21213: Business Ethics in Europe: What Can We Learn from Each Other?

The proposed panel symposium focuses on business ethics Europe and aims (1) to identify the commonalities and particularities of business ethics in European countries and (2) to investigate “what we can learn from each other?” Reporters from European countries are invited to participate in-person. The conversation is structured in line with the Global Business Ethics Study 2022-2024 framework that was developed in consultation with approximately 100 experts of business ethics around the world and makes the country-reports comparable with each other. Given the limitation of this overview, only a few features will be selected in the panel discussion by each presenter. The framework distinguishes three areas of business ethics activities: teaching and research in academia, and training in business enterprises. The “horizon of business ethics” includes 13 themes (to which reporters could add further themes relevant for their own countries): Business and Human Rights / Business and Sustainability / Business and Just Energy Transition / Business and Wealth Creation / Corporate Governance / Digital Transformation / Corruption / Whistleblowing / Conflict and Terrorism / Religion and Spirituality / Diversity / Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) / Leadership and Ethics Management. Each reporter had to prioritize these themes on the scale of “very important” / “important” / “neutral” / “not important” / “exclude”. At the end of the questionnaire, the reporters had to describe the challenges and opportunities for business ethics in the next five years. The submitted reports might surprise readers coming from Europe (a relatively small and homogeneous continent compared to Asia and Africa) by their huge variety. They are written in English, the “lingua franca” of business; but many of them were carried out in the respective languages, e.g., in Spanish, Italian, German, Estonian and Hungarian. It is obvious that the socio-political and cultural context of the country (i.e., the systemic or macro-conditions) shapes, to a large extent, the decision-making and acting of business and educational organizations as well as that of individuals at the meso- and micro-levels, respectively. Each panelist guided the moderators contributes to the symposium in three ways, namely by (1) briefly presenting his or her own report; (2) being familiar with at least three other reports; and (3) participating in the conversation on what can we learn from each other for business ethics in Europe. The purpose of the panel is to discuss the commonalities and particularities of business ethics in European countries and to ask “what can we learn from each other?” for business ethics in Europe. The discussion is structured in three parts: (1) the achievements in the last 12 years; (2) the obstacles at present; and (3) the challenges and opportunities in the next five years. After this real life conversation, the moderators will briefly present the results of the analysis of the GSBE Volume 3 on Europe by artificial intelligence (AI), which he conducted prior to the conference. The comparison of the real life perspective with the AI-perspective will be highly interesting. To conclude the panel, the moderators summarizes the main points of the lessons to learn for business ethics in Europe with a global outlook to the discussions of business ethics in other countries.