Are business ethics absolute or are they subject to local culture,
custom and pratices.

bren-ga,

The short answer to your question is, "No, business ethics are not
absolute, but are subject to local culture, customs and practices."

What is considered monopolistic in the United States might be
perfectly acceptable in the business circles of some remote province
of Borneo, for example. All cultures are different.

The following link is to a site maintained by the "Centre for Applied
Ethics," titled, "Business Ethics Resources on the WWW:"

http://www.ethics.ubc.ca/resources/business/

On this site, clicking the "Codes of Ethics" button will take you to a
page which lists commonly accepted codes of business ethics for
different classes of enterprise--corporate, business association,
etc.:

http://www.ethics.ubc.ca/resources/business/codes.html

The following link is to a paper entitled, "A Worldwide Survey of
Busines Ethics in the 1990s":

http://216.239.51.100/search?q=cache:-L_xpS87Nd0C:www.cedha.org.ar/rbp/resources/downloads/bizethics.pdf+worldwide+business+ethics&hl=en&ie=UTF-8

When thinking about this question, consider the following:

The definition of "business," from Webster's Dictionary:

Noun: employment; profession; vocation; any occupation for a
livelihood; trade; firm; concern.

And the definition of "ethic," also from Webster's Dictionary:

Noun, pl.: philosophy which treats of human character and conduct, of
distinction between right and wrong, and moral duty and obligations to
the community.

So, "business ethics" is concerned with human character,
understanding, distinction between right and wrong and moral duty,
when pursuing a livelihood, trade or occupation.

Given these far-reaching definitions, one would hardly expect to see
any type of "absolute" when combining human nature and the ways in
which humans support their lives.

Google search strategy:

keywords: "business ethics"
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=business+ethics ,

"worldwide business ethics"

://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=worldwide+business+ethics
,

"business ethics trends"

://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=+business+ethics+trends

Good luck in continuing your inquiries!

~omniscientbeing-ga