Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Compass and Dead Reckoning: The Dynamic Implications of ISCT

  • Published:
Journal of Business Ethics Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The dynamic relationship between hypernorms and microsocial contracts can explain novel, evolutionary changes in economic life. The conceptual machinery of Integrative Social Contracts Theory (ISCT) can be expanded in order to understand dynamic moments in the evolution in economic life such as the economic crisis of 2008–2009. When a transition in the ethical interpretation of economic events occurs over time, it can be understood as a transition from the opaqueness of hypernorms to the relative clarity of microsocial contracts. This phenomenon deserves more study than it has received, and entails, at a minimum, the application of an enhanced, more dynamic interpretation of ISCT.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Bajaj, V. and S. Labaton: 2009, ‘Big Risks for U.S. in Trying to Value Bad Bank Assets’, New York Times, February 2.

  • Bernanke, B. S.: 2007, ‘Hedge Funds and Systemic Risk’, in Federal Reserve Board (ed.), Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta’s 2006 Financial Markets Conference

  • Buffett, W.: 2003, ‘To the Shareholders of Berkshire Hathaway Inc’, February 21, Berkshire Hathaway, pp. 1–23, http://www.berkshirehathaway.com/letters/letters.html.

  • Donaldson, T. and T. Dunfee: 1999, Ties That Bind: A Social Contracts Approach to Business Ethics. Harvard Business School Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hippocrates. “Hippocratic Oath”: 2009, M.D. Survivor, http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/doctors/oath_classical.html.

  • Lewis, M. and D. Einhorn: 2009, ‘The End of the Financial World as We Know It’, New York Times, January 4, sec. OpEd

  • Nocera, J.: 2009, ‘Risk Mismanagement’, New York Times, January 4

  • Pollack, A.: 1998, ‘Orange County is Set Back in Efforts to Recover Losses’, New York Times, October 24

  • Records, S.: 2009, ‘“First, Do No Harm”: Not in the Hippocratic Oath’, http://www.geocities.com/everwild7/noharm.html.

Download references

Acknowledgment

I am indebted to my colleague at Wharton, Nien-he Hsieh, for his insightful comments on an earlier draft of this article.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Mark O. Winkelman Professor, Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, Huntsman Hall, 38th and Walnut, Philadelphia, PA, 19010, U.S.A.

    Thomas Donaldson

Authors
  1. Thomas Donaldson
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Thomas Donaldson.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Donaldson, T. Compass and Dead Reckoning: The Dynamic Implications of ISCT. J Bus Ethics 88 (Suppl 4), 659–664 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-009-0335-2

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-009-0335-2

Keywords

Search

Navigation