Key Terms
- business judgment rule
- the principle that officers, directors, and managers of a corporation are not liable for losses incurred when the evidence demonstrates that decisions were reasonable and made in good faith
- cap and trade
- a system that limits greenhouse gas emissions by companies while allowing them to buy and sell pollution allowances
- carbon footprint
- the amount of carbon dioxide and other carbon compounds released by the consumption of fossil fuels
- carbon tax
- a pay-to-pollute system in which those who discharge carbon into the air pay a fee or tax
- Citizens United
- a 2010 Supreme Court ruling in favor of unlimited spending by individuals and corporations on political campaigns
- Commerce Clause
- an enumerated power listed in the Constitution giving the federal government the right to regulate commerce between states
- corporate personhood
- the legal doctrine holding that a corporation, separate and apart from the people who are its owners and managers, has some of the same legal rights and responsibilities enjoyed by natural persons
- fiduciary duty
- a very high level of legal responsibility owed by those who manage someone else’s money, which includes the duties of care and loyalty
- limited liability
- a business owner’s protection against loss of personal assets, granted with corporate status
- moral minimum
- the minimal actions or practices a business must undertake to satisfy the base threshold for acting ethically
- quid pro quo
- the tradeoff someone makes in return for getting something of value; from the Latin meaning this for that
- Sarbanes-Oxley
- legislation passed in 2002 that mandates reporting transparency by businesses in areas ranging from finance to accounting to supply chain activities
- states’ rights
- a view that states should have more governing authority than the federal government, based on the Tenth Amendment, which reserves to the states any right not specifically delegated to the federal government
- sustainability
- a long-term approach to the interaction between business activity and societal impact on the environment and other stakeholders
- tragedy of the commons
- an economy theory highlighting the human tendency to use as much of a free natural resource as wanted without regard for others’ needs or for long-term environmental effects or issues
Citation/Attribution
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Access for free at https://openstax.org/books/business-ethics/pages/1-introduction
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Citation information
- Use the information below to generate a citation. We recommend using a citation tool such as this one.
- Authors: Stephen M. Byars, Kurt Stanberry
- Publisher/website: OpenStax
- Book title: Business Ethics
- Publication date: Sep 24, 2018
- Location: Houston, Texas
- Book URL: https://openstax.org/books/business-ethics/pages/1-introduction
- Section URL: https://openstax.org/books/business-ethics/pages/1-introduction
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