The Limits of the Ethical Responsibilities of Companies: Using Corporate Social Contract Theory to Identify Boundary Principles

Abstract Many normative theories in business ethics articulate the ethical responsibilities that companies have but fail to specify the ethical responsibilities that companies do not have. This omission can create the misleading impression that companies’ ethical responsibilities are unlimited, leading to both normative and practical problems. This article addresses this gap by exploring the limits of companies’ ethical responsibilities. Using corporate social contract theory, it identifies two sets of boundary principles that delineate when companies no longer have an ethical responsibility to act or to refrain from acting. By advancing a bounded business ethics approach, the article argues that business ethics is not only about what the ethics of business should be but also about what it should not be.