Business Ethics: Theoretical Evolution And Business Practice

In the past few years, the frequent revealing of business scandals in China and abroad has aroused once again peoples'concerns towards ethics and moral issue in business practices. And it has also brought on to the table the issue whether ethical consideration and value judgment should be implanted in the economics research. Therefore, business ethics has become a critical topic both in academic and practice field.From historical perspective, economics originated as an offshoot of Moral Philosophy. But the study on economics theory evolution shows that this origin has diverged into two different paths during the development. On the one side, economics has been viewed as a purely positive science, thus ethical theme has been downplayed because of the principle of value-neutral. On the other side, economics has been viewed as a social science with the nature of science and humanity, and economics research has been regarded as a field that embraces both ethics and value judgment. Thus, it conveys strong alliance between economics and ethics.At the same time, business practice has been calling for rebuilding the ethical dimension in economics research and business practice. Therefore, coming from different disciplines, business ethics has developed into an independent science since 1970s. Also, since 1990s, an extensive global business practice has resulted from the integration of theory and practice. Enterprises are at the core of the ethics practice movement. This movement has been driven by the governments, NGOs, enterprises and individuals etc. in the ways of laws, initiatives, authentications and principles or codes of conduct etc.Combining the results of many years'researches in China and one-year as visiting scholar in the U.S., this paper concentrates on the theory and practice issues of business ethics. It reviews the ethics theories of major economics schools and of their representative economists historically, and it explores the development of modern business ethics as an independent discipline. Therefore, this paper provides ahistorical picture on the theoretical origin and the evolution of business ethics in both China and Western society. Also, it concludes the similarities and compares the differences between business ethics theories of China and of the Western society. The research then reaches a conclusion that the ethical and moral consideration will enable more profound and more persuasive economics research both in China and abroad, both in the past and present, even though great differences in politics, economy and culture do exist. Meanwhile, even though approaches of practices are diversified, the results from the research on the business ethics in enterprises practices have shown that ethics management has become a critical part in corporate management globally, and is helpful for constructing a more ethical business community. Based on the theoretical and practical analysis, this paper finally suggests the rapid theory and practice development of business ethics in China, which is definitely urgent and important for building a harmonious society. In order to do so, a comprehensive integration should be emphasized, by considering Chinese background of special development phase and traditional business ethics, by following Marxism scientific methodology, and by learning from the experience of European and American.