Responsibilities of OSPs from a Business Ethics Point of View

Luetge, Christoph

doi:10.1007/978-3-319-47852-4_7

Christoph Luetge⁵

Part of the book series: Law, Governance and Technology Series ((LGTS,volume 31))

1926 Accesses
1 Citations

Abstract

Certain parts of the debate on the ethical responsibilities of OSPs strike one with their heavily moralising and accusing tone. However, from a business ethics point of view, any assessment of these responsibilities should keep the pivotal role of economic competition in mind. Its exact degree or intensity may vary, but in general, economic competition limits the options of actors, which has consequences for their ethical responsibilities as well. I argue, first, that the OSP discussion should rest less on purely individual concepts of responsibility, but more on concepts of group agency. Second, there are still ways of ascribing responsibility to companies compatible with competition, as much of the debates on Corporate Social Responsibility show.

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

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution

Chapter: USD 29.95; Price excludes VAT (USA)

eBook: USD 149.00; Price excludes VAT (USA)

Softcover Book: USD 199.99; Price excludes VAT (USA)

Hardcover Book: USD 199.99; Price excludes VAT (USA)

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Notes

1.
For example, Chomsky 1999; Chossudovsky 2003; Comte-Sponville 2004; Badiou 2010.
2.
Buchanan 1975/2000; Brennan and Buchanan 1985; for the ethical dimension of Buchanan’s work see Luetge 2006.
3.
Axelrod 1984; for the systematic use of the stag hunt game cf. Binmore 1994, 1998, 2005.
4.
This behaviour has been confirmed in experimental studies such as Gürerk et al. 2006; Binmore 2010 or already Andreoni 1988.
5.
And in related concepts like Corporate Citizenship, Creating Shared Value or Corporate Social Accounting.
6.
Especially important in Germany was the reformulation of the §30 Ordnungswidrigkeitengesetz in 2002.
7.
For the following, cf. Mukerji and Luetge 2014.
8.
Cf. already French 1984, 13f.

