Search Results (4)

Bottled water is one of the most consumed healthy beverages in the world. At a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 5.3%, bottled water sales may surpass USD 500 billion by 2030. While this indicates how popular bottled water is among consumers, it does not underscore various ethical concerns raised against the product and its business concept. The purpose of the paper is to investigate the ethics of manufacturing and supplying bottled water. It uses a systematic review of the literature through the PRISMA method to determine the major ethical concerns surrounding these topics. A total of 107 articles were identified, and 31 were subjected to further reviews and analysis. The study found that the manufacturing and supply of bottled water may be unethical if it ends in deliberate pollution and artificial scarcity. Water is an essential product that should be made available and accessible freely to support lives. The use of bottled water has benefits because pollution is removed during processing, which prevents the spread of diseases. In addition, it is practical to transport and consume it. Water bottlers, however, seek to convert water into an exclusive product for profits. This draws attention to the ethics of justice, care, and professionalism which collectively protect consumers against corporate greed and exploitation. Water bottlers contribute to significant environmental pollution and have done little to recycle or reuse plastics to minimize the potential environmental damage. More than 80% of plastic bottles end up in waste and may be washed down into the oceans where they affect the marine ecosystem. Full article

In this study, we examined the association between CEO greed and corporate social responsibility (CSR) performance with a particular emphasis on the curtailing role of corporate governance. We found that CEO greed has a negative effect on CSR, since an uncontrolled pursuit of personal gain typically reveals myopic behavior and the foregoing of investment in CSR by a greedy CEO. Additionally, we found that CEO compensation in the form of large bonuses, support, and restricted stocks options weakened the link between CEO greed and CSR. Concerning the power dynamics amongst CEOs (CEO duality and tenure), we found that CEO duality moderates the negative relation between CEO greed and CSR. We also explored the curtailing role of corporate governance (proxies represented by board gender diversity and board independence) in the association between CEO greed and CSR. Our findings show that gender diversity curtails the negative effect of CEO greed on CSR once it reaches critical mass on the corporate board. Gender critical mass also curtails the negative impact of CEO greed on CSR, even if the CEO exercises duality. Our findings have empirical and practical implications. This study contributes to the existing literature by exploring the relationship between CEO greed and CSR in Asia, a region not renowned for CSR performance. This study also provides evidence for the curtailing role of compensation and governance factors in the negative relationship between CEO greed and CSR. Full article

Marketing unhealthy products by multinational corporations has caused considerable harm to individual health, collective wellbeing, and environmental sustainability. This is a growing threat to all societies and a significant contributor to the rising global burden of non-communicable diseases and early mortality. While there is growing consideration of the commercial determinants of health, this is largely focused on the methods by which unhealthy products are marketed and disseminated, including efforts to manipulate policy. Little attention has been paid to the underlying psychological traits and worldviews that are driving corporate greed. Here, we consider the role of “dispositional greed” in the commercial determinants of health with a focus on the historical attitudes and culture in the ultra-processed food industry—exemplified by “The Founder” of the McDonald’s franchise. We argue that greed and associated psychological constructs, such as social dominance orientation and collective narcissism, permeate the commercial determinants of health at a collective level. This includes how a culture of greed within organizations, and individual dispositional greed, can magnify and cluster at scale, perpetuated by social dominance orientation. We also consider the ways in which “showbiz” marketing specifically targets marginalized populations and vulnerable groups, including children—in ways that are justified, or even celebrated despite clear links to non-communicable diseases and increased mortality. Finally, we consider how greed and exploitative mindsets mirror cultural values and priorities, with trends for increasing collective narcissism at scale, recognizing that many of these attitudes are cultivated in early life. A healthier future will depend on navigating a path that balances material prosperity with physical and spiritual wellbeing. This will require cultural change that places higher value on kindness, reciprocity, and mutualistic values especially in early life, for more equitable flourishing. Full article

In four focus group exercises involving both forecasting and backcasting approaches, we gave approximately 100 Australian citizens the opportunity to discuss likely, desirable and feared futures to 2050. The image they paint is both coherent and consistent. Education, governance, personal attitudes and societal trends, rather than specific events, are drivers of a future which is perceived as being largely shaped by human choices. Innovation is believed to be more necessary in novel social arrangements than in further technology. The most feared futures arise from an amplification of trends already at play in the present: economic growth at the expense of the environment and quality of life, lack of equity, poor government, corporate greed, commercialism and erosion of social values. Economic and material growth does not feature in the most desired futures which are local, inclusive, peaceful, equitable and in some cases frugal. The visions and scenarios developed find a place within established foresight frameworks and global political narratives, but seem to lie at the fringe of current media and short-term political discourse. These results should not be interpreted as representative of the overall Australian population, but suggest that extending the analysis to the broader community could provide significant insights and enrich the discussion of important societal choices. Full article