How important are ethics and social responsibility?

Introduction The study of ethics has become increasingly important with global business expansion, because of an increase in ethical and social responsibility - concerns that businesses face in different country environments. There exists, however, a wide divergence in the level of importance attached to these two issues in different countries (Czinkota and Ronkainen, 1998). Moreover, vast differences exist from country to country in the economic development, cultural standards, legal/political systems, and expectations regarding business conduct (…

…any differences due to age. Overall similarities and differences among the four countries emerged on specific dimensions of business effectiveness. On the dimensions of output quality and competitiveness, there were no differences among the four countries. Inter-country differences were found on the dimensions of communication, efficiency, profits, survival, and stakeholder satisfaction. These findings regarding cross-cultural similarities and differences are useful in furthering our understanding and management of ethics and social responsibility in the international context.