A History of the International Society of Business, Economics, and Ethics, Part 2

By July 25, 2014 May 9th, 2016 History, News, Updates

Part II

Georges Enderle, University of Notre Dame

When Richard De George, Henk van Luijk and I met in 1988 for a round table on business ethics at the World Congress of Philosophy in Brighton, England, we had no idea about the upcoming revolutionary changes the world would experience in the next 25 years. But we were convinced that a truly global society for business ethics – beyond the American and the European ones – was necessary. That’s why we launched ISBEE. What then happened is reported by Richard in the first part of the ISBEE history until 2000. In the following I take up the narrative from there and contribute my part, based on the available documents and the experiences I remember.

The turn of the millennium in 2000 was a pivotal year that placed the challenges of globalization in the forefront of the world’s attention. Protests against globalization and the WTO erupted in Seattle in November 1999. The UN Global Compact1 was officially launched in July 2000, and the UN General Assembly adopted the Declaration on the Eight Millennium Development Goals in September 2000.2 In February 2002, Kofi Annan, UN Secretary General, addressed the challenges of globalization in two remarkable speeches, one to the World Economic Forum organized that year in New York, and the other to the alternative World Social Forum held in Porto Alegre, Brazil.3

The Second ISBEE World Congress on July 19 – 23, 2000 in Sao Paulo, Brazil

In line with this focus, the main theme of the Second ISBEE World Congress was “The Ethical Challenges of Globalization.”4 We invited keynote speakers from academia (Luiz Carlos Bresser Pereira, Martha Nussbaum, and others), business (Mark Moody – Stuart, Muhammad Yunus, and others) and international organizations (World Bank: James Wolfensohn; UN Development Program: Sakiko Fukuda – Parr), and most of them were able to attend (except for Nussbaum and Wolfensohn). Two plenary panels discussed “Competition and Social Responsibility” and “Religious Resources for Business Ethics” in Latin America. Several regional tracks dealt with regional topics in Africa, Europe, Japan, Latin and North America. Ninety – six papers were presented, and five executive panels in Portuguese were conducted. With 370 participants from 41 countries, the Second ISBEE Congress was an important and successful global gathering, primarily thanks to Cecilia Arruda and her team in Sao Paulo, with whom I had the pleasure to co – chair the Congress.

The high awareness of global challenges at the turn of the millennium and the rich experiences at the ISBEE Congress in Sao Paulo gave strong impetus to a number of ISBEE activities. They were guided by several task forces and supported by the ISBEE Secretariat which had moved in 1997 from the University of Kansas (with Richard De George) to the University of Notre Dame (with Georges Enderle) and operated there until summer 2009.

All task forces consisted of members of the ISBEE Executive Committee, except for the Business Executive Advisory Board that included eight business leaders.5 A short description of the task forces follows.

In 2001, an attractively designed leaflet on ISBEE’s mission, objectives and benefits for its members was printed in Sao Paulo, distributed to all ISBEE members and the members of the Caux Round Table and posted on the ISBEE website (in charge: Arruda, Bryan Husted, Enderle). Moreover, the ISBEE Fund was established to raise voluntary contributions in support of people from developing countries and transition economies for attending international business ethics meetings, particularly the ISBEE Congress (in charge: Enderle, Arruda).

In order to improve the communication with ISBEE members, in spring 2002, the ISBEE Newsletter was launched; it appeared three times a year and was designed and printed in Sao Paulo and distributed by the ISBEE Secretariat, with Arruda as editor-in-chief until spring 2004.6 The issues #8 (November 2004) and #9 (June 2005) were edited by Rosemary Guillette and Deon Rossouw, respectively, before Gerhold Becker as editor-in-chief took care of the ISBEE Newsletter from May 2006 to October 2009.