Bibliography

Andreoni, J. (1988). Why free ride? Strategies and learning in public goods experiments. Journal of Public Economics, 37, 291–304.
Article Google Scholar
Axelrod, R. (1984). The evolution of cooperation. New York: Basic Books.
Google Scholar
Badiou, A. (2010). The communist hypothesis. London: Verso.
Google Scholar
Bailyn, E. (2015). Google’s greed: How the search giant’s lust for information is impacting your search results. http://firstpagesage.com/seo-blog/thought-leadership/googles-greed-search-giants-lust-information-impacting-search-results/#sthash.tEiEE1Yy.dpuf. Accessed 12 May 2016.
Binmore, K. (1994). Game theory and the social contract: Vol. 1: Playing fair. Cambridge, MA/London: MIT Press.
Google Scholar
Binmore, K. (1998). Game theory and the social contract: Vol. 2: Just playing. Cambridge, MA/London: MIT Press.
Google Scholar
Binmore, K. (2005). Natural justice. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Book Google Scholar
Binmore, K. (2010). Social norms or social preferences? Mind and Society, 9, 139–158.
Article Google Scholar
Boatright, J. (1999). Presidential address: Does business ethics rest on a mistake? Business Ethics Quarterly, 9, 583–591.
Article Google Scholar
Brault, J. (2013). Google est-il dangereux pour la démocratie?. https://www.lesaffaires.com/blogues/julien-brault/google-est-il-dangereux-pour-la-democratie/554735. Accessed 12 May 2016.
Brennan, G., & Buchanan, J. M. (1985). The reason of rules: Constitutional political economy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Google Scholar
Buchanan, J. M. (1975). The limits of liberty: Between Anarchy and Leviathan. Indianapolis: Liberty Press.
Google Scholar
Chomsky, N. (1999). Profit over people: Neoliberalism and global order. New York: Seven Stories Press.
Google Scholar
Chossudovsky, M. (2003). The globalization of poverty and the new world order. Oro: Global Outlook.
Google Scholar
Comte-Sponville, A. (2004). Le capitalisme est-il moral? Paris: Albin Michel.
Google Scholar
Donaldson, T. D., & Dunfee, T. W. (1999). Ties that bind: A social contracts approach to business ethics. Boston: Harvard Business School Press.
Google Scholar
Donaldson, T. D., & Dunfee, T. W. (2000). Book review dialogue: Tightening the ties that bind – Defending a contractarian approach to business ethics. American Business Law Journal, 37, 579–585.
Article Google Scholar
Eucken, W. (1949). Die Wettbewerbsordnung und ihre Verwirklichung. ORDO, 2, 1–99.
Google Scholar
Ferguson, N. (2010, November 18). In China’s orbit. Wall Street Journal.
Google Scholar
French, P. (1984). Collective and corporate responsibility. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Google Scholar
Friedman, M. (1962). Capitalism and freedom. Chicago: Chicago University Press.
Google Scholar
Friedman, M. (1970, September 13). The social responsibility of business is to increase its profits. The New York Times Magazine, p 32f., pp. 122–126.
Google Scholar
Gürerk, Ö., Irlenbusch, B., & Rockenbach, B. (2006). The competitive advantage of sanctioning institutions. Science, 312, 108–111.
Article Google Scholar
Haufler, D. (2014). Suchmaschine Googles Gier kennt keine Grenzen. http://www.berliner-zeitung.de/digital/-suchmaschine-googles-gier-kennt-keine-grenzen-1455016. Accessed 12 May 2016.
Hayek, F. A. (1978). Competition as a discovery procedure. In F. A. Hayek (Ed.), New studies in philosophy, politics and economics. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Google Scholar
Heugens, P., Kaptein, M., & Oosterhout, H. (2004). Ties that grind? Corroborating a typology of social contracting problems. Journal of Business Ethics, 49(3), 235–252.
Article Google Scholar
Heugens, P., Oosterhout, H., & Kaptein, M. (2006). Foundations and applications for contractualist business ethics. Journal of Business Ethics, 68(3), 211–228.
Article Google Scholar
Homann, K., & Lütge, C. (2004/2013). Einführung in die Wirtschaftsethik (3rd ed.). Münster: LIT.
Google Scholar
Johnson, L. (2013). A gigantic parasite: Forget the touchy feely posturing. Google’s tiny tax bill shows how greedy and ruthless it really is. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2314375/A-gigantic-parasite-Forget-touchy-feely-posturing-Googles-tiny-tax-shows-greedy-ruthless-really-is.html. Accessed 12 May 2016.
Jones, E. L. (1981). The European miracle: Environments, economies, and geopolitics in the history of Europe and Asia. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Google Scholar
Lenin, V. I. (1917). How to organise competition. In: Collected works, (4th English Edition translated by Yuri Sdobnikov and George Hanna and edited by George Hanna) (vol 26, pp. 404–415). Moscow: Progress Publishers.
Google Scholar
List, C., & Pettit, P. (2011). Group agency: The possibility, design, and status of corporate agents. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Book Google Scholar
Luetge, C. (2005). Economic ethics, business ethics and the idea of mutual advantages. Business Ethics: A European Review, 14(2), 108–118.
Article Google Scholar
