Is Short-Term Thinking Destroying Capitalism? Vignettes for Teaching Business Ethics

Abstract

This paper will provide faculty who are interested in teaching ethics with several vignettes that may be easily incorporated into any course. The purpose of these real-life, brief vignettes is to encourage students to think about the consequences of decisions. Sometimes, focusing on profits and ignoring the ethical implications may have far-reaching consequences. Whereas some cases used in business ethics courses aim to do this, this paper provides numerous brief vignettes to show the considerable consequences of unethical and neglectful conduct in running an organization.

Keywords: Business Ethics, Unethical Marketing, Unethical Ethicists, Harassment of Workers, Opioid Epidemic, Marketing of Sugary Beverages, E-cigarettes, Boeing’s 737 Max, Takata Airbags, ExxonMobil, and Climate Change

JEL Classification: P12, M31, J81, Q54