The Distribution of Life‐Saving Pharmaceuticals: 
Viewing the Conflict Between Social Efficiency and Economic Efficiency Through a Social Contract Lens

A Critical Perspective of Integrative Social Contracts Theory: Recurring Criticisms and Next Generation Research Topics

“…Bucar et al (2003) survey both attitudes and intended behaviors in seeking to identify authentic norms among entrepreneurs in a cross-cultural context. These and similar studies demonstrate that ISCT has influenced researchers to seek ethical norms pertaining to particular issues in specific communities, which could be used in ISCT-based ethical decision-making (Culnan, 1995;HiggsKleyn et al, 2000;Lucas, 2001;Reisel and Sama, 2003). Their struggles to come up with definitive evidence of norms demonstrate the current lack of hard evidence of behaviors and attitudes necessary to establish scientifically rigorous ISCT authentic norms.…”

“…Reisel and Sama (2003) apply ISCT to the issue of whether pharmaceutical companies should distribute life-saving drugs on a below-cost basis in developing countries. In order to assist and complete their analysis, they construct a set of ''meso norms.''…”

“…Thus ethical dilemmas could be resolved on the basis of meso norms alone without the presence of authentic norms. Reisel and Sama (2003) argue that certain communities' norms should carry greater weight because their sources can be assumed to be non-political and impartial or because they transcend nation states.…”

Foundations and Applications for Contractualist Business Ethics

“…Many ISCT observers have noted that the abyss that separates the hypothetical macro-social contract from extant micro-social contracts in ISCT is too wide, and that it therefore becomes too difficult to test the content of ''real'' firm-stakeholder contracts against the structural, procedural, and substantive norms comprising the most universal of all conceivable moralities (Logsdon and Wood, 2002;Reisel and Sama, 2003;van Oosterhout et al, 2006). We believe that Jerry Calton's work explores a kind of processual meso-norms that can perhaps connect the micro and macro levels of social contracting more adequately.…”

Reconciling Rules and Principles: An Ethics-Based Approach to Corporate Governance

“…Social contracts stipulate the terms under which business and society satisfy mutual obligations. As such, social contract theory prescribes those behaviors characteristic of a good corporate citizen, that is, those behaviors and activities that responsibly meet or exceed the expectations of society (Maignan et al 1999;Reisel and Sama, 2003;Waddock, 2001). At the local or empirical level, agreements exist among members of a community, and sanctions are created to curb illicit behaviors.…”