Luetge, C. (2006). An economic rationale for a work and savings ethic? J. Buchanan’s Late Works and Business Ethics. Journal of Business Ethics, 66, 43–51.
Article Google Scholar
Luetge, C. (2014). Ethik des Wettbewerbs: Über Konkurrenz und Moral. München: Beck.
Book Google Scholar
Luetge, C. (2015a). Order ethics vs. moral surplus: What holds a society together? Lanham: Lexington.
Google Scholar
Luetge, C. (2015b). Ethique et concurrence dans l’économie de marché. In D. de Courcelles (Ed.), Actes pour une économie juste (pp. 211–220). Paris: Lémieux Editeur.
Google Scholar
Luetge, C. (2016). Order ethics and the problem of social glue. University of St. Thomas Law Journal, 12(2), 339–359.
Google Scholar
Luetge, C., Armbrüster, T., & Müller, J. (2016). Order ethics: Bridging the gap between contractarianism and business ethics. Journal of Business Ethics, 136(4), 687–697.
Google Scholar
Luetge, C., & Mukerji, N. (Eds.). (2016). Order ethics: An ethical framework for the social market economy. Heidelberg/New York: Springer.
Google Scholar
McCloskey, D. (2006). The bourgeois virtues: Ethics for an age of commerce. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Book Google Scholar
McCloskey, D. (2010). Bourgeois dignity: Why economics can’t explain the modern world. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Book Google Scholar
Miyazaki, I. (1981). China’s examination hell: The civil service examinations of Imperial China. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Google Scholar
Mukerji, N., & Luetge, C. (2014). Responsibility, order ethics, and group agency. Archiv für Rechts- und Sozialphilosophie, 100(2), 176–186.
Google Scholar
Narveson, J. (2002). Collective responsibility. Journal of Ethics, 6(2), 179–198.
Article Google Scholar
Pies, I., Winning, Av., Sardison, M., & Girlich, K. (2009). Nachhaltigkeit in der Mineralölindustrie: Theorie und Praxis freiwilliger Selbstverpflichtungen. Wirtschaftsethik-Studie Nr. 2009-1 des Lehrstuhls für Wirtschaftsethik an der Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg, Halle.
Google Scholar
Pohl, A. (2010). Googles Gier opfert die Netzneutralität. https://netzpolitik.org/2010/googles-gier-opfert-die-netzneutralitat/. Accessed 12 May 2016.
Rau, M. (2008). No good can come of Microsoft’s greed. http://articles.dailypress.com/2008-02-11/features/0802110006_1_windows-media-digital-production-yahoo. Accessed 12 May 2016.
Rawls, J. (1993). Political liberalism. New York : Columbia University Press.
Google Scholar
Rowan, J. R. (1997). Grounding hypernorms: Towards a contractarian theory of business ethics. Economics and Philosophy, 13, 107–112.
Article Google Scholar
Rowan, J. R. (2001). How binding the ties? Business ethics as integrative social contracts. Business Ethics Quarterly, 11, 379–390.
Article Google Scholar
Rucellai, G. (1772). Ricordanze, Padua
Google Scholar
Schofield, J. (2011). Steve jobs, the mean dictator – Paul Graham. http://www.zdnet.com/article/steve-jobs-the-mean-dictator-paul-graham/. Accessed 12 May 2016.
The Economist. (2014). Internet monopolies: Everybody wants to rule the world. http://www.economist.com/news/briefing/21635077-online-businesses-can-grow-very-large-very-fastit-what-makes-them-exciting-does-it-also-make. Accessed 12 May 2016.
Wempe, B. (2004). On the use of the social contract model in business ethics. Business Ethics: A European Review, 13, 332–341.
Article Google Scholar
Wempe, B. (2008a). Contractarian business ethics: Credentials and design criteria. Organization Studies, 29, 1337–1355.
Article Google Scholar
Wempe, B. (2008b). Four design criteria for any future contractarian theory of business ethics. Journal of Business Ethics, 81(3), 697–714.
Article Google Scholar
WSJ.com. (2012). Why facebook is almost as greedy as Bernie Madoff. http://www.wsj.com/video/why-facebook-is-almost-as-greedy-as-bernie-madoff/5945C59A-102F-4027-8AFE-4F127EDC6589.html. Accessed 12 May 2016.

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Peter Löscher Chair of Business Ethics, Technical University of Munich, Munich, Germany
Christoph Luetge

Authors

Christoph Luetge
View author publications
You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Christoph Luetge .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Oxford Internet Institute, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom
Mariarosaria Taddeo
Alan Turing Institute, London, United Kingdom
Luciano Floridi

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Luetge, C. (2017). Responsibilities of OSPs from a Business Ethics Point of View. In: Taddeo, M., Floridi, L. (eds) The Responsibilities of Online Service Providers. Law, Governance and Technology Series, vol 31. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-47852-4_7

Download citation

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-47852-4_7
Published: 01 February 2017
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-47851-7
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-47852-4
eBook Packages: Law and CriminologyLaw and Criminology (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics