MIT Sloan Management Review Article on Six Ways Companies Can Promote and Protect Human Rights

In responding to a government’s human rights abuses, companies have effective options beyond standing by or cutting ties.

The much-vaunted 2019 public listing of Saudi Aramco set a record for the world’s biggest initial public offering. But it was likely a disappointing affair for its architect, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman: The stock saw only tepid demand outside the region. That it failed to gain the level of global enthusiasm and support he had been seeking was due in no small part to investor wariness of Aramco’s close ties to the Saudi regime and the country’s appalling record on human rights.

About the Author

Markus Scholz holds the Endowed Chair of Corporate Governance & Business Ethics at the University of Applied Sciences for Management & Communication in Vienna. He also heads the Institute for Business Ethics and Sustainable Strategy and is a visiting scholar at the INSEAD Hoffmann Global Institute for Business and Society. N. Craig Smith is the INSEAD Chair in Ethics and Social Responsibility; director of the Ethics and Social Responsibility Initiative, a part of the INSEAD Hoffmann Global Institute for Business and Society; a specialist professor at the INSEAD Corporate Governance Centre; and a member of the Scientific Committee of social responsibility rating agency Vigeo Eiris. His latest book (with Eric Orts) is The Moral Responsibility of Firms (Oxford University Press, 2017).

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