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An article by Vaughn Tan of University College, London
Excerpt:
As a business, being fair to consumers, employees, and suppliers even when not forced to by consumer or employment law, or by supplier market power, seems like leaving money on the table. So doing business responsibly seems only tolerable in stable, superabundant times when there is so much comfort and money to go around that it’s ok to leave some of it for others.
In fact, the opposite is true.
“Unnecessarily” responsible behavior creates intertemporal reciprocity between the business and those it is responsible to. This is a resource that can be drawn on in time of need—as hundreds of childrens’ books and parables have illustrated.