Nien-he Hsieh

Visiting Scholar

Nien-hê Hsieh is the MBA Class of 1953 Visiting Associate Professor of Business Administration in the General Management Unit. He is visiting from the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania where he is an Associate Professor in the Legal Studies and Business Ethics Department with a secondary appointment in the Department of Philosophy, and serves as Co-Director of the Wharton Ethics Program. His research focuses on ethical challenges that arise in the context of global business activity and the role of individuals, organizations, and institutions in addressing them. At Wharton, he teaches courses on ethics, corporate responsibility, and social impact in the undergraduate, MBA, doctoral, and executive programs. At Harvard Business School, he will be teaching "Leadership and Corporate Accountability" in the MBA Required Curriculum.

Professor Hsieh's current work focuses on developing a framework to provide guidance for business leaders managing in contexts where institutional arrangements are weak, incomplete, or contested. The project follows his research on evaluating institutional arrangements that structure economic production, decision-making in the face of incommensurable values, the moral dimensions of work, and the role of multinational enterprises in assisting persons whose basic needs are not met. His work has been published in Business Ethics Quarterly, Economics and Philosophy, The Journal of Political Philosophy, Philosophy and Public Affairs, Social Theory and Practice, Utilitas, and various other journals.

At Wharton, Professor Hsieh has been involved in expanding curricular and co-curricular offerings, having developed the Undergraduate Secondary Concentration in Social Impact and Responsibility and serving as its faculty coordinator. He also chaired the Wharton Faculty Committee on Social Impact and Responsibility and helped to establish the Non-Profit Board Leadership Program and the Penn Social Entrepreneurship Mentoring Program.

Professor Hsieh holds a B.A. in Economics from Swarthmore College, an M.Phil. in Politics from Oxford University, and a Ph.D. in Economics from Harvard University. Before joining the faculty at Wharton in 2001, he was a Postdoctoral Fellow at Harvard Business School, and he has held visiting fellowships at Harvard University, Oxford University, and the Research School for Social Sciences at the Australian National University. 

 

Journal Articles

  1. Corporate Social Responsibility and the Priority of Shareholders

    Keywords: Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Business and Shareholder Relations;

    Citation:

    Hsieh, Nien-he. "Corporate Social Responsibility and the Priority of Shareholders." Journal of Business Ethics 88, no. 4 (2009): 553–560.
  2. Justice at Work: Arguing for Property-Owning Democracy

    Keywords: Ownership; Government and Politics;

    Citation:

    Hsieh, Nien-he. "Justice at Work: Arguing for Property-Owning Democracy." Journal of Social Philosophy 40, no. 3 (2009): 397–411.
  3. Does Global Business Have a Responsibility to Promote Just Institutions

    Keywords: Business Ventures;

    Citation:

    Hsieh, Nien-he. "Does Global Business Have a Responsibility to Promote Just Institutions." Business Ethics Quarterly 19, no. 2 (2009): 251–273.
  4. Justice in Production

    Citation:

    Hsieh, Nien-he. "Justice in Production." Journal of Political Philosophy 16, no. 1 (March 2008): 72–100.
  5. Workplace Democracy, Workplace Republicanism, and Economic Democracy

    Keywords: Economics; Theory;

    Citation:

    Hsieh, Nien-he. "Workplace Democracy, Workplace Republicanism, and Economic Democracy." Revue de philosophie économique 9, no. 1 (2008): 57–78.
  6. Pairwise Comparison and Numbers Skepticism

    Citation:

    Hsieh, Nien-he, Alan Strudler, and David H. Wasserman. "Pairwise Comparison and Numbers Skepticism." Utilitas 19, no. 4 (2007).
  7. Maximization, Incomparability, and Managerial Choice

    Keywords: Management;

    Citation:

    Hsieh, Nien-he. "Maximization, Incomparability, and Managerial Choice." Business Ethics Quarterly 17, no. 3 (2007): 497–513.
  8. Is Incomparability a Problem for Anyone?

    Keywords: Problems and Challenges;

    Citation:

    Hsieh, Nien-he. "Is Incomparability a Problem for Anyone?" Economics and Philosophy 23, no. 1 (2007): 65–80.
  9. Managers, Workers, and Authority

    Keywords: Management; Employees;

    Citation:

    Hsieh, Nien-he. "Managers, Workers, and Authority." Journal of Business Ethics 71, no. 4 (2007): 347–357.
  10. The Numbers Problem

    Keywords: Problems and Challenges;

    Citation:

    Hsieh, Nien-he. "The Numbers Problem." Philosophy & Public Affairs 34, no. 4 (2006): 352–372.
  11. Justice, Management, and Governance

    Keywords: Management; Governance;

    Citation:

