Business Ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility: Translating Theory into Action

Ethics in business embodying fairness, justice, and human rights principles has the potential to unlock, reveal, and address the unethical, unfair, and obscure business practices that constitute barriers to the development of sustainable societies and economies. Hence, corporate social responsibility, following the significant value of business ethics, constitutes a critical determinant of promoting the key ethical features of a company’s culture, such as transparency, diversity, inclusion, and equality; governance; volunteerism; and philanthropy in the market. Through this lens, this chapter seeks to articulate the crucial role of ethics in framing responsible business conduct that is translated into action through corporate social responsibility schemes. To this end, the chapter elaborates on the concept of ethics and its key components, as well as on the two predominant ethical theories facilitating the deployment of corporate social responsibility within the framework of business ethics. Looking ahead, as a way of effectively addressing unethical and unjust corporate practices, this chapter concedes that ethics can serve as a stepping stone for voluntary initiatives for corporate self-regulation, primarily involving corporate social responsibility.