TABEC 2025: Transatlantic Business Ethics Conference

In June 2025, we hosted TABEC, discussing the role of business in protecting or opposing universal rights, freedom, and democracy.

TABEC is a small, biennial conference that brings together leading scholars from Europe and North America to share their ideas on the most pressing business ethics issues of our times.

TABEC 2025 was hosted by the Centre for Business, Organisations and Society (CBOS) in the School of Management at the University of Bath. The conference marked the 20-year anniversary of the Centre since its founding in 2005.

Conference theme

The theme for this event was 'The role of business in protecting or opposing universal rights, freedom, and democracy'.

Universal rights, freedom, and democracy have long been highly valorised as the foundations of a just and flourishing society. However, their realisation and desirability has varied across time and place. Evidence suggests that, at present, global freedoms are declining, universal rights are under growing threats, and improvements in democracy are uneven at best.

A range of interlocking factors contribute to this including the prevalence of authoritarian governments, growth in populist movements, advent of major conflicts, shifts in media and social media freedoms, and a host of other factors.

The role of business in relation to rights, freedom, and democracy bears particular scrutiny. While one position is that business should remain resolutely outside any such considerations and simply operate within the law in whatever context it faces, it is clear that companies can, and have, elected to both protect and oppose such values through their operations.

This might include the support or censure of authoritarian regimes, the protection or violation of human rights in the supply chain, the suppression or enabling of freedom of expression on social media, or the direct involvement of business in politics through lobbying, rule-making, or corporate 'activism'.

As part of TABEC 2025, participants presented their latest research on these issues and engaged in intensive discussions, building a research agenda to better inform our thinking and practice about the role of business in protecting or opposing universal rights, freedom, and democracy.

List of participants

Conference Co-chairs

Andrew Crane, University of Bath School of Management, UK
Annie Snelson-Powell, University of Bath School of Management, UK

Speakers

Zena Al-Esia, University of Bath, UK
Thomas Beschorner, University of St Gallen, Switzerland
Stephen Brammer, University of Bath, UK
Joanne Ciulla, Rutgers University, US
Cedric Dawkins, York University, Canada
Thomas Donaldson, University of Pennsylvania, US
Marianna Fotaki, University of Warwick, UK
Sarah Glozer, University of Bath School, UK
Elisa Giuliani, University of Pisa, Italy
Kostas Iatridis, University of Bath, UK
Jukka Mäkinen, Estonian Business School, Estonia
Dirk Matten, York University, Canada
Jeremy Moon, Copenhagen Business School, Denmark
Rita Mota, Ramon Llull University, Spain
Tricia Olsen, University of Minnesota, US
Mollie Painter, Nottingham Trent University, UK
Markus Scholz, Technical University Dresden, Germany
Judith Schrempf-Stirling, University of Geneva, Switzerland
Abraham Singer, Loyola University Chicago, US
Jeffery Smith, Seattle University, US
Laura Spence, King's College, London, UK
Patricia Werhane, University of Virginia, US
Timothy Werner, University of Texas at Austin, US