Business ethics and social responsibility in transition economies

Abstract

The newly developed market‐oriented system in Hungary requires new values, different abilities, and more sensitivity to a wide variety of issues on the part of corporate leadership. The nature of these values and abilities will more than likely vary depending on the industry. The purpose of this study was to examine the view of business ethics and social responsibility among Hungarian managers in both the business and non‐business sectors. The results indicate differences between the examined groups and diverse opinions among participants within each group.

Vol. 2, No. 4, October 2009. All in one file.

“…Thirteen behaviours were identified from the comments and represented in 4 clusters of social responsibility behaviours, as shown in Table 4. The findings of the current interviews indicated some overlap with those of Fülöp et al (2000).…”

“…We follow Fülöp et al (2000)'s definition of social responsibility as "the positive activities a company undertakes in the society in which it operates" including responsibility towards customers, employees and the public. When the concept was first developed more than twenty years ago, organisations found it difficult to operationalise it in their business practices, as it required sacrifices to be made on the financial level.…”

Developing Competitive Advantage through Ethical and SR Practices: The Case of SME in Australia and Malaysia

“…The management literature generally is increasingly highlighting the importance of ethical management behaviours and the researcher made reference to this literature when defining this competency domain (e.g., Fülöp et al, 2000;Hornsby et al, 1994). Specifically, the definition of ethical business behaviour proposed by Lewis (1985) was used to define ethical practices as behaviours that indicate the use of "rules, standards, codes, or principles which provide guidelines for morally right behaviour and truthfulness in specific situations" (p. 381).…”

“…However, recently, organisations' leaders have started to acknowledge the importance of being socially responsible in business affairs. For example, Fülöp et al (2000) found that there is a growing commitment to social responsibility among smaller firms, which is comparable to that of larger firms. Specifically, they found that small firms have demonstrated willingness to make arrangements to meet the requirements of social responsibility especially to their customers, their employees, and the public.…”

“…The same applies to ethical business practices. Despite this, in a study on Hungarian firms, Fülöp et al (2000) found that smaller firms were rated negatively by non-business respondents in terms of ethical and social responsibility practices. This raises concerns as to the applicability of such concepts among small business owners.…”