- "Business ethics (also known as corporate ethics) is a form of applied ethics or professional ethics, that examines ethical principles and moral or ethical problems that can arise in a business environment."
Adhering to international trade regulations and ethical business practices.
International Trade Laws: The regulations, agreements, and treaties that govern international trade, including anti-corruption laws, trade sanctions, export controls, and import regulations.
Code of Conduct: A document detailing the standards of behavior expected of employees, contractors, and partners regarding compliance and ethics in the international trade industry.
Anti-Corruption: The legal and ethical implications surrounding bribery, kickbacks, and other unethical practices used for business advantage.
Risk Assessment: Identifying and evaluating the threats and risks of compliance and ethics violations, including regulatory, reputational, and financial risk.
Due Diligence: Assessing new business partners, suppliers, and customers to ensure they meet ethical and compliance requirements.
Compliance Management Systems: Implementing policies, procedures, and controls to ensure compliance with applicable laws and regulations.
Training and Education: Providing education and training programs to employees, partners, and suppliers to ensure understanding of compliance and ethical standards.
Third-Party Risk Management: Identifying and mitigating risks associated with using third-party vendors, suppliers, and business partners.
Whistleblowing: The process for reporting misconduct, fraud or unethical behavior within an organization.
Social Responsibility: The commitment of companies to ensure ethical behavior by taking social responsibility for their impact on society, the environment and the economy.
Human Rights: Taking responsibility in identifying areas of human rights risks and developing policies and procedures that respect human rights.
Data Privacy and Protection: Ensuring that all personal identifiable information is legally collected, handled and stored securely. Protective measures should be implemented to avoid data breaches.
Export Controls: Strategies to ensure compliance with regulations that control the export of certain sensitive goods and information out of the country.
Sanctions: The implementation of sanctions lists that prohibit certain transactions with identified individuals or groups. Compliance with these sanctions is important for companies avoiding fines and reputational risks.
Records Management: Document management procedures that ensure accurate and timely retention of business records for compliance and audit purposes.
Cybersecurity: The strategies and procedures implemented for protecting sensitive data from cyber-attacks that can result in financial losses, reputational harm, and other serious repercussions.
Contracting and Commercial Transactions: Understanding the legal implications when making and interpreting contractual agreements in international business transactions.
Audit and Assessment: Performing regular assessments to evaluate compliance with legal and ethical standards, and identifying areas of improvement.
Investigations: Procedures for conducting investigations for suspected compliance and ethics violations, importance of protecting confidentiality of all investigations.
Reporting: Guidelines and requirements for reporting the results of audits, investigations, and assessments to regulators, shareholders, and other stakeholders.
Export Compliance: Ensuring that exported goods and technology comply with relevant laws and regulations, such as export controls, sanctions, and embargoes.
Procurement Compliance: Ensuring that purchasing or procurement activities comply with relevant laws and regulations, such as anti-corruption laws, environmental regulations, and labor laws.
Anti-money laundering (AML) Compliance: Ensuring that financial institutions and other relevant entities have adequate policies, procedures, and systems in place to prevent money laundering and terrorist financing.
Due Diligence Compliance: Ensuring that companies engage in appropriate due diligence activities to identify and mitigate risks related to third-party vendors, agents, intermediaries, and business partners.
Data Privacy Compliance: Ensuring that companies protect personal data in accordance with relevant data protection laws and regulations.
Anti-corruption Compliance: Ensuring that companies prevent, detect, and remediate corruption risk, such as bribery, extortion, and facilitation payments.
Competition Law Compliance: Ensuring that companies comply with laws and regulations related to competition, such as anti-trust laws and regulations.
Environmental Compliance: Ensuring that companies comply with environmental laws and regulations, such as emissions standards, recycling and waste management requirements, and pollution prevention.
Labor and Employment Law Compliance: Ensuring that companies comply with laws and regulations related to labor and employment, such as minimum wage laws, working conditions, and employment discrimination.
Health and Safety Compliance: Ensuring that companies comply with laws and regulations related to health and safety, such as workplace safety, hazardous materials management, and product safety.
- "It applies to all aspects of business conduct and is relevant to the conduct of individuals and entire organizations."
- "These ethics originate from individuals, organizational statements or the legal system."
- "These norms, values, ethical, and unethical practices are the principles that guide a business."
- "Business ethics have two dimensions, normative business ethics or descriptive business ethics."
- "Academics attempting to understand business behavior employ descriptive methods."
- "The range and quantity of business ethical issues reflects the interaction of profit-maximizing behavior with non-economic concerns."
- "Interest in business ethics accelerated dramatically during the 1980s and 1990s."
- "Most major corporations today promote their commitment to non-economic values under headings such as ethics codes and social responsibility charters."
- "Adam Smith said in 1776, 'People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public, or in some contrivance to raise prices.'"
- "Governments use laws and regulations to point business behavior in what they perceive to be beneficial directions."
- "Ethics implicitly regulates areas and details of behavior that lie beyond governmental control."
- "The emergence of large corporations with limited relationships and sensitivity to the communities in which they operate accelerated the development of formal ethics regimes."
- "Maintaining an ethical status is the responsibility of the manager of the business."
- "According to a 1990 article in the Journal of Business Ethics, 'Managing ethical behavior is one of the most pervasive and complex problems facing business organizations today.'" (Note: There were not enough specific quotes to address additional questions beyond this point.)