Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-dzt6s Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-27T06:38:14.781Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Exporting Mental Models: Global Capitalism in the 21st Century

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 January 2015

Abstract:

The most serious ethical challenge facing multinational corporations in the next century is their exportation of the mental model of Western-style capitalism. This model promises that industrialized free enterprise in a free trade global economy, where businesses and entrepreneurs can pursue their interests competitively without undue regulations or labor restrictions, will produce growth and well-being, i.e., economic good, in every country or community where this phenomenon is allowed to operate. This paper points to some limitations to this model and illustrates how multinational corporations might meet this challenge.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Society for Business Ethics 2000

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Frazier, Steve. 1984. “Peasant Politics: Mexican Farmers Get Grants of Small Plots, But Output is Meager.” Wall Street Journal, June 4, pp. 1, 18.Google Scholar
Gray, John. 1998. False Dawn: The Delusions of Global Capitalism. New York: The New Press.Google Scholar
Gentner, Dedre and Whitley, Eric W. 1997. “Mental Models of Population Growth.” In Environment, Ethics, and Behavior, ed. Bazerman, Max H., Messick, David M., Tenbrunsel, Ann E., and Wade-Benzoni, Kimberley A.San Francisco: The New Lexington Press.Google Scholar
Gorman, Michael. 1992. Simulating Science. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.Google Scholar
Hart, Stuart and Prahalad, C. K. 1999. “Strategies for the Bottom of the Pyramid: Creating Sustainable Development.” Harvard Business Review, November–December.Google Scholar
Johnson, Mark. 1993. Moral Imagination. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Rorty, Richard. 1999. “Can American Egalitarianism Survive a Globalized Economy?” Business Ethics Quarterly Special Issue No. 1: 16.Google Scholar
Rouse, William B. and Morris, Nancy M. 1986. “On Looking Into the Black Box: Prospects and Limits in the Search for Mental Models.” Psychological Bulletin 100: 349363.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Senge, Peter. 1990. The Fifth Discipline. New York: Doubleday and Co.Google Scholar
Severence, Kristi; Spiro, Lisa; and Werhane, Patricia H. 1999. “W. R. Grace Co. and the Neemix Patent.” Darden Case Bibliography: UVA-E-0157. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press.Google Scholar
Sonenshein, Scott; Gorman, Michael E.; and Werhane, Patricia H. 1997a. “SELF.” Darden Case Bibliography: UVA-E-0112. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press.Google Scholar
Sonenshein, Scott; Gorman, Michael E.; and Werhane, Patricia H. 1997b. “Solar Energy in South Africa.” Darden Case Bibliography: UVA-E-0145. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press.Google Scholar
Standish, Miles; Gorman, Michael E.; Venkataraman, S.; and Werhane, Patricia H. 1999. “Unilever.” Darden Case Bibliography: UVA-E-0152, 0153. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press.Google Scholar
Takahashi, Akiro, “Ethics in Developing Economies of Asia.” Business Ethics Quarterly 7: 3345.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Uchitelle, Louis. 1999. “The Stronger It Gets, the Sweatier the Palms.” New York Times: Week in Review. May 21, pp. 1, 16.Google Scholar
Vijayalakshmi, K.; Radha, K. S.; and Shiva, Vandana. 1996. Neem: A User’s Manual. Madras: Centre for Indian Knowledge Systems.Google Scholar
Vis, Jan-Kees. 1997. Unilever: Putting Corporate Purpose Into Action. Unilever Publication.Google Scholar
Walzer, Michael. 1983. Spheres of Justice. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Walzer, Michael. 1994. Thick and Thin. Notre Dame: Notre Dame University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Werhane, Patricia H. 1991. “Engineers and Management: The Challenge of the Challenger Incident.” Journal of Business Ethics 1: 605616.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Werhane, Patricia H. 1998. “Moral Imagination and Management Decision Making.” Business Ethics Quarterly Special Issue No. 1: 7598.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Werhane, Patricia H. 1999. Moral Imagination and Management Decision Making. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
West, Cornell. 1993. Race Matters. Boston: Beacon Press.Google Scholar
Zakaria, Fareed. 1999. “Passing the Bucks [a review of Gray’s False Dawn].” New York Times Book Review, April 25, pp. 16, 18.Google Scholar