Self-interest, self-restraint and corporate responsibility for nanotechnologies: emerging dilemmas for modern managers

Abstract

The recent developments in nanotechnology have simultaneously conjured up visions of utopia and dismal images of technological and biological catastrophes. Interestingly, the world of nanoscales has given rise to larger than life ethical dilemmas, challenging the basic assumptions that we hold about ethics, man-machine interface, adoption of new technologies and, fundamentally, the directions of human development. Given the divergence and uncertainties in the assessment of risks and benefits associated with nanotechnology, regulatory oversight in the future is likely to be partial and fragmented. Even where interests converge, the large time-frame needed for standardization of regulation coupled with the varying propensities of countries of the world to understand, assimilate and respond to risk issues increase the difficulties associated with creating appropriate regulatory regimes. In the absence of such controls, it may be necessary to rely on corporations behaving in a socially responsible manner by self-regulating when dealing with the conceptualization, development, use and disposal of nanoparticles. Caught between the reality and rhetoric, corporate managers need to manage trade-offs between corporate advantage and social responsibility in ways that may have a significant bearing on the survival of their firms and the future development of nanotechnology itself. This paper examines the tensions between the self-interest of corporations in exploiting the technology to bring innovative products to the market and self-restraint in exercising ethical choices to secure wider safety and salubrity in the face of scientific uncertainty and public insecurity.