2411/09

Ethics- the moral prinicples,values,& judgemnts that sociey believesorgaizions should consider inte decision making process

Morals-to address questions such as how a moral outcome can be achieved in a specific situation and how moral values should be determined.

Corporate Social Responsibility-self-regulating mechanism whereby business would monitor and ensure its adherence to law, ethical standards, and international norms.

Social Auditing-review of the public-interest, nonprofit, and social activities of a business. These audits usually are performed primarily for internal benefit and typically are not released to the public. The social audit may be performed routinely by internal or external consulting groups, as part of regular internal audits. These evaluations consider social and environmental impacts of business activities.

. Three Examples of Unethical Business Behaviour:a) Financial Dishonesty - this encompasses illegal deliberate misinterpretation of financial accounts as well as morally unjust issues with business expenses being reimbursed to directors of companies. b) Exploitation of the workforce - Encompasses the exploitation of employees in areas such as neglect of welfare issues, poor pay and unjust working conditions.c) Exploitation of consumers - This is when firms knowingly exploit people or society by selling harmful products as well as charging excessive prices.3. Advantages and Disadvantages of Businesses which behave ethically
Advantages:
- Improved Corporate Image - enhances the businesses reputation through treating employees fairly as well as being environmentally friendly
.- Increased Customer Loyalty - businesses build larger customer base though ethical and moral ideals of their objectives and actions.
- Cost Cutting - by being conscious of the environment (e.g. recycling, reduced excess packaging) businesses can often reduce some costs of production as well as reduce the risk of litigation costs from illegal actions.
- Improved Self Motivation - drives employees motivation, productivity and loyalty as they are working for an ethically and morally positive business as well reducing labour turnover.
- Improved Staff Morale - recruitment and retainment of motivated, quality staff as more want to work for business with strong ethical stance.

Disadvantages:
- Compliance Costs - acting ethically could be far more expensive due to additional money and time needed to produce the ethically supportive products (e.g. organic food is more expensive to harvest).
- Lower Profits - Higher prices due to compliance costs which in turn could cause an ethical dilemma where the business could need to adopt a less profitable course of action.
- Stakeholder Conflict - Organizational objectives within the various stakeholder groups could be different (e.g. financial investors are more concerned with the short-term profits as oppose to the firm's ethical stance).
4. How CSR helps a Business compete?
The social responsibilities of a business play an important role in their corporate image. They alow the more consciencus customer to determine, what would be the right choice for their business.
5.Why Social Auditing is undertaken by a Business ?
Social auditing allows an organization to take into account its social performance, report on and improve that performance. It assesses the social impact and ethical behaviour of an organisation in relation to its aims and those of its stakeholders. Allowing the company to recognize how they are doing in satisfying the needs/wishes of the customers.

Franchising study

Case Study on Franchising
To what extent is a franchise opportunity a true reflection of what it is like to set up and run a business?
Setting up a business, and setting up a franchise can be very similar and different at the same time. The buyer will need to be aware of several major differences that are necessary and/or vital to the decision process.
When a franchisee buys the rights to set up a franchise, they are buying rights to use the franchisor’s trademark and model. They therefore don’t have to come up with their own ideas for the business; the logo, product, trade name, equipment etc. are already provided. The franchisee also will not have to exhaust money on advertisements as, the franchisor takes responsibility for general marketing (e.g. McDonalds’ national ad campaigns).
Apart from that, however, running a franchise is very similar to running an individual business. The franchisor controls the individual selling price of its goods, (however the franchisor generally gives a suggested sell price of its products). The franchisee has the sole responsibility of, insuring that the quality of the product is in decent condition. In addition, it is up to the franchisee to conduct and organize their franchise in such a way that it earns a profit. Thus, a franchise is generally a decent reflection of what it is like to operate a business not however, how to set up an un-established one.
Use the Forbes site and the Business of Baseball site to do some research on the financial positions of the different baseball franchises in the United States and Canada. Using the data, suggest which teams are the most vulnerable to seeing their franchise sold to a rival bidder such as Portland Oregon.
Teams like the Tampa Bay Rays or the Chicago Cubs have a higher probability of being sold to a rival bidder than, the Boston Red Sox or the New York Yankees. This is because they rank in the lowest tier of the top 30 teams of the league. This is ranking, is of course a reflection of how they fare in their games, which obviously is not very well
The Tampa Bay Rays are having success in the financial sector of baseball; they have an operating income of 27.2 million dollars annually (the third highest amount in the entire league). Therefore, a bidder would be more likely to buy them as opposed to the Pirates which sufficed to say are not doing well financially. For the potential bidder, the Rays are more attractive because, they have the potential to earn the buyer more income. The fact that the team isn’t doing all that well competition-wise can work to the bidder’s advantage in negotiation e.g. sale price and/or minimum bid price.

Imagine a situation where the English soccer Premier League became the franchisor as in the case of MLB Inc. How might the Premier League seek to use this position to expand the growth of the ‘brand’? What implications would this scenario have for clubs in the League and outside it (i.e. those in the Championship?)

The Premier League might seek to use this position as an opportunity to introduce Americans/Canadians to Premier League football. The Premier league can dual market both franchises e.g. (Market baseball in England and, Football in America). Thus, allowing potential interest to fester which could in turn lead to a larger income total/turnover.
Several questions would arise however in regards to potential baseball franchises in England/ football franchises in America. These franchises would only be able to compete, if there was a fully functional league in both countries e.g. a league of twelve or more teams, broken down into two divisions. These two divisions would compete in a playoff ultimately resulting in a champion. The champion of said league would then be pitted against, the champion of the other country in an “Intercontinental Championship match”. This would allow a greater amount of revenue for the Premier League/MLB because; it would be an internationally televised event allowing an even greater customer base/market.
Lastly, there would be the need to regulate the amount of money spent on players for the Premier League baseball team. With such a large amount of income, the franchisor would be able to acquire virtually any player they desire. This would cause baseball to become a truly one sided game then. It would be necessary for the MLB to introