ETHICAL PRACTICES IN SMALL BUSINESS: A CROSS COUNTRY COMPARISON

Abstract

The empirical literature on business ethics has been developing recently. However, the scholarly interest has so far been limited to ethical infractions of large corporations. Authors argue that findings based on the practices of large corporations have little applicability in the small businesses due to their unique financial circumstances, especially for the start ups. This paper argues that since many of the ethical principles are culture specific, ethnographic country studies of small businesses need to be encouraged toward comparative understanding of business ethics. Authors analyzed data from 130 small businesses of India and 112 from Bangladesh to bring out the differences in the small business practices of the two neighbouring countries. The study confirms that form of business, nature of industry which the firm operates have influence over ethical infractions. There are noteworthy differences in the ethical practices of the two nations, thanks to strong influence of contractual multinational presence.