How can corporations adopt Confucianism in business practices? Two representative cases

• Date: 01 October 2020
• Author: Shih‐Ching Liu
• Published date: 01 October 2020
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/beer.12287

796  

|

  wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/beer Business Ethics: A Eur Rev. 2020;29:796–809.© 2020 John Wiley & Sons Ltd

1 | INTRODUCTION1

Ethics is one of the ol dest scholarly topic s and includes the Wester n

theories of Util itarianism, D eontology, and Vi rtue Ethics , and the

Eastern theo ries of Confucia nism, Buddhism , and Daoism. They

are concerned wi th discussing right and wrong , cultivating personal

morality, and und erstandi ng the meaning of lif e. Integrating et h-

ical theorie s into firms requi res a variety of lo gical consider ations

(Ip, 2009a) .

Crane and Mat ten (2012, pp. 116–117) argue that there are

some limitations to applying ethics to business practices. These lim-

itations inclu de: (a) managers fin ding ethical t heories too abs tract

to apply to daily bu siness problem s (Stark, 1994); (b) each ty pe of

ethics empha sizes a certain orientatio n, and corporations find i t ex-

tremely challenging to adopt only one orientation when making de-

cisions (Kaler, 1999); (c) only ethi cists completely und erstand ethical

systems, whereas ordinary business people find it extremely chal-

lenging betwe en right and wrong decisions bas ed on ethical theory

(Parker, 1998); (d) ethical the ories focus only o n abstract principles

and overlook ind ividual bonds and relati onships (Gilligan, 1982); and

(e) moral autonomy de nigrates the import ance of moral feelings and

emotions (Bauman, 1993).

Despite these uncertainties and challenges, some research-

ers argue that i t is possible to appl y ethics to busin ess practice s.

Fryer (2016) demonst rates that the fu nction of ethic s is specula-

tive and leads bu siness people to think from di fferent perspective s.

Another per spective is to inc rease moral ima gination to raise e thi-

cal awareness (Werhane, 2008). Additionally, ethics provides ethi-

cal reflect ion for decision makers and can b e applied systematicall y

(Cafferk y, 2015). For example, Don aldson and Dunfe e (1994) apply

the Contractarian approach to respond cross-cultural ethical issues

in business, an d Bowie (2001) construct s a Kantian approach in the

business ethic s system. Subsequent ly, Tajalli and Segal (2019) adopt

Nihilism to re-evaluate of values for re-imagining business ethics.

Based on these wo rks, it is eviden t that ethics ca n be applied

to business pra ctices. However, ethic s in the West are mor e sys-

tematic; whereas Eastern ethics mostly emphasize individual cultiva-

tion and self-discip line (Fung, 2015, p. 10). Crane and Mat ten (2012,

p. 117) argue that Western e thics is more suit able for busine ss

people, and th at Eastern ethics has rarely b een applied to business

Received: 24 June 20 19 

|

  Revised: 1 April 2 020 

|

  Accepted: 16 April 20 20

DOI: 10 .1111/bee r.12287

ORIGINAL ARTICLE

How can corporations adopt Confucianism in business

practices? Two representative cases

Shih-Ching Liu

Sinyi School , College of Commerce , National

Chengchi University, Taipei, Taiw an

Correspondence

Shih-Ching Liu, Sinyi School, College of

Commerce, National Chengchi University,

64, Sec. 2, Z hi-Nan Road, Taipei 11605,

Taiwan.

Email: csr@nccu.edu.tw

Abstract

Ethics is one of the oldes t scholarly topics, whet her in Eastern Confucianism , Daoism,

and Buddhism, or Weste rn Deontology, Utilita rianism, and Vir tue Theory, among

others. Traditional ethi cs focuses on providin g guidelines for behav ior at a personal

level. However, business ethics fo cuses more on corpor ations, with related s tudies

addressing why corpo rations should pra ctice social respo nsibility and embe d ethics

in business prac tices. Applying ethics to firms re quires a variety of considerations in

many areas. This is espe cially the case in Conf ucianism, which emp hasizes self-cul-

tivation, self-reflect ion, and self-discipline. T his study investigate s two modern rep-

resentative case s of Confucian firms and observes how t hey integrate Confucianism

into their business pr actices. It find s that despite the preva lence of a complex en-

vironment, Confu cianism can still be a dopted by them if they use cer tain method s.

Besides, we also ide ntify the common outcomes acro ss these companies. These fi nd-

ings provide a referen ce for companies that want to in corporate Confucia nism in

their operations.