Business ethics is the set of practices and policies that companies use to guide them through decisions about finances, negotiations and deals, corporate social responsibility, and more. Without a strong set of ethics, a business can run afoul of the law and encounter financial pitfalls and moral dilemmas.

The objective of this book is a practical, fair, balanced, and objective treatment of the role of ethics in the business performance of companies in competitive markets that demonstrates how ethics affects business culture, strategy, decision-making, and value creation, which then determine competitiveness and business viability. The universality of corruption and the prevalence of unethical conduct is the background from which the narrative describes how ethical issues enter all functional areas.

The ethics’ effects on the complexity of decisions and challenges are examined and the questions of why bother with ethical business and whether businesses invite government regulation are answered. Next, a framework is developed to identify and trace links and influences of business ethics on strategic decisions, corporate culture, and decision-making. The effects of strategy and culture on key business success factors and their interdependence are reviewed along with those with competitive advantage elements. These assessments then form the basis of characterizing competitive advantage in the framework developed. Decision-making and strategy links with competitive advantage elements and the inter-competitive advantage element interactions are evaluated along with competitive advantage organizational effects.

The uniqueness of this book is the creation of a method to identify and assess how ethics impacts business decisions and competitive advantage based on accepted economic tenants. It lays the plan for quantitative assessments of the impact of ethical behavior, and it is written from the perspective of a business economist. Other books deal with business ethics elements only; none explains how ethics’ effects permeate business sustainability. The main contribution of this book is demonstrating that ethics is a necessary factor for business sustainability. It provides insights to regulators at all government levels, counterbalances ethicist claims about business ethics, and points out how ethical business conduct affects the economy.