In the Game of Business, Playing Fair Can Lead to Greater Profits

KNOWLEDGE @ WHARTON — Tune into “The Apprentice,” and you get an all-too-common view of business. Every week, all of the wannabe moguls try to impress Donald Trump by preening, cajoling and conniving. In this world, toughness is the measure of every CEO, and the boss glories in firing people and squeezing every penny out of suppliers.

Yet according to John Zhang and Jagmohan Raju, both Wharton marketing professors, and Tony Haitao Cui, a University of Minnesota marketing and logistics professor, many people aren’t purely mercenary in their business dealings. They care about fairness — and they should, the researchers say, because doing so can maximize their profits. Read article.