Introduction

The most dramatic cases of global economic impact on culture and the human environment arise when large natural resource MNEs invest heavily in exploiting oil or mineral deposits in small, least developed countries. Economists have since focused on viewing the economy and the environment as a single interlinked system with a unified valuation methodology. Intergenerational equity can be incorporated into this approach, as has become common in economic valuations of climate change economics. Business ethics can be both a normative and a descriptive discipline. As a corporate practice and a career specialization, the field is primarily normative. In academia, descriptive approaches are also taken. The range and quantity of business ethical issues reflects the degree to which business is perceived to be at odds with non-economic social values. This book, which we hope will lay the foundations for the next generation of this subject.