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• Article | Business Ethics Quarterly | July 2020

  Recovering the Logic of Double Effect for Business: Intentions, Proportionality, and Impermissible Harms

  Rosemarie Monge and Nien-hê Hsieh

  Business actors often act in ways that may harm other parties. While the law aims to restrict harmful behavior and to provide remedies, legal systems do not anticipate all contingencies and legal regulations are not always well enforced. This article argues that the logic of double effect (LDE), which has been developed and deployed in other areas of practical ethics, can be useful in helping business actors decide whether or not to pursue potentially harmful activities in commonplace business activity. The article illustrates how LDE helps to explain the exploitative nature of payday lending, the distinction between permissible and impermissible forms of market competition, and the potential wrong of imposing risk of harm on others. The article also addresses foundational debates about LDE itself. We offer the article as an illustration of the sort of “midlevel” theorizing that can address directly the needs of practitioners.

  Keywords: double effect; intention; Exploitation; risk; practical ethics; Competition; Risk and Uncertainty; Ethics;

  Citation:

  Monge, Rosemarie, and Nien-hê Hsieh. "Recovering the Logic of Double Effect for Business: Intentions, Proportionality, and Impermissible Harms." Business Ethics Quarterly 30, no. 3 (July 2020): 361–387. (doi: 10.1017/beq.2019.39.)  View Details

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• Case | HBS Case Collection | April 2015 (Revised June 2020)

  Comcast Corporation (A)

  Sunil Gupta, Henry McGee, Felix Oberholzer-Gee and Margaret L. Rodriguez

  In March 2015, the U.S. television industry received a major wake-up call. HBO, a premium cable channel with over 30 million subscribers, had announced it would begin offering a standalone streaming service. This new service would allow customers to bypass the cable companies and get direct access to HBO's programming online. The announcement was followed closely by Brian Roberts, chief executive of the Comcast Corporation. Comcast was America's largest cable and internet service provider, having built a profitable business bundling television content and delivering it via cable networks to more than 20 million households. Broadcast and cable television was a $173 billion industry in the U.S., but the rise of on-demand and streaming services meant viewers had more options than ever before. What did developments such as HBO's new service mean for the future of Comcast, and for the industry overall?

  Keywords: cable television; HBO; industry evolution; Television Entertainment; Disruption; Business Model; Competitive Strategy; Media and Broadcasting Industry;

  Citation:

  Gupta, Sunil, Henry McGee, Felix Oberholzer-Gee, and Margaret L. Rodriguez. "Comcast Corporation (A)." Harvard Business School Case 715-457, April 2015. (Revised June 2020.)  View Details

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• Supplement | HBS Case Collection | June 2020

  Comcast Corporation (B)

  Sunil Gupta, Henry McGee and Felix Oberholzer-Gee

  The (B) case, set in the summer of 2020, highlights the concern of Comcast CEO Brian Roberts, as the streaming war intensifies. In a short period of time several new streaming services, such as Disney+, Apple TV+, Quibi, and HBO Max were launched and cable subscription declined significantly. This not only poses a challenge to Comcast but many streaming services are also likely to fail as consumers have more choices.

  Keywords: cable television; industry evolution; Television Entertainment; Disruption; Business Model; Competitive Strategy; Media and Broadcasting Industry;

  Citation:

  Gupta, Sunil, Henry McGee, and Felix Oberholzer-Gee. "Comcast Corporation (B)." Harvard Business School Supplement 720-481, June 2020.  View Details

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