On the analogy between business and sport: towards an Aristotelian response to the market failures approach to business ethics
On the analogy between business and sport: towards an Aristotelian response to the market failures approach to business ethics
This paper explores the notion that business calls for an adversarial ethic, akin to that of sport. On this view, because of their competitive structure, both sport and business call for behaviours that are contrary to ‘ordinary morality’, and yet are ultimately justified because of the goods they facilitate. I develop three objections to this analogy. Firstly, there is an important qualitative difference between harms risked voluntarily and harms risked involuntarily. Secondly, the goods achieved by adversarial relationships in sport go beyond the function of sport, i.e. to entertain audiences. Thirdly, the most plausible account of the athlete’s motivational development starts with their love of the sport, which can explain a commitment to the sporting ethics in a way that is not paralleled in business. I close by drawing attention to the ways in which an Aristotelian conception of business ethics may be able to accommodate these objections.
Aristotelianism, Ethics of competition, Market failures approach
49-61
Sinnicks, Matthew
63b27aef-8672-4fa7-b2fa-388c9af51c57
April 2022
Sinnicks, Matthew
63b27aef-8672-4fa7-b2fa-388c9af51c57
Sinnicks, Matthew
(2022)
On the analogy between business and sport: towards an Aristotelian response to the market failures approach to business ethics.
Journal of Business Ethics, 177 (1), .
(doi:10.1007/s10551-021-04749-9).
Abstract
This paper explores the notion that business calls for an adversarial ethic, akin to that of sport. On this view, because of their competitive structure, both sport and business call for behaviours that are contrary to ‘ordinary morality’, and yet are ultimately justified because of the goods they facilitate. I develop three objections to this analogy. Firstly, there is an important qualitative difference between harms risked voluntarily and harms risked involuntarily. Secondly, the goods achieved by adversarial relationships in sport go beyond the function of sport, i.e. to entertain audiences. Thirdly, the most plausible account of the athlete’s motivational development starts with their love of the sport, which can explain a commitment to the sporting ethics in a way that is not paralleled in business. I close by drawing attention to the ways in which an Aristotelian conception of business ethics may be able to accommodate these objections.
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Sinnicks - 2022 - On the Analogy between Business and Sport (JBE)
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Accepted/In Press date: 16 January 2021
e-pub ahead of print date: 7 February 2021
Published date: April 2022
Additional Information:
Funding Information:
I would like to thank Holly Smith, Craig Reeves, Jaakko Nevasto, handling editor Alejo José G. Sison, and two anonymous reviewers for JBE for comments on earlier versions of this paper.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021, The Author(s).
Keywords:
Aristotelianism, Ethics of competition, Market failures approach
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Local EPrints ID: 470045
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/470045
ISSN: 0167-4544
PURE UUID: 39b58c8e-c26c-49ae-aed2-990ec174ce0f
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Date deposited: 30 Sep 2022 16:52
Last modified: 06 Jun 2024 02:14
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Matthew Sinnicks
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