Business Ethics

Reviewed by Reto Felix, Professor of Marketing, The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley on 12/21/25, updated 12/22/25

Comprehensiveness rating: 4

This textbook is quite comprehensive and covers many relevant topics for a course in business ethics. Chapters 2–4 provide the theoretical foundations, including virtue ethics, utilitarianism, deontology, theories of justice, and the stakeholder model. Chapter 5 addresses the important question of how culture influences business ethics. Chapters 6–10 then focus predominantly on workplace ethics and the relationships between employers and employees.

There are a few areas that, from my point of view, could still be improved. First, I would argue that the discussion of codes of ethics and codes of conduct (and the distinction between the two) is limited. Furthermore, there is very little information on ethics control systems, ethics training, ethics committees, and ethics audits, and hence I added additional sources to my course to cover these topics.

Second, although one might argue that this is not necessarily part of a standard business ethics course, the textbook does not address business ethics issues related to consumers (e.g., moral licensing, bounded ethicality, self-serving bias, attribution, obedience to authority, etc.). Hence, I added a module on the “The Psychology of Ethics” to my course, building on introductory videos from the McCombs School of Business (https://ethicsunwrapped.utexas.edu/video) and then complemented by more advanced materials, such as https://doi.org/10.1016/j.copsyc.2015.03.01 and https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1751-9004.2008.00078.x.

Third, the textbook unfortunately does not include any case studies. Instructors who wish to use case studies in their courses will therefore need to source them from commercial providers such as Harvard Business Publishing or from other sources available under fair use or Creative Commons licenses.

Fourth, I would argue that the quality of the accompanying slides and the questions in the test bank is very moderate, and instructors will probably see the need to substantially improve the slides and come up with their own, additional quiz questions. However, this is in my opinion also true for many commercial textbooks, so I just wanted to mention this without suggesting that this is a disadvantage relative to commercial textbooks.

Content Accuracy rating: 5

I have not encountered any issues with inaccurate content in this book.

One might argue that, although accurate, some of the discussions of ethical theories (such as virtue ethics, utilitarianism, and deontology) are somewhat simplified, particularly when the book is used at an advanced undergraduate or master’s level.

The reader may also feel that while the book offers a compelling case for the importance of business ethics, the authors’ strong normative commitment occasionally results in a predominantly affirmative portrayal of ethical behavior. For example, the authors emphasize evidence linking ethical conduct to firm success and profitability, but the book might benefit from a still more in-depth reflection on situations in which adherence to ethical principles may entail genuine trade-offs or short-term economic costs.

Nevertheless, the book provides in my opinion a decent introduction to a diverse range of topics in business ethics, and instructors can easily complement the explanations with more scholarly sources if they wish, such as articles from the Journal of Business Ethics.

Relevance/Longevity rating: 4

Since, contrary to topics such as, e.g., social media marketing and management, the more fundamental issues and dilemmas in business ethics do not change drastically over time, the book remains relevant, even though the most recent edition dates from 2018 (seven years ago at the time of writing this review).

I greatly appreciate that each chapter contains several interesting and relevant “pedagogical boxes” (i.e., specifically marked sections in the book) featuring short topics such as “Cases from the Real World,” “What Would You Do,” “Ethics Across Time and Culture,” and “Links to Learning” (which provides links to relevant external sources).

More recent business examples from real firms (post-2018) are indeed missing, and therefore a new edition with updated cases could add value and further enhance the book’s perceived relevance for its target audience.

Clarity rating: 5

I found this textbook to be clear, easy to read, and overall engaging in terms of its writing style.

Consistency rating: 5

I found the book to be internally consistent because a) all chapters present a similar structure and overall logic, which facilitates the acquisition and processing of content, and b) chapters often remind the reader of topics that had been mentioned in other chapters in meaningful ways. Importantly, terminology is used in a consistent way, and I did not find any logical contradictions across chapters.

Furthermore, the book’s layout is satisfying – for example, major sections are numbered, headings and subheadings are distinguished through font size, the book makes decent use of figures, pictures, and tables, and the use of white space and margins is adequate.

Modularity rating: 5

I believe that the modularity of the book is overall very good, and instructors should be able to use all chapters or specific sections within a chapter as stand-alone modules and/or integrate them into other learning materials.

Organization/Structure/Flow rating: 5

The topics in the book are well organized and presented in a logical sequence. As noted in the section on “Comprehensiveness,” Chapters 2–4 provide the theoretical foundations, including virtue ethics, utilitarianism, deontology, theories of justice, and the stakeholder model. Chapter 5 addresses the important question of how culture influences business ethics. Chapters 6–10 then focus primarily on workplace ethics and the relationships between employers and employees. Overall, this organization creates a coherent flow and provides readers with a solid conceptual framework.

Interface rating: 5

The pdf version of the book worked for me without any distortions or other problems.

Grammatical Errors rating: 5

The book is overall very well written, and I did not see any significant errors in spelling, grammar, or expression.

Cultural Relevance rating: 4

I did not notice any content that appeared culturally insensitive or offensive – however, I can indeed not speak for the perspectives of individuals whose gender, ethnicity, or other characteristics differ from my own. I also think that Chapter 5 makes a solid attempt to illustrate how business ethics (and ethics in general) has evolved over time, and how culture influences ethical norms. However, one might argue that some parts on the important question to what extent ethical values are universal, and the related issue of ethical relativism, remain slightly ambiguous and at times superficial.

It is a positive feature that each chapter concludes with a short glossary of key terms, a brief summary, some assessment questions, and a comprehensive list of endnotes enabling readers to consult the original sources.

I would like to thank the authors, Stephen Byars and Kurt Stanberry, for providing this valuable text to students and the business community as an Open Educational Resource. Maybe there is an opportunity for a second edition of the book in the not-too-distant future?