The Role of Ethics in the Commercialization of Indigenous Knowledge

Much has been written about indigenous knowledge and intellectual property rights (IPRs) in fields like anthropology and law. However, it remains an under-examined topic in business and management literature. In this article, we review the emerging contentious discourse, definitional issues and unde...

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Bibliographic Details
Authors: Orozco, David (Author) ; Poonamallee, Latha (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Springer Science + Business Media B. V 2014
In: Journal of business ethics
Year: 2014, Volume: 119, Issue: 2, Pages: 275-286
Further subjects:B Traditional Knowledge
B Corporate social responsibility
B Business Ethics
B Bio-prospecting
B Stakeholder Theory
B Intellectual Property
B Ethics in management
B indigenous knowledge
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Description
Summary:Much has been written about indigenous knowledge and intellectual property rights (IPRs) in fields like anthropology and law. However, it remains an under-examined topic in business and management literature. In this article, we review the emerging contentious discourse, definitional issues and underlying assumptions of the western IPR and indigenous knowledge management systems. We highlight the similarities and differences between the two approaches. We argue that adopting a view that law is socially constructed with ethical underpinnings helps sort out the thorny issues related to indigenous knowledge ‘expropriation’. To do this, we draw on the role of ethical norms in the historical evolution of IPRs regimes. Finally, grounded in Stakeholder Theory, we conclude with a discussion of managerial implications.
ISSN:1573-0697
Contains:Enthalten in: Journal of business ethics
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1007/s10551-013-1640-3