Navigating the Ethical Minefield: A Governance Framework for Multinational Enterprises in Post-Revolutionary Tunisia

Multinational enterprises (MNEs) face complex ethical dilemmas when operating in regions recovering from political upheaval, where institutional voids and contested legitimacy create significant governance challenges. The post-revolutionary environment in Tunisia presents a salient case of such a conflict-affected setting. This paper develops and proposes a novel governance framework designed to help MNEs identify, prioritise, and navigate the specific ethical challenges inherent in operating within such transitional political economies. The research employs a multi-method design, integrating a structured analysis of documented corporate controversies with in-depth, semi-structured interviews conducted with senior MNE managers, local civil society leaders, and regulatory officials. Analysis identified a primary theme of 'licence to operate' being contingent upon perceived distributive justice, transcending mere legal compliance. A significant proportion (over 70%) of interviewed managers cited community-level restitution and transparent procurement as critical, yet under-managed, operational risks. Conventional compliance-centric governance models are insufficient in this context; sustaining operations requires a proactive, justice-sensitive approach that addresses latent socio-economic grievances. MNEs should implement embedded community grievance mechanisms, conduct ethical risk mapping focused on distributive outcomes, and establish independent social audit panels with local representation at the board advisory level. corporate governance, business ethics, political risk, institutional voids, stakeholder theory, North Africa This paper introduces a novel, context-sensitive ethical governance matrix that integrates political risk assessment with normative stakeholder theory, providing a structured tool for managerial decision-making in fragile states.