Environmental Advocacy and Local Restorations (2023) concerns the leadership of state environmental agencies and local environmental advocacy organizations for restoring the ecology of those localities severely affected by industrial pollution. These localities are along the US Great Lakes and other Northeast US rust-belt areas. Federal agencies assist with these restorations through the “areas of concern” program along the Great Lakes, and the “urban waters” program in other locations. This book illustrates the possibilities for future environmental restorations of other areas.
Environmental Organizations and Reasoned Discourse (2021) concerns the considerable role of major US advocacy organizations (such as The Sierra Club, the Audubon Society, The Nature Conservancy) and also significant smaller local advocacy organizations (such as Friends of the Columbia River Gorge, and the Hudson River Fishermen’s Association) for publicizing our environmental problems, establishing changes in policies, and/or enforcing of our existing laws. Their political influence has been strongly felt in North America and recently exerted internationally.
Business Ethics: Kant, Virtue, and the Nexus of Duty (2022) is a text. It is more substantive than other undergraduate texts on this subject. It is based on the enlightenment philosophy of Immanuel Kant and his related but tangential explorations of virtue ethics. Imperfect duty is emphasized – especially in its collective form. It explores business subjects such as the (i) breakdown of business codes of ethics, (ii) the expanded demands of due diligence for management, (iii) the emergence of environmental problems for business, (iv) the history of paternalism in management theory, and (v) the concepts of fairness in negotiation for management. This volume has been very well received as evidenced by sales.
The Imperfect Duties of Management (2019) further explores a new “theory of the firm” as introduced in my Journal of Business Ethics (2017) article. Whereas the “contracts theory of the firm” (the current generally accepted theory) relies on the notions of “perfect duty,” this volume argues that the ”imperfect duties of management” better explain the more interesting issues of business development, success or failure of businesses, the current expanded notions of “due diligence,” and the “pursuit of shareholder wealth” as explored in the seminal work of Jensen and Meckling (1976).
Prof. Richard M. Robinson, PhD 