In the same year, the ISBEE Business Advisory Board was created according to the ISBEE Constitution that foresees a “Board of Trustees” as the Council of the Society (Article III.15).7 It is in line with one of ISBEE’s main objectives to bring together academics and business people interested in the ethical dimension of business and economics on the international level. The Board was organized by Ken Goodpaster, van Luijk and Enderle, in collaboration with Arruda, Tom Campbell, Tony Coady, Peter Koslowski and Xiaohe Lu.

The Board of 2003 – 2006 included the following members: Bill George (Medtronics, USA); Tory Hashimoto, Fuji Ad. System, Japan); Minory Inaoka (Ito – Yokado Co., Japan); Ary Kahan, Kahan Automotriz, Mexico); Reuel Khoza (Eskom Holdings, South Africa); Ewald Kist (ING Group, Netherlands); Charito Kruvant (Creative Associates International, USA); and Srinivasaraghavan (Sundaram Finance, India). The Board members participated in email exchanges with the help of questions regarding: (1) major ethical challenges in global business in the upcoming few years; (2) needs and expectations for suggestions from ISBEE; and (3) participation in and support of the upcoming ISBEE Congress 2004. In fact, three members of the Board took part in the Congress in Melbourne: Mr. Kist gave the keynote address on “Restoring Confidence in Business” , Mr. Murthy on “Globalization, Ethics and Information Technology”, and Ms. Kruvant chaired the plenary panel session on “The Caux Round Table: Self – Assessment and Improvement Process: A Transcultural Tool for Creating Corporate Conscience.” Board members also contributed USD 3,600 to the ISBEE Fund.

After this successful collaboration, the Business Advisory Board continued its deliberation in 2007 – 2008 with the main objective to prepare the ISBEE Congress 2008 in South Africa. It consisted of some previous and some new members: Edward Bickham (Anglo American, UK); Eugenio Clariond Reyes (Acura, Mexico); Minoru Inaoka, Ito – Yokado Co., Japan); Reuel Khoza (Netbank and Aka Capital, South Africa); Charito Kruvant (Creative Associates International, USA); Narayana Murthy (Infosys Technology, India); Karen Wood (BHP – Billiton, Australia); and Yasunori Yokote (Mitsui & Co., Japan). Participants from the ISBEE Executive Committee were Deon Rossouw, Tom Dunfee and Enderle. One particularly fruitful discussion occurred in the international conference call meeting on June 6, 2007 at 8:00 am (US Eastern Daylight Saving Time) – at a time that, fortunately, could be handled by all members from Australia, Japan, India, Africa, Europe, US and Mexico. Again, Board members assisted in raising funds for the ISBEE Congress, and Mr. Murthy participated in a plenary panel discussion on “Alleviating Poverty” with Karin Bolding (USA), Abu Hanif (Bangladesh) and Pat Werhane (USA).

Back to the early 2000s, ISBEE entered an affiliation with the Caux Round Table (CRT), led by Goodpaster, Husted, Enderle and Iwao Taka.8 The affiliation was rooted in the shared goal of identifying solutions to the ethical challenges which corporations face in a global economy. It builds on the capacities and competencies of both organizations. Coming into effect on July 1, 2002, it lasted four years. (It was then extended for four years until 2010.) On the one side, ISBEE participated in the CRT Global Dialogue in 2002 in Mexico with Husted and Goodpaster, in 2003 in Caux-sur-Montreux, Switzerland, with Enderle and Goodpaster, and in the event in 2004 in Tokyo with Taka and Goodpaster. ISBEE presented preliminary findings of the ISBEE Task Force for Global Challenges and discussed the Agenda 2004 in Melbourne. On the other side, CRT shared its mailing list in summer 2002 and provided ISBEE with a letter of recommendation. It also gave ISBEE the opportunity to collaborate with individual CRT participants in specific activities: Hashimoto, Inaoka, Kahan, and Kruvant served on the ISBEE Executive Advisory Board; and Dean Maines, Harry Halloran, Kruvant, Goodpaster, and Hiroshi Ishida conducted a plenary panel session at the ISBEE Congress 2004.

