Adapting to local ethical standards: a case of a global company

The normative challenges that emerge from a global-local tension, particularly with regard to the supra-legal normativity structures, such as ethical, aesthetical, or creedal, are addressed here. This study investigates a globally operating company that successfully adapted to the local ethical conditions, which contributed to its achievement of business success. Theoretically regarded, it is not clear how the phenomena of globalisation should be conceived. This investigation assumes a novel approach to the conceptual elaboration of globalisation, based upon some selected components from the Cosmonomic philosophy of H. Dooyeweerd. A multi-modal analysis of this case is presented, which uncovers inherent normativity structures governing the involved actors. This in turn provides a rationale for why the alignment between the ethical and economic norms may be congruent and positive. In this way, some initial and tentative proposals are advanced here for an alternative approach to the conception of the phenomena of globalisation.