Free Business Dissertations - 1. Dissertation Proposal Does Ethical Behaviour Pay? An Investigation Of
1. Dissertation title Proposal
Does ethical behaviour pay? An investigation of whether the Western consumer society cares about ethical behaviour of firms, and in such potentially could have an influence on corporate social responsibility behaviour of organizations, and hence give an indication of whether ethical behaviour pays in terms of consumer popularity.
2. Introduction and overall aim, objectives and rational for the research
Companies such as Enron, Nike, Nestle and Exxon, just to mention a few, have been in the spotlight due to their un-ethical behaviour. And arguably cases as such have catapulted corporate social responsibility on the agenda of business research. Cases as above mentioned arguably make it clear that corporate social responsibility and business ethics are very important to modern business, and thus make it an excellent research topic for a business dissertation. It is timely and relevant!
Ethics in academic terms has many definitions, and thus can potentially make it difficult to draw the lines between what is ethical and what is not. But how is ethics defined in layman’s terms? If people were asked to give their own definitions of ethics, would it still be as hard to draw the line around ethical behaviour? And considering that many companies who arguably behaved unethical are still very successful in business, do people actually care about ethical behaviour of firms? Would they choose one product over another due to the knowledge that the company behind it is more ethical? If they don’t, how does ethical behaviour then pay off? And if they do, how much influence could they potentially assert?
The dissertations aim is to give some insights on whether corporate social responsibility and ethical behaviour really matters to consumers. And in such has it a potential power to influence corporate behaviour, as then ethical behaviour would really pay off?
The length of the dissertation will vary between 10’000 to 12’000 words and the first draft shall be completed within 3 months. After 1 moth the feedback of the supervisor should be given, and the final dissertation shall be handed in 2 months after that, with all the amendments being made accordingly.
3. Critical review of the existing literature
Corporate Social Responsibility seems a new fad in the business environment, and corporate social reports are published by many firms nowadays. There seems to be no consensus in writers of when this concept of corporate social responsibility originated, but what writers do however agree on is that the emergence of the subject has to do with the growth, and thus power, of large companies, and the unfortunate ill-treatment of societal issues that have come with it (Boatright, 1993 and McEwan, 2001).
There are various definitions of corporate social responsibility.
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