The Task Force for Global Challenges was a major initiative of ISBEE, motivated by the Congress theme of 2000 and stretching to the ISBEE Congress 2004 and beyond. It brought together the competences of many members of the Executive Committee: De George, Enderle, Goodpaster, Husted, Koslowski, and, later, Rossouw and Marta Sañudo. At the same time, it provided a solid foundation for the conversations with the CRT. The Task Force began its work in March 2002 and explored and discussed major ethical challenges in international business by email, in small meetings, and at a teleconference. It produced the minutes of the teleconference of July 9, 2002 and the interim reports for the CRT Global Dialogue in 2002 and 2003, and provided the basis for the Agenda 2004.

The Agenda 2004 aimed at identifying and describing the major global challenges for business ethics from 2004 to 2008 and guiding the activities of ISBEE in those years. It grew out of the ISBEE Task Force for Global Challenges, the Interim Reports presented at the CRT Global Dialogue 2002 and 2003 and in consultation with the ISBEE Business Executive Advisory Board. It was publicly discussed in the concluding session of the ISBEE Congress 2004 on July 17, 2004 in Melbourne.9 The Agenda 2004 comprised five major challenges identified by five members of the Executive Committee:

  1. Corporate Governance and Trust in Business (Rossouw)
  2. Globalization and Global Ethics (Enderle)
  3. Fairness in International Trade (Sañudo)
  4. Place of Institutional Actors (van Luijk)
  5. Ethical Implications of Contemporary Technologies (De George)

These different task forces were also instrumental in preparing the Third ISBEE World Congress in 2004. The Executive Committee received three bids from Australia: Dr. Simon Longstaff (St. James Ethics Center, Sydney), Prof. C. A. J. (Tony) Coady (University of Melbourne), and John Milton – Smith (Curtin Business School, Perth). In June 2001 the Executive Committee opted for Melbourne, followed by a visit of Heidi Hoivik in late 2001 and a visit by Enderle in late 2003 to Melbourne.

The Third ISBEE World Congress on July 14 – 17, 2004, in Melbourne, Australia

The Congress was farsightedly co-chaired by Arruda and Coady with great vision and competence and master fully convened by Tom Campbell, Charles Sturt University and the Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics (CAPPE). In order to attain broad involvement, three committees were formed: the International Committee (with the members of the ISBEE Executive Committee), the Regional Committee (with members from Australia, Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines), and the Melbourne Committee. The Congress received strong support by BHP Billiton, the University of Melbourne, and the City of Melbourne.

The Congress theme focused on “Freedoms and Responsibilities in Business – Ethics, Leadership and Corporate Governance in a Global Economy.” It covered three main topics: Ethics and Global Challenges; Ethics and Corporate Governance; and Ethics and Information and Technology, featuring prominent speakers such as Peter Singer (Princeton University), Ernst Ligteringen (Global Reporting Initiative), Charles Goodyear (BHP Billiton), Honorable Justice Michael Kirby (High Court of Australia), Doreen McBarnet (University of Oxford), Ewald Kist (ING Group), Richard De George (University of Kansas), Narayana Murthy (Infosys), and others. The Self – Assessment and Improvement Process of the Caux Round Table was presented, and, under the leadership of Rossouw, six scholars reported on corporate governance around the globe. The rich Congress program also included numerous Special Sessions and Concurrent Sessions with over 250 papers. A particular highlight of the Congress was the intercultural concert with the Stiff Gins (Australian Aborigine singers) and Ma Xiaohui, Erhu (Chinese violin) virtuoso from Shanghai, China.

