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7 - Business Ethics in Mexico

The Seeds of Justice

from Part I - Ethical Business Cultures: Country Perspectives

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 October 2017

By
Martha Sañudo
Edited by
Douglas Jondle  and
Alexandre Ardichvili
Douglas Jondle
Affiliation:
Bains Jondle & Associates LLC
Alexandre Ardichvili
Affiliation:
University of Minnesota
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Summary

Abstract

Business ethics, as the philosophical enquiry into the moral features present in economic activity, ought to be a tool for building a fairer society. To examine how business ethics in Mexico can be such a tool, we first present some economic and cultural consequences of Mexico’s privileged geographical position (bordering the United States) and of its joining the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in 1994. By adding a political and historical account to the analysis, we explain why the post-NAFTA boost in the economy has divided the country in what we have labeled Main-Road Mexico (those who are or seek to be part of the modern economy of Mexico) and Off-Road Mexico (those who are unaware of or distant from any “modern” options, or rather, wish to maintain and even strengthen their pre-NAFTA and even pre-Hispanic cultural identity). We then use Hofstede’s findings of the cultural dimensions of Mexico to provide the backdrop against which we discuss recent and relevant research done on business in Mexico. We do this to highlight the implications for business practitioners dealing with Mexican companies in Mexico and Mexican companies abroad and to suggest that indeed business ethics can be the seed of social justice.

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Ethical Business Cultures in Emerging Markets , pp. 132 - 159
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2017

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