Navigating the Moral Terrain: A Mixed-Methods Study of Ethical Business Operations in Conflict-Affected Botswana (2010–2025)

This mixed-methods study investigates the specific ethical challenges faced by businesses operating in conflict-affected regions of Botswana between 2010 and 2025. It addresses a critical gap in the African business ethics literature, which often overlooks the nuanced moral terrain navigated by enterprises in locales experiencing protracted socio-political tension, rather than outright war. Employing a sequential exploratory design, the research first conducted qualitative semi-structured interviews with 25 senior executives from multinational and indigenous firms. Analysis of these interviews identified prevalent ethical dilemmas, which then informed the design of a subsequent quantitative survey. This survey, distributed to 150 business professionals, measured the perceived frequency and severity of identified challenges, including complicity with local factions, equitable employment, and supply chain integrity. The integrated analysis reveals that the most salient challenges involve maintaining operational neutrality while ensuring community benefit, and managing partnerships with local entities linked to conflict dynamics. The study concludes that ethical frameworks imported from non-African contexts are insufficient. It argues for developing indigenous, principle-based guidelines that prioritise restorative community engagement. These findings contribute to leadership and governance discourse by providing an evidence-based, African perspective on sustaining ethical business practices in complex environments, offering practical insights for policymakers and corporate leaders.