In this collection of provocative essays, Joseph Heath provides a compelling new framework for thinking about the moral obligations that private actors in a market economy have toward each other and to society. In a sharp break with traditional approaches to business ethics, Heath argues that the basic principles of corporate social responsibility are already implicit in the institutional norms that structure both marketplace competition and the modern business corporation. In four new and nine previously published essays, Heath articulates the foundations of a "market failures" approach to business ethics. Rather than bringing moral concerns to bear upon economic activity as a set of foreign or externally imposed constraints, this approach seeks to articulate a robust conception of business ethics derived solely from the basic normative justification for capitalism. The result is a unified theory of business ethics, corporate law, economic regulation, and the welfare state, which offers a reconstruction of the central normative preoccupations in each area that is consistent across all four domains. Beyond the core theory, Heath offers new insights on a wide range of topics in economics and philosophy, from agency theory and risk management to social cooperation and the transaction cost theory of the firm.

JOSEPH HEATH is the director of the Centre for Ethics at the University of Toronto, as well as a professor in the department of philosophy and the School of Public Policy and Governance. He is the author of five books, including The Rebel Sell: Why the Culture Can’t Be Jammed (with Andrew Potter) and Filthy Lucre: Economics for People Who Hate Capitalism. He lives in Toronto.

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"Heath's book is essential reading for scholars and students interested in new ways of thinking about the foundations of business ethics."

--Erasmus Journal for Philosophy and Economics

"Undergraduate and graduate students in business and society courses might be well served by focusing on these two sections of the book; later chapters balance the text by delving further into details for those desiring much greater depth or conducting research on the subject. There is also an outstanding bibliography... Highly recommended."

--Choice

"...Morality, Competition, and the Firm is a rich anthology. It's a tour-de-force of political economy, corporate governance, and business ethics. It contains powerful critiques of virtue ethics and the misuse of moral psychology by other business ethicists. It is valuable reading for anyone interested narrowly in business ethics, but also more broadly in political philosophy or the intersection of politics, philosophy, and economics."

--Kennedy Institute of Ethics Journal

"...the book is well worth engaging by anyone interested in economics, agency theory, fiduciary concerns, public policy, corporate governance, and of course, business ethics. Heath is to be commended for this provocative book, explaining a provocative approach to business ethics (market failures approach) that sees as its guiding star the always elusive Pareto-optimal market conditions. I know it has informed my own approach to how I will teach stakeholder theory, theory of the firm, and competition in future courses." --Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews Online