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topic of the social purpose of business. Five of my respondents commented that item 2 'A business conducted solely for monetary gain is not ethical. . .' — and item 3 'Profit is the one absolute in business and it is to the community's benefit that this be so' were 'more or less the same.' There is little doubt that this perceived similarity between the two positions is a reflection of the spinners' effort to reduce 'cognitive dissonance'. In order to be effective businessmen, they had to convince themselves at least that their work activities were compatible with social ethics. But there seems to be more to this perceived similarity. I believe it also sheds light on the normative framework of the entrepreneurs. Their remarks made me realize that their behavioural decisions were not derived from abstract moral principles. B8 was the most forthright in his reaction to the statements on the social purpose of business:
'We cannot afford such talk of morality and ethics. When we lose money, will the government refund us? Everybody wants to make a profit. There is no such thing as mutual benefit. If you advocate that and lose money, you will only be laughed at as a fool.'
But pragmatism could lead them to choose the social responsibility items. A19 did so on the subject of the social purpose of business with a practical justification: 'The shareholders must be cared for. Otherwise they would not [continue to] invest'. Similarly to redundancy, A17 said:
'There is no unemployment in Hong Kong's textile industry, so these statements do not really apply. But in principle, I try not to lay off workers. "Because of social and moral reasons", yes, we all say that in public. But more importantly, for practical economic reasons it is also better not to lay [workers] off. Since spinning is cyclical, if you lay off your workers during a depression, they will leave you. They are skillful workers, and you should never lose them. Otherwise during an upturn, you would have to train your workers again. Unlike [the case in] garments, if you don't have work tomorrow, you can tell your workers, "You don't have to come tomorrow." In spinning, if we do not have work tomorrow, we do not fire them. We would pay them
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