Ethical issues permeate business decision making and affect the efficiency and effectiveness of a nation's business commerce. The result of ethical behavior is a general increase in a company's profitability and in a nation's standard of living, well-being, and prosperity. This chapter has made the following main points:

1. An ethical dilemma is the quandary people find themselves in when they have to decide if they should act in a way that might help one person or group (and is the "right" thing to do) even though it might hurt others or not be in their own self-interests.
2. Ethics are the inner-guiding moral principles, values, and beliefs that people use to analyze a situation and then decide the "right" way to behave.
3. Ethical beliefs alter and change as time passes, and, as they do so, laws change to reflect them.
4. Stakeholders are people and groups who have a claim on and a stake in a company. The main stakeholder groups are stockholders, managers, employees, suppliers and distributors, customers, and a community, society, and nation.
5. It is in the best interests of a company to behave ethically.
6. To determine if a business decision is right or wrong, companies can use four ethical rules to analyze it: the utilitarian, moral rights, justice, and practical rules.
7. When companies behave ethically, the tragedy of the commons can be averted. This lowers transaction costs and leads to a general increase in a company's profitability and benefits society as a whole.
8. Differences in a company's or a country's business ethics are based on societal, occupational, individual, and organizational factors.
9. The legal environment of business consists of the laws and regulations that have been passed to prevent unethical business activities from occurring when free markets cannot.
10. Four main types of laws affecting business commerce are antitrust laws, consumer protection laws, environmental laws, and laws relating to the public interest.
11. Several types of laws have been passed to prevent unethical practices related to business occupations: laws regulating occupational qualifications, laws governing business diversity, and laws promoting employee health and safety.
12. Two types of law that are especially relevant to a company's form of business organization are laws concerning incorporation and bankruptcy and laws that help it to protect its valuable resources. The granting of patents, copyrights, and trademarks are main ways of allowing people and companies to protect and profit from their creations.