The Third ISBEE World Congress gathered about 300 participants from over 408 countries, including 71% from academia, 16% business, 5% government, and 8% NGOs. Thanks to the ISBEE Fund, 10 scholars from the former Eastern bloc, India, Africa, and South America received financial aid; in addition, 12 scholars from China were supported by the Melbourne Committee. As a result of hosting the Congress 2004, the University of Melbourne established a Chair of Business Ethics. A similar outcome happened nine years later in Warsaw when the Kozminski University, the host institution of the ISBEE Congress 2012, created the first Chair of Business Ethics in Poland to be held by Wojciech Gasparski, the co – chair of this Congress.

To organize a global meeting of such high quality every four years takes a great deal of work, but it is certainly worthwhile and deserves to be called the “Olympics of Business Ethics,” an apposite designation introduced by Rossouw. The ISBEE General Assembly on July 17 expressed its gratitude to all who contributed in many ways to the success of the Congress, particularly to Cecilia Arruda who was unable to attend the meeting due to serious health problems.10

In the wake of the ISBEE Congress 2004, several publications appeared, highlighting two main topics discussed in Melbourne. T. Campell and C. Taylor edited a Special Issue on “Global Justice and Global Prosperity” in the Australian Journal of Professional and Applied Ethics (8:1, 2006); and D. Rossouw presented the country – and region – related reports on corporate governance, first in the Special Forum of Business and Society (44:1 and 44:2, 2005) and then, with A. Sison, in the book Global Perspectives on Ethics of Corporate Governance (Palgrave Macmillan 2006). Moreover, the ISBEE Secretariat compiled the Bibliography of Business Ethics Articles, with over 4,000 articles published in major journals of business and economic ethics from 1991 to May 2005, and made them available on the ISBEE website.11 A selection of papers of the International Conference on Business Ethics 2002 in Shanghai, supported by ISBEE, was published under the title Developing Business Ethics in China in Chinese in 2003 and in English in 2006 (hardcover) and 2013 (paperback) by Palgrave Macmillan.

ISBEE Elections 2004

In the fall 2004 the new leadership of ISBEE for 2005 – 2008 was elected.12 Deon Rossouw became President; four members of the Executive Committee returned: Peter Koslowski (Netherlands), Xiaohe Lu (China), Vasanthi Srinivasan (India), and Iwao Taka (Japan); eight members were new: Joanne Ciulla (USA), Tony Coady (Australia), Thomas Dunfee (USA), Thomas Hodel (Switzerland), Charito Kruvant (USA), Marta Sañudo (Mexico), Prakash Sethi (USA), and Laura Spence (UK); and Georges Enderle became Immediate Past President. Although Cecilia Arruda (Brazil) was President-Elect, she was unable to assume the Presidency because of health reasons; however, she was appointed honorary member of the Executive Committee. In summer 2005, Prakash Sethi was elected as Vice-President.

Several task forces were formed:13 (1) A new ISBEE website was installed with a number of new features, including a forum, a picture gallery, and a new entry menu called “related events” (in charge: Hodel). (2) ISBEE also got a new logo designed by Rossouw; it expresses the three partially overlapping circles of business, economics, and ethics, embedded in the big circle of the world (international) and displaying some common ground in red. (3) An ISBEE Book Series with Springer was established for selected high – quality contributions to ISBEE Congresses and other conferences (in charge: Ciulla, Spence). (4) In order to strengthen ISBEE’s interactions with regional organizations and to increase ISBEE membership, a networking task team was created (in charge: Sethi, Srinivasan).14 (5) As mentioned above, the ISBEE Business Advisory Board and the affiliation with the Caux Round Table continued to work until 2006 and 2010, respectively. (6) In 2007 a memorandum of understanding between the United Nations Global Compact and ISBEE was signed in order to strengthen the collaboration between both parties in view of the next Congress (Rossouw).15

The Fourth ISBEE World Congress on July 15 – 18, 2008 in Cape Town, South Africa

After extensive deliberation about the Congress date, venue, budget, and registration fee, the ISBEE Executive Committee unanimously approved, in May 2005, the Team Africa bid to host the 2008 ISBEE World Congress, jointly prepared by the Business Ethics Network (BEN – Africa) and the professional conference organizer Rouge Communiqué.16 With Cape Town as the host city, it was the first time that the continent of Africa hosted the ISBEE World Congress. Three committees were formed: the global program committee, the international organization committee, and the event organizing committee; and through a long process of consultation, the appropriate date and theme for the congress were decided. The theme of “Global Fairness – Local Integrity” gained enthusiastic support since it combined a focus on global economic fairness with a focus on business ethics in smaller local enterprises.

