Business and Professional Ethics Journal

Impact investment ventures are growing in the modern economy. However, the recent failures of some impact investment ventures are a cause for concern. Unfortunately, our concern about the ethicality of these kinds of social exchanges seem to emerge when it is too late. Namely, we become concerned about lack of ethics when a venture has failed or is collapsing. A better approach would be for us to have a means to proactively assess and improve the degree to which the arrangements and practices of a social exchange meet ethical standards. Whereas much work has been done to equip social ventures to evaluate their impacts, little work has been done to create frameworks that could be used to assess the degree to which social exchanges integrate ethical practices in their designs. This paper proposes such a framework. For illustration purposes, the proposed framework would also be used to evaluate the One Acre Farm, an impact investment venture in Africa.

The prevalent rule-based perspective on diversity management renders most diversity initiatives more or less uniform, and it therefore also renders the individual(s) in charge of these initiatives replaceable. Against this background, this article argues that an ethical realignment towards a virtue-based perspective, focusing on the diversity manager him- or herself, could help rethink diversity management, and to refashion it into a more impactful shape. The virtue in question is the Aristotelian notion of the virtue of practical wisdom (phrónēsis). Making their practical wisdom a selection criterion for the recruitment process is a first step in the direction of upgrading the concept of diversity management. However, it is also important to adjust their working conditions, the design of their role, as well as their autonomy and performance evaluations in a way that allows them to develop, maintain, and practice this phrónēsis.

The benefit corporation (BC) is a for-profit corporation required to create a positive impact on workers, communities, society, and environment. The purpose of this paper is to explore how BCs reconcile dominant and alternative frames of profit. This study presented here explores three BCs in the U.S. through a dual-method approach based on observations and interviews. The study reveals how BC members understand and express the idea of profit. Furthermore, it shows the formation of an alternative frame of profit and elucidates three processes whereby the dominant and alternative ideas are reconciled. It highlights both interpretive capabilities and limitations of social actors within the dominant discourse of the contemporary social-economic system.

Muhammad Yunus, Franck Riboud, Grameen Danone, those are some names and projects that may come to mind when thinking about social entrepreneurship. But what about Paul of Tarsus, John Chrysostom or Basil of Caesarea? In this theoretical article, we propose to revisit the ancient notion of oikonomia. Greek philosophers and after them the Church Fathers have drawn for more than twelve centuries the contours of this notion. In the light of their works, we consider the promise of an economy that can be intrinsically altruistic and generous. Building on the work of Paul Ricoeur, we study the ethical dimension of oikonomia as economy of the self, others and the city. The Christian oikonomia is then interpreted as practical wisdom. And at the top of it, social entrepreneurship appears as a sign of a new ethical form of economy that we call relational economy.

Ethics management programs have become a popular first step for organizations to manage ethical risks and employee behaviors. However, such programs may fail to foster moral responsiveness or acknowledge broader societal issues. This article contributes to this discussion through an analysis of qualitative data from an ethics survey of fifteen South African companies. Results indicate employees experience persistent unethical behaviors in the form of the disrespect, bullying and discrimination. Reflecting on these results, the article explores the limits of ethical management programs, and whether a compliance approach undermines the transformative ethics that is most needed in organizations struggling with diversity and inclusion. Drawing on Levinas, the article shows that openness to the face of the Other does not lend itself to instrumental orientations, nor to formalized, standardized responses. Instead, moral responsiveness to particular Others is required, and it is this aspect that may be absent from South African ethics initiatives.