    Hsieh, Nien-he. "Justice, Management, and Governance." Corporate Governance: The International Journal of Business in Society 6, no. 3 (2006): 261–267.
  12. Voluntary Codes of Conduct for Multinational Corporations: Coordinating Duties of Rescue and Justice

    Keywords: Business Ventures;

    Citation:

    Hsieh, Nien-he. "Voluntary Codes of Conduct for Multinational Corporations: Coordinating Duties of Rescue and Justice." Business Ethics Quarterly 16, no. 2 (2006): 119–135.
  13. Equality, Clumpiness, and Incomparability

    Keywords: Equality and Inequality;

    Citation:

    Hsieh, Nien-he. "Equality, Clumpiness, and Incomparability." Utilitas 17, no. 2 (2005): 180–204.
  14. Rawlsian Justice and Workplace Republicanism

    Keywords: Theory;

    Citation:

    Hsieh, Nien-he. "Rawlsian Justice and Workplace Republicanism." Social Theory and Practice 31, no. 1 (2005): 115–142.
  15. The Obligations of Transnational Corporations: Rawlsian Justice and the Duty of Assistance

    Keywords: Theory; Business Ventures;

    Citation:

    Hsieh, Nien-he. "The Obligations of Transnational Corporations: Rawlsian Justice and the Duty of Assistance." Business Ethics Quarterly 14, no. 4 (2004): 643–661.
  16. Choosing Equal Injustice

    Keywords: Equality and Inequality;

    Citation:

    Laufer, William S., and Nien-he Hsieh. "Choosing Equal Injustice." American Journal of Criminal Law 30, no. 3 (2003): 343–361.
  17. Moral Desert, Fairness and Legitimate Expectations in the Market

    Keywords: Fairness; Moral Sensibility; Markets;

    Citation:

    Hsieh, Nien-he. "Moral Desert, Fairness and Legitimate Expectations in the Market." Journal of Political Philosophy 8, no. 1 (2000): 91–114.
  18. The Conspicuous Absence of Examination Questions Concerning the Great Irish Famine: Political Economy as Science and Ideology

    Keywords: Government and Politics; Economy; Science; Food;

    Citation:

    Hsieh, Nien-he. "The Conspicuous Absence of Examination Questions Concerning the Great Irish Famine: Political Economy as Science and Ideology." European Journal of the History of Economic Thought 6, no. 2 (1999): 169–199.

Book Chapters

  1. Work, Ownership, and Productive Enfranchisement

    Keywords: Labor; Ownership Stake; Private Ownership;

    Citation:

    Hsieh, Nien-he. "Work, Ownership, and Productive Enfranchisement." In Property-Owning Democracy: Rawls and Beyond, edited by Martin O'Neill, and Thad Williamson. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell, 2012.
  2. Multinational Enterprises and Corporate Responsibility: A Matter of Justice?

    Keywords: Multinational Firms and Management; Ethics; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Lawfulness;

    Citation:

    Hsieh, Nien-he. "Multinational Enterprises and Corporate Responsibility: A Matter of Justice?" In Morality and Global Justice: The Reader. 1st ed. Edited by Michael Boylan. Boulder: Westview Press, 2011.
  3. Efficiency and Rationality

    Keywords: Performance Efficiency;

    Citation:

    Hsieh, Nien-he. "Efficiency and Rationality." In Finance Ethics: Critical Issues in Theory and Practice , edited by John Boatwright. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, 2010.
  4. The Normative Study of Business Organizations: A Rawlsian Approach

    Keywords: Ethics; Business Ventures; Research;

    Citation:

    Hsieh, Nien-he. "The Normative Study of Business Organizations: A Rawlsian Approach." In Normative Theory and Business Ethics, edited by Jeffery Smith, 93–117. Lanham, 2008.
  5. Incommensurable Values

    Keywords: Values and Beliefs;

    Citation:

    Hsieh, Nien-he. "Incommensurable Values." In Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, edited by Edward N. Zalta. Stanford University, 2007.
  6. Property Rights in Crisis: Managers and Rescue

    Keywords: Property; Rights; Management;

    Citation:

    Hsieh, Nien-he. "Property Rights in Crisis: Managers and Rescue." In Ethics and the Pharmaceutical Industry in the 21st Century, edited by Michael Santoro, and Thomas Gorrie, 379–385. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005.

Cases and Teaching Materials

  1. A Framework for Ethical Reasoning

    A practical framework for evaluating the ethical dimensions of a proposed course of action for managers and executives.

    Keywords: Decision Making; Ethics; Values and Beliefs; Framework; Corporate Accountability; Leadership; Social Enterprise;

    Citation:

    Sucher, Sandra J., and Nien-he Hsieh. "A Framework for Ethical Reasoning." Harvard Business School Background Note 610-050, December 2011. (Revised from original January 2010 version.)