Preface

From 1950s to 1970s，in the context of growing emergence of sales of counterfeit，shoddy products，lack of credit，environmental pollution and absence of social morality by pursuing economic benefits excessively，occidental nations and communities asked the enterprises to attach attention to social responsibility and morality，therefore，the enterprises’ responsive actions promoted the rise of research and practice of business ethics. Since 1980s，the research on stakeholder theory，business ethics，and corporate social responsibility has developed quickly. The stakeholder theory enters into business management area and has improved business strategy research. However，the function of its methodological role was not fully revealed in corporate responsibility analysis and business ethics；the internal connection and logic among these three elements have not deserved specific arguments and analyses. In China’s economic involvement in the global economic integration and domestic businesses participating into the cooperation and competition of world industrial value chain，it is of great importance to establish a business ethics system with mutual efforts from both the ethical philosophy area and management philosophy area.

This dissertation adopts literature research method，descriptive method and philosophical logic deduction method. Based on a comprehensive research on the theory of stakeholder and business ethics，it develops a research framework in which it takes “responsibility and ethics” as research object，“stakeholder theory” as analytical method，“corporate social responsibility” as the medium between “stakeholder theory” and “business ethics”，“the ethical relationship between enterprises and their stakeholders” as the main study thread，establishing “a business ethics system on the basis of stakeholder theory” as the study strategy. The dissertation also attaches attention to the following four aspects：it identifies the subjective value cognition of business ethics by arguing the subjectivity of business ethics，ascertains business responsibility and the connotation of ethic responsibility by discussing the level of corporate social responsibility and dialectical relationship among these levels，forms the guiding principles and ethical binds of business ethics research by studying the philosophy basis of business ethics，and develops the theory of corporate management and ethic management.

The dissertation raises the following points. First，as an important analytical method，drawing stakeholder theory into business ethics research area drives development of business ethics. The stakeholder theory has changed the logical development route in which the meta-ethics norms in corporate management develops from general ethics to concrete ethics，and it also facilitates theacculturational development of the course of business ethics by its proven theoretical analyses and mature concept paradigm. Second，the dissertation argues that the stakeholder theory has discussed “the subjectivity of business ethics”，“the ethicality of corporate social responsibility” and “social accountability of corporate social responsibility”，thus，it forms scientific cognition of “responsibility and ethics”. It identifies the dialectical relationship among business stakeholder，corporate social responsibility and corporate ethical responsibility clearly，and reveals internal logic among these three elements. Third，it thinks that classic ethics theory lays the foundation of business ethics，and based on that，it develops “five pieces of guiding principles” of business ethics. It also considers the principle of “discourse ethic”，as a practical principle，and it not only reflects the inter-subjectivity，but also has significant impact on stakeholder’s democratic management. Fourth，it argues that business leader is the dominant player of business ethics，and the ethical pressure from internal and external stakeholders drives the choice of business ethics. Business ethics is the outcome of the benefit game between enterprises and related stakeholders as well as the rebalance between social identity of enterprises and its social relations. Realizing ethical management is the purpose of business ethical construction. Fifth，the dissertation develops some constructive points. It deems that enterprise is the integration of “credit resources” between stakeholder and enterprise，and the “credit resources” decreases enterprise’s transaction cost dramatically. Enterprise is the exchange of “moral resources” and transaction of “moral capital” between two stakeholders：shareholder and his agent. Business ethics is the necessary supplement for “incomplete contract”. Corporate responsibility is the responsibility subjected to stakeholder，and the core of business ethics is the stakeholder，thereby，enterprise only assumes “limited social responsibility” and “limited ethics”. To some extent，fulfilling social expectation belongs to corporate social responsibility，but the enterprise should avoid “generalized social responsibility”. The enterprise manager is not only an “ethical individual”，but an “ethical manager”. The enterprise has ethical responsibilities to its stakeholder，and the stakeholder also assumes equivalent responsibilities and duties to the enterprise. The enterprise and stakeholder “reach a consensus” to surpass enterprise objective，which can promote ethical management，and ethical management trends to the way of democratic management. Sixth，it considers that the application of stakeholder theory in corporate social responsibility and business ethics expresses four ethical relations，namely，“caring ethics”，“equality ethics”，“respect ethics”，and “interaction ethics”；the core direction of these four ethical relations is “responsibility and ethics”. Indeed，business ethical relation is the relation between enterprise and stakeholder as well as the concrete application of management philosophy and management ethics in corporate management.

The dissertation introduces and strengths of the analytical function of stakeholder theory to study the internal relation between corporate social responsibility and business ethics from the visual threshold of stakeholder theory. The research result of business ethics based on stakeholder theory has a certain theoretical value on deepening the research on the theory and application of the stakeholder theory，corporate social responsibility and business ethics. It also helps the domestic enterprises to deepen the research on business ethics and involve themselves in the international business ethics research as well.