Under the leadership of Geoff Moore and Laura Spence, two global research projects were launched.17 They were not meant to restrict in any way research in other areas (as discussed, for example, in the Agenda 2004). But the organizers wanted to draw on one of the key contributions that ISBEE makes, namely to coordinate loose but global networks of academics working on related areas and to focus their research on the World Congress for broader dissemination. The first project focused on “Fairness in international trade and investment.” As the concept of fairness is fundamental to important conceptions of ethics and its application to international trade and investment, it relates to a wide range of issues from the micro to the macro level and from philosophical to empirical questions. The second project dealt with “Ethics in small and medium enterprises.” It wanted to attract attention to a topic area that is widely neglected in business ethics, despite the significant impacts SMEs have in economic, employment, social and environmental terms. To pursue these projects, small teams of researchers from different regions were established; the teams presented their findings at the ISBEE Congress in Cape Town, documented in two subsequent publications: the special issue of the African Journal of Business Ethics (2009, 4:2) on Business Ethics in Small and Medium Enterprises edited by Molly Painter – Morland and Spence, and the book Fairness in International Trade edited by Moore as the first volume of the new ISBEE Series by Springer (2010).

In addition to these two global reports, the Congress program presented several additional plenary sessions on the ethics of globalization, the impact of voluntary codes of conduct on multinational corporations, the alleviation of poverty in a globalized economy, business and HIV/AIDS, the ethics of corporate governance, and ethics and leadership.18 Among the prominent speakers, one may mention Paul Collier (University of Oxford), Thomas Donaldson (Wharton School) and Mervyn King (who inspired the King I, II and III Reports on corporate governance). About 200 participants with a substantial number (ca. 60) from African countries attended the Congress and presented 90 individual papers, in addition to 41 contributions in plenary and special issues sessions. The gathering was preceded by a SIM/ISBEE Academic Publishing Workshop, enriched by a cultural event of an African dinner and experience outside Cape Town, and concluded with the views of “ISBEE Founders looking forward” (Donaldson, Enderle, van Luijk). Thanks to the outstanding organization by Piet Naudé (President, BEN – Africa) and Saret Britz (Rouge Communiqué), the far sighted leadership of Deon Rossouw and the generous financial support by BHP Billiton, Infosys, and KPMG and other organizations, the ISBEE Congress in Cape Town brought a unique African perspective and became an unforgettable global meeting, well documented in the Post Event Report by Saret Britz.

On a sad note, it should be mentioned that ISBEE has lost several good friends who served on the Executive Committee and in other roles as well: in 2007 Yukimasa Nagayasu (1997 – 2004), in 2008 Tom Dunfee (2005 – 2008), in 2010 Henk van Luijk (co-founder, 1997 – 2004), and in 2012 Peter Koslowski (2001 – 2008).

ISBEE Elections 2008

Based on the nomination list approved by the General Assembly, the ISBEE membership voted on the individual candidates by electronic voting on the ISBEE website during August – September 2008.19 By closing date of 5 October 2008, Pat Werhane (USA) was elected President and Laura Spence (UK) Vice – President for a four year term (1 January 2009 to 31 December 2012). Three members of the Executive Committee were reelected: Joanne Ciulla (USA), Geoff Moore (UK), and Marta Sañudo (Mexico); and nine new members joined the leadership: N. Balasubramanian (India), Wesley Cragg (Canada), Guoxi Gao (China), Thomas Maak (Switzerland), Piet Naudé (South Africa), Mollie Painter – Morland (South Africa / USA), Alvaro Pezoa Bissieres (Chile), Toru Umeda (Japan) and Zucheng Zhou (China). Deon Rossouw (South Africa) became Immediate Past President. As this election shows, the ISBEE Executive Committee, in its fourth term, was also a truly global team.

