28 2 Theoretical Foundations
ness ethics, there is a commonly known dualism between ethics and the economy
which creates antagonism between the two. This results in the domestication of
the economy which is when economic players place moral considerations before
economic ones. Nevertheless, those who believe that there is an antagonism between
ethics and the economy argue that circular economy as an economic concept is not
‘enough.’ They claim moral action towards environmental protection i.e. stopping
resource exploitation and fostering the reusing of resources requires the cultivation
of moral behavior. However, in a competitive market the actor that puts their moral
beliefs before economic behavior will lose out. To avoid this dualism of ethics and
the economy, Homann and Lütge (2013) suggest order ethics. Lütge (2016) defines
the term as follows, “the term order ethics refers to the conception’s objective, that
is, the order framework. The term ethics of benefits and incentives, or “benefits and
incentive ethics,” connotes the means of such a conception” (Lütge 2016, p. 29). An
order framework plays an important part in making markets profitable instead of
restricting them. The aim of order ethics is to alter the framework of a society in order
to ensure ethical behavior rather than appealing to moral behavior. It is preferred
to answer the question from the order ethics point of view which considers circular
economy as something positive. The circular economy concept fosters competition
which plays a pivotal role in order ethics. If adequate rules of competition are set
these can help to achieve many positive results for society.
This leads on to question three, whether competition is desirable and/or evenbeneficial for a society. As previously mentioned, in chapter 1.1, organizations are
able to acquire a competitive advantage by incorporating environmental concerns
into their strategic decisions. The literature on circular economy identifies com-
petitive advantage as one impact deriving from the implementation of a circular
economy as explained in chapter 2.3.3.
For many scholars and others, competition remains a zero-sum game in whichonly one person can be the winner. In the pre-modern social world, people played
zero-sum games in which one participant‘s gain is the other participant’s loss.
However, societies today experience continuous growth and positive sum games
are played as a result of competitive markets. Competition in societies with contin-
uous growth and under certain (formal and informal) rules is able to improve the
position of every individual (Lütge 2015). Competitive markets force organizations
to constantly innovate and promote creativity and society benefits from these in-
novations (Lütge 2014). The answer to the third question raised at the beginning
of this chapter has to be that increased competition has positive effects on society
and is therefore desirable.