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Business ethical issues and dilemmas
Ethical business decisions
Ethical business decisions
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INTRODUCTION
Sustainability proposes that socially responsible firms will somehow financially outperform other less responsible firms in the long run resulting from customer loyalty, better employee morale, or public policy favouring ethical conduct. Empirical results testing this hypothesis are mixed, neither suggesting that more responsible firms, on the average, have a clear financial advantage nor a large burden. A useful approach is to determine specific circumstances under which a firm may actually find the more responsible approach to be more profitable and under which circumstances responsible behaviour can be pursued without an overall significant downside. And to add to it the ethical responsibilities that a firm faces when a more responsible approach may be more costly.
The individual, the firm, the society
Different individuals vary in their ethical convictions. For example: some are willing to work for the tobacco industry while others are not. Some are willing to mislead potential customers while others will normally not do this. There are, however, also broader societal and companywide values that may influence the individual business decision maker. In cultures where the stricter interpretation applies, a firm may be unwilling to set up an interest-based financing plan for customers who cannot pay cash. The firm might, instead, charge a higher price, with no additional charge for interest. Some firms also have their own ethical stands, either implicitly or explicitly. For example, Google has the motto “Do no evil.” Other firms, on the other hand, may actively encourage lies, deception, and other reprehensible behaviour. Some firms elect to sell in less developed countries products that have been banned as u...
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... go beyond a specific industry and region’s guidelines to inculcate ec- friendly practices of doing business at every function. They simply do not just use ‘green’ to market their products and services.
Consumers will often note the decreasing carbon footprints rather than buying a green machine that decreases their cost. Only a very small segment of the population has the exposure and knowledge to switch to organic products, clothes, footwear and the like
What will make a consumer loosen their wallet to own or use a green brand?
Commitment from Indian consumers will come in a matter of time. The Indian consumers prefer buying products that help add bucks into their wallet. The green benefits that come are considered as extra candy in their bag.
Works Cited
http://www.afaqs.com/news/story/30613_Not-so-Green-After-All
Consumer psychology
Wikipedia
Shearman, S., 2013. Consumers getting more environmentally conscious. PRWeek, [online] Available at: [Accessed 14 May 2014]
The concept of business ethics refers to a set of guiding principles that encourage individuals in an organization to make decisions based on the company’s stated beliefs and attitudes toward business practices within its industry (Lisa McQuerrey., 2016). Ethical and Unethical business decisions have long been a predicament encountered by organisations, these practices are concerned with how the companies interact with the global business world, and to their one-on-one dealings with individuals (Garry Crystal, 2016.) The concept of ethics and social responsibility emerged into the business world in the early 1970s after the end of World War I, saw these organisations become more profit driven resulting in negative impacts on society at large.
Business ethics simply can be defined as the application of business values in the business practice of a company (Seawell 2010, p. 2). For a multinational company, business ethics is one of the critical aspects need to be taken into account in business decision-making processes. Failure to give attention on ethics may bring consequences on company’s reputation (Meyer & Jebe 2010, p. 159). The company is expected not only to pursue its own profits but also contributing to the environmental and social welfare of the community where it operates (Svensson & Wood 2008, p. 308).
Daniel C. Esty, a professor at Yale University and Director of the Center for Business and the Environment at Yale, is a corporate environmental strategy specialist. With twenty years of experience, in the early 1990s Esty worked for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. He is now a Chairman of the Esty Environmental Partners. Meanwhile, Andrew S. Winston is a world-renown environmental advisor. Previously working for Boston Consulting Group, Time Warner and MTV, Andrew Winston shares the advantages of green business with audience around the world as a professional speaker. Together, they researched on forward-looking organizations establishing eco-advantage and their successful strategies.
Aupperle, K. E., Carroll, A. B., & Hatfield, J. D. (1985). An empirical examination of the relationship between corporate social responsibility and profitability. Academy of management Journal, 28(2), 446-463.
$6. In addition, paperless promotion can be used in promoting Green Express, such as coupon from an app or discount for dine in customer as they did not use any extra boxes or utensils. By using the marketing mix strategy Green Express can get into the drifters segmentation where customers is price sensitivity dictates their action and have a good intention, drifters follow trends when it is easy and affordable. Furthermore, if Green Express can keep its price competitive within the market after turn into the environmental friendly business, the sustainable purchase perception matrix will then move from a “Why Not Purchases”, which is low degree in both confidence and compromise to a Win-Win Purchases, which is low degree of compromise and high degree of confidence.
Sustainability is broadly characterized as addressing the present generation’s needs without jeopardizing the future generations to address their own issues. Sustainable procedures are those that outcome from an establishment's commitment to environmental, social and economic, or the "triple bottom line." The term "sustainability," is the advancement of a procedure or management framework that serves to maintain economy and high standard of life while regarding the need to maintain natural resources and secure the nature.
As environmental concerns become more of an issue for consumers, they will be more aware of the impact that a company has on themselves and the environment and therefore be more conscious of who they support with their dollar.
Companies that carry out greenwashing commonly use the words, ‘green’, ‘energy efficient’, and ‘clean’ to expo...
Ethics in business is a highly important concept, as it can affect a company’s profits, salaries paid to employees and CEOs, and public opinion, among many other aspects of a business. Ethics can be enforced by company policies and guidelines, set a precedent when a company is faced with an important decision, and are also evolving thanks to new technology and situations that arise due to technology usage. Businesses have a duty to maintain their ethical responsibilities and also to help their employees enforce these responsibilities in and out of the workplace. However, ethics and the foundation for them are not always black and white. There are many different ethical theories, however Utilitarianism, Kant’s Deontological ethics, and Virtue ethics are three of the most well known theories in existence. Each theory is distinct in that it has a different quality used to determine ethicality and allows for a person to choose which system of ethics works best with both the situation and his or her personal ethical preferences.
With the development of the science and technology, more and more people are going for healthy and green products. According to this situation, there are many companies claim their products are “green”. However, there are thousands of so-called “green” products, but not all of them live up to their claims, a considerable part of products not only damage the human’s body, but also pollute the environment. People called these companies “greenwashing”. Greenwashing refers to the practice of deceiving consumers into believing that a company is practicing environmentally friendly policies and procedures. Seems like anything and everything has “gone green” these days. Such as airlines, car companies, retailers, restaurants, even networks and stadiums. Thankfully, more often than not, that’s a good thing. It is only bad if it is greenwashing — that is bad for the environment and consumers, because of businesses doing the greenwashing.
Consumer Perception: Even though consumers’ have become conscious about the kind of food they buy; there is not a clear understanding and implication of “organic”. They are also not able to tell the difference between “natural” and “organic” on product labels. The gap is even wider for consumers that have never purchased any kind of organic food till date.
Consumers are also aware of purchases that may contain more carbon footprint over the other. They are often driven to go green and companies must be mindful of the products they sell.
Fourthly, Ecover should offer more education and information with long-term objectives to facilitate and promote new values and behaviours. Finally, Ecover should encourage environmentalists to recommend its products. 9.Appendix Appendix 1:. Survey of consumer attitudes. Australia Canada Germany Italy Japan Holland Spain Switzerland Pay 10-15% more for green products 69 72 68 79 42 87 85 80.
There is a very solid reason for selecting green technology as compared to the other technologies available because there is a very limited amount of natural resources like coal, petroleum available to man kind and these are getting depleted at an alarming rate. Moreover, green technology is turning out to be a good business these days as the market for greener products is increasing day by day. Consumers know that green products reduce their energy bills and these are always safer and healthier products to use, explains [1].