On a critical note, it was the third time that the Vice-President did not succeed to the Presidency upon the conclusion of the term of the President as the Article III.11 of the ISBEE Constitution would have required. Arruda, Sethi, and Spence were not able to take on the Presidency for health and other reasons. Therefore, the Executive Committee decided to ask the members to vote on new candidates, which resulted in the elections of Rossouw, Werhane, and Ciulla respectively. Moreover, in 2012, Thomas Maak was elected Vice-President and President-Elect according to the Constitution.

Concluding Reflection on Globalizing Business Ethics

At the end of the second part of the ISBEE History, I would like to offer some thoughts on “globalizing business ethics.”20 In the last 20 plus years globalization has become a buzz word with many meanings, stirring lots of controversy and causing much confusion. Without entering this debate here, I only want to point out that, nevertheless, it is a fact that we live in a world that is heavily interconnected and interdependent beyond national and regional boundaries. This context of globalization is highly relevant for understanding and developing business and economic ethics, which can be testified to by the history of ISBEE. Since its foundation in 1989, ISBEE aspired to gather members from all parts of the world on an equal footing. It was never meant to compete with, or even replace, national and regional business ethics networks. On the contrary, we were convinced that the global dimension would enrich and better prepare the existing networks for emerging worldwide challenges and also help establish new business ethics organizations in places where business ethics hadn’t taken root yet.

The ISBEE Congresses – since its First in 1996 in Tokyo – have shown that global meetings like these can be a give-and-take for all participants, be they old timers, new comers, or just people interested in business ethics. Those who are eager to “sell” business ethics internationally might also be willing to learn from others. And those who feel the need to “buy” might also be self-confident enough to offer their own views and experiences.

It is remarkable that all five Congresses up to 2012 featured strong regional tracks and, at the same time, deliberately placed them in a global context: The country and region reports on business ethics in 1996; regional topics in Africa, Europe, Japan, Latin and North America in 2000; the regional reports on corporate governance in 2004; the regional reports on fairness in international trade and investment and on ethics in small and medium enterprises in 2008; and the regional reports on business and economic ethics as field of training, teaching, and research in 2012. The logos of the Congresses expressed special characteristics of the host countries: The Mount Fuji of Japan, the Amazon Rainforest of Brazil, the Kangaroo of Australia, and the Table Mountain and a feather (symbolizing truth, justice, morality, and balance) in South Africa. In general, understandably, the Lingua franca was English which is now spoken as a second or foreign language by at least one billion people;21 several Congresses, though, provided room for other – Japanese, Portuguese, Spanish, and Eastern European – languages. Keynote speakers came from different continents, academic disciplines, and business, government and civil society organizations. ISBEE also invited two prominent speakers – Amartya Sen in 1996 and Muhammad Yunus in 2000 – who, later, received a Nobel Prize in 1998 and 2006 respectively.

We may ask what Congress themes and more specific topics have emerged over the years. And are there important issues that have been overlooked, taken up only lately or removed from attention? Permanent topics have been: Global ethics and global standards for transnational corporations; understanding and learning from the challenges business ethics faces in different parts of the world; the concepts, purposes and responsibilities of corporations (decision making processes, cultures, codes of conduct, metrics, reporting); and globalization, macro-economic issues and forms of capitalism. Over the years a number of new topics have come to the fore and been discussed: Micro-finance; competition and social responsibility; corporate governance and trust in business; ethical issues in information technology; corruption; public-private relationships; fairness in international trade and investment; ethics of SMEs; CSR; business and human rights; ethical leadership; and poverty alleviation. It is noteworthy that religious perspectives and resources were addressed in the First and Second Congress and were absent afterwards (before spirituality became a topic in 2012). Relatively little attention was paid to ethical issues in finance, accounting, marketing, and law; environmental ethics; consumer ethics; gender issues; and ethics education.

