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Journal of Business Ethics

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01-09-2013

Honorableness or Beneficialness? Cicero on Natural Law, Virtues, Glory, and (Corporate) Reputation

Author: Michael S. Aßländer

Published in: Journal of Business Ethics | Issue 4/2013

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Abstract

During the last decade corporate reputation as one of the central efforts of corporate citizenship behavior has gained increasing attention in scholarly research, as has the way that reputation can serve as an instrument for business purposes. This poses the question of how such reputation will be achieved. To answer these questions this article examines Cicero’s considerations concerning the interrelation of honorableness and beneficialness made in his work ‘On Duties’. Based on Cicero’s understanding of universal natural law and his idea that reputation derives solely from honorable behavior and the orientation in the common good, we show that also corporate reputation is achieved only if it is based primarily on ‘honorableness’, and that reputation is lost if financial interests override the intentions of honesty of a company.

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Title: Honorableness or Beneficialness? Cicero on Natural Law, Virtues, Glory, and (Corporate) Reputation
Author: Michael S. Aßländer
Publication date: 01-09-2013
Publisher: Springer Netherlands
Published in: Journal of Business Ethics / Issue 4/2013
Print ISSN: 0167-4544
Electronic ISSN: 1573-0697
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-013-1819-7

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