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Moral Repair: Toward a Two-Level Conceptualization

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 May 2022

Jordi Vives-Gabriel
Affiliation:
University of St. Gallen, Switzerland Universitat Ramon Llull, Spain
Wim Van Lent
Affiliation:
IESEG School of Management (LEM Lille Economie Management UMR 9221, Université de Lille, CNRS), France Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, France
Florian Wettstein
Affiliation:
University of St. Gallen, Switzerland

Abstract

Moral repair is an important way for firms to heal moral relationships with stakeholders following a transgression. The concept is rooted in recognition theory, which is often used to develop normative perspectives and prescriptions, but the same theory has also propelled a view of moral repair as premised on negotiation between offender and victim(s), which involves the complex social construction of the transgression and the appropriate amends. The tension between normative principles and socioconstructivist implementation begs the question how offending firms should approach moral repair. Addressing this question, we develop a two-level conceptualization of moral repair, distinguishing between procedural and substantive levels of practice, which accommodate normativity and socioconstructivism, respectively. In so doing, we enrich the literature by 1) promoting conceptual clarity, 2) refining understanding of the moral repair process, and 3) suggesting the use of a unified, configurational approach to studying (nonlinear) relations between amends and moral outcomes.

Information

Type
Article
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Society for Business Ethics

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