German Social Market Economy Model as a blueprint for a new economic paradigm.