Business Ethics of Innovation

Firms that operate in a market economy often depend upon innovations in order to achieve competitive advantages that sustainably secure their survival. Business ethics is thus largely concerned with questions about the decisional freedoms involved in innovation processes. Innovations oftentimes raise novel questions about the role of the state or the structure of society. Business ethics needs to provide a framework for balancing the different perspectives, values, and interests at stake. This balance must be achieved at the level of the firm in order to facilitate adequate long term decisions, but it should also be sought at higher, including regulatory, levels. Achieving this balance will require an ethical framework for entrepreneurial action. The particular disciplines engaged in generating innovations as well as all relevant fields of applied ethics should be involved in the balancing process. Business Ethics of Innovation is thus necessarily an interdisciplinary endeavour. This volume assesses general questions of how business ethics can help to structure innovations and specifically discusses pharmaceutical innovations as well as innovations in the IT sector.

Andrew Crane, born 1968, is Professor of Business Ethics and Director of the MBA in CSR at Nottingham University Business School. He is interested in various aspects of business ethics, including the role of morality in marketing and consumption; the contribution of evolutionary narratives to environmental management; the implementation of fair trade policies; and the contribution of Foucauldian thought to business ethics. Recent work appeared in Academy of Management Review, Journal of Business Research, Organization Studies, Journal of Business Ethics and Business Ethics Quarterly. He holds a BSc from Warwick University and a PhD in Business Studies from Nottingham University. From January 2007, he will hold the George R. Gardiner Chair in Business Ethics at the Schulich School of Business, York University, Toronto. Email andrew.crane@nottingham.ac.uk

Margaret L. Eaton, Pharm.D., J.D.

Lecturer in Management, Graduate School of Business, Stanford University (Faculty Affiliate: Center for Social Innovation). Past positions: Stanford Center for Biomedical Ethics, Stanford University Office of the General Counsel, and Lecturer, Stanford University School of Medicine. Studied law at University of California at San Francisco. Studied pharmaceutics at Union University and Duquesne University and served as Associate Professor, University of Minnesota School of Pharmacy.

Hanekamp, Gerd, Dr. phil. Dipl.-Chem., studied chemistry at Heidelberg and Marburg and at the École Nationale de Chimie in Lille; 1996: Doctorate in philosophy at the University of Marburg; from 1996 – 2003 junior/senior scientist, from 2003 – 2005 deputy director, Europäische Akademie Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler GmbH, presently on leave for a position at the Office of the Science Council; fields of research: applied ethics, philosophy of science, theory of the social sciences, technology assessment,. e-mail: hanekamp@wissenschaftsrat.de

Dirk Matten, born 1965, is Professor of Business Ethics and Director of the Centre for Research into Sustainability at Royal Holloway, University of London. He is interested in international aspects of ethics and CSR, recent work appeared in Academy of Management Review, Journal of Management Studies, Organization Studies, Journal of Business Ethics and Business Ethics Quarterly. His first degree in business is from the University of Essen (Dipl.-Kfm.) and his PhD and Habilitation from Heinrich-Heine-University Düsseldorf. From January 2007, he will hold the Hewlett-Packard Chair in CSR at the Schulich School of Business, York University, Toronto. Email dirk.matten@rhul.ac.uk

Jeremy Moon, born 1955, is Professor of Corporate Social Responsibility and Director of the International Centre for Corporate Social Responsibility (ICCSR) at Nottingham University Business School. His previous appointments include Chair of the Political Science Department at the University of Western Australia. He held a number of visiting positions at universities around the globe, including Princeton, McGill, and Cambridge, and was a Jean Monnet Research Fellow at the European University Institute in Florence. He holds a BA and a PhD in Political Science from Exeter University. Jeremy has published widely in the areas of Government and CSR; CSR in Europe; CSR and Globalisation and Conceptualising and Theorising CSR. Email jeremy.moon@nottingham.ac.uk

Nüttgens, Markus, Prof. Dr., born 1963, studied Business Administration at the University of Saarland 1984-1989 (Dipl.Kfm.) and 1995 (Dr. rer. oek.). 1989-2001 Scientific Assistant at Institut of Information Systems (IWi), 2001-2003 Deputy Professor of Information Systems at the University Trier, since 2004 Full Professor of Information Systems at the University Hamburg. Main interests: Information Systems Management, Information- and Business Process Management, Business Standard Software, Open Source / Access, IT-Entrepreneurship. Address: Von-Melle