IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/cup/buetqu/v27y2017i03p353-379_00.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Profit and Other Values: Thick Evaluation in Decision Making

Author

Listed:
  • van der Linden, Bastiaan
  • Freeman, R. Edward

Abstract

Profit maximizers have reasons to agree with stakeholder theorists that managers may need to consider different values simultaneously in decision making. However, it remains unclear how maximizing a single value can be reconciled with simultaneously considering different values. A solution can neither be found in substantive normative philosophical theories, nor in postulating the maximization of profit. Managers make sense of the values in a situation by means of the many thick value concepts of ordinary language. Thick evaluation involves the simultaneous consideration of different values: making sense of a value always involves knowing how to engage with it given the other values in the situation. This also goes for profit: maximization is only one way of engaging with the value of profit, and grasping whether maximization is appropriate involves considering other values. We discuss some consequences of our approach for stakeholder theorists and profit maximizers.

Suggested Citation

  • van der Linden, Bastiaan & Freeman, R. Edward, 2017. "Profit and Other Values: Thick Evaluation in Decision Making," Business Ethics Quarterly, Cambridge University Press, vol. 27(3), pages 353-379, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:cup:buetqu:v:27:y:2017:i:03:p:353-379_00
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S1052150X1700001X/type/journal_article
    File Function: link to article abstract page
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Simona Fiandrino & Francesco Scarpa & Riccardo Torelli, 2022. "Fostering Social Impact Through Corporate Implementation of the SDGs: Transformative Mechanisms Towards Interconnectedness and Inclusiveness," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 180(4), pages 959-973, November.
    2. Silvana Signori & Leire San-Jose & Jose Luis Retolaza & Gianfranco Rusconi, 2021. "Stakeholder Value Creation: Comparing ESG and Value Added in European Companies," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(3), pages 1-16, January.
    3. Emmanuel Josserand & Sarah Kaine & Natalia Nikolova, 2018. "Delivering sustainability in supply networks: Achieving networked multi‐stakeholder collaborations," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 27(5), pages 605-611, July.
    4. Gerhard Fink & Steven Wallis, 2022. "Understanding and avoiding negative consequences of value‐based laws, policies and programmes," Systems Research and Behavioral Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 39(1), pages 21-29, January.
    5. Erin I. Castellas & Wendy Stubbs & Véronique Ambrosini, 2019. "Responding to Value Pluralism in Hybrid Organizations," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 159(3), pages 635-650, October.
    6. Ingo Pies & Philipp Schreck & Karl Homann, 2021. "Single-objective versus multi-objective theories of the firm: using a constitutional perspective to resolve an old debate," Review of Managerial Science, Springer, vol. 15(3), pages 779-811, April.
    7. Thomas Donaldson, 2023. "Value creation and CSR," Journal of Business Economics, Springer, vol. 93(6), pages 1255-1275, August.
    8. Antonio J. Castro & María D. López-Rodríguez & Cynthia Giagnocavo & Miguel Gimenez & Leticia Céspedes & Abel La Calle & Marisa Gallardo & Pablo Pumares & Javier Cabello & Estefanía Rodríguez & David U, 2019. "Six Collective Challenges for Sustainability of Almería Greenhouse Horticulture," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(21), pages 1-23, October.
    9. Valentinov, Vladislav & Roth, Steffen, 2022. "Chester Barnard’s theory of the firm: An institutionalist view," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 56(3), pages 707-720.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:cup:buetqu:v:27:y:2017:i:03:p:353-379_00. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Kirk Stebbing (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.cambridge.org/beq .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.