Reimagining Goliath: understanding the relationship medium-sized businesses have with their ethics

This study focuses on the relationship medium-sized businesses have between their functioning and their ethics. The definitions of ethics and ethical business in this context are taken from both business ethics and developmental ethics and narrows them down to a relationship between value systems and minimising harm. To study the potential and effects of ethical business, this paper provides insight from 16 interviews with medium-sized businesses across countries and industries. All companies are medium-sized. The paper also looks at the question of transitions in business and whether ethics are compromised or revised during this process of change in a company. The companies are categorised into one or more of three categories (business-continuous, ethics-centric, people-centric), which are organised based on how companies prioritise a set of ten indicators this study uses to identify ethical business considerations. This paper ends by providing proposals on what businesses can do to function ethically without necessarily compromising on revenue (a core component of society today, and otherwise unavoidable).