Business Chapter 2 and 3

Define business ethics and social responsibility and examine their importance

Business ethics refers to principles and standards that define acceptable business conduct. Social responsibility is the obligation an organization has to maximize its positive impact and minimize its negative impact on society. Social responsibility earns the trust and respect from everybody that is involved which in turn increases profits. Ethics is important because it builds trust and confidence in business relationships.

Debate an organization's social responsibilities to owners, employees, consumers, the environment, and the community.

Businesses must maintain proper accounting procedures, provide all relevant information about the performance of the firm to investors, and protect the owner's rights and investments. For employees, businesses must create a safe work place, pay employees adequately for their work, and treat them fairly. Consumers rights must be protected through consumerism. Businesses must take care of the environment, with regard to animal rights, water, air, land and noise pollution. Many businesses engage in activities to make their community a better place to work and live.

Explain the four dimensions of social responsibility.

Economic (being profitable), legal (obeying the law), ethical (doing what is right, just, and fair), and voluntary (being a good corporate citizen).

Investigate some of the economic, legal-political, social, cultural, and technological barriers to international business.

Economic barriers are a country's level of development and exchange rates. Wide ranging legal and political barriers. Ambiguous cultural and social barriers involve differences in spoken and body language, time, holidays and other customs.

Detect some of the ethical issues that may arise in a business.

Ethical issues can be categorized in the context of their relation with conflicts of interest, fairness and honesty, communications, and business associations.

Specify how businesses can promote ethical behavior by employees.

Formal codes of ethics, ethical policies and ethics training programs reduce incidence of unethical behavior by informing employees what is expected of them and providing punishments for those who fail to comply.

Specify some of the agreements, alliances, and organizations that may encourage trade across international boundaries.

General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, The World Trade Organization, the North American Free Trade Agreement, the European Union, the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.

Explore some of the factors within the international trade environment that influence business.

International business is the buying, selling, and trading of goods and services across national boundaries. Importing is the purchase of products from another nation; exporting is the sale of products to another nation. A nation's balance of trade is the difference in value between its exports and imports.

Contrast two basic strategies used in international business.

Multinational strategy customizes products, promotion, and distribution according to cultural, technological, regional and national differences. A global strategy standardizes products for the whole world, as if it were a single entity.