Obviously, this short overview can only highlight a rough and quite limited picture of the vast richness of contributions to ISBEE Congresses and subsequent publications.22 In several respects, ISBEE was fortunate to be a thought-leader in globalizing business and economic ethics. It certainly helped to strengthen the awareness that collaborative research at a global scale is imperative to address ethical challenges in international business and economics.

 


 

1 See www.globalcompact.org.

2 See www.un.org/millenniumgoals.

3 “Simultaneously in New York and in Porto Alegre, Brazil, conferences took place covering basically the same agenda and involving prominent representatives from all parts of the world. In New York, it was the World Economic Forum – usually organized in the Swiss mountain resort of Davos – which brought together thousands of leaders from the world of business, financial institutions and politics. In Porto Alegre, it was the World Social Forum of some 50,000 so-called globalization critics: a colorful movement of development and environmental NGOs, farmers’ associations, trade unions, women’s groups, and the rising star of the international anti-globalization front, the French-led organization Attac.” (D+C Development and Cooperation, 2002, No. 2, p. 3).

4 See ISBEE Congress brochure printed and distributed in December 1999.

5 See Minutes of the General Assembly on July 17, 2004.

6 See ISBEE Newsletter, documented at www.isbee.org.

7 The original name of the Board was ISBEE Business Executive Advisory Board. On the recommendation of Deon Rossouw, it was changed to ISBEE Business Advisory Board in June 2007. See email of Roussow to Enderle on June 18, 2007.

8 See Appendix I: Affiliation Agreement between the Caux Round Table and the International Society of Business, Economics, and Ethics.

9 See Appendix II: Agenda 2004.

10 See ISBEE Newsletter 3/8, November 2004: The Third ISBEE World Congress – Reflections from around the Globe.

11 See ISBEE Newsletter 4/9, June 2005.

12 See ISBEE Newsletter 3/8, November 2004.

13 See ISBEE Newsletter 4/9, June 2005 and Minutes of the General Assembly on 18 July 2008.

14 See ISBEE Newsletter 4/10, December 2005.

15 See Appendix III: Memorandum of Understanding between the United Nations and the International Society of Business, Economics, and Ethics.

16 See ISBEE Newsletter 4/9, June 2005 and email of May 9, 2005 of Rossouw to Prof. Naudé and Ms. Britz.

17 See ISBEE Newsletter 5/11, May 2006.

18 Full program in ISBEE Newsletter 7/18, June 2008.

19 See ISBEE Newsletter 7/19, October 2008.

20 See my short text in the ISBEE Newsletter 4/10, December 2005 and my article “Three Major Challenges for Business and Economic Ethics in the Next Ten Years: Wealth Creation, Human Rights, and Active Involvement of the World’s Religions”, Business and Professional Ethics Journal 30:3-4, 2011, 229-249.

21 In addition, English is a mother tongue for 375 million people. In September 2013, the United States accounted for the single biggest group of users, followed by the United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia. At numbers five and six are Germany and China. See “In the Beginning Was the Word” by L. Kite, Financial Times (USA), November 16, 2013, Section: Life & Arts, pp. 1-2.

22 See Appendix IV: ISBEE Publications 1997-2012. In addition, one should mention the wealth of information in the ISBEE Newsletters from 2002 to 2009 edited with great care by Cecilia Arruda and Gerhold Becker.

 


 

Appendix

I: Affiliation Agreement between the Caux Round Table and the International Society of Business, Economics, and Ethics

II: Agenda 2004

III: Memorandum of Understanding between the UN Global Compact and the International Society of Business, Economics, and Ethics

IV: ISBEE publications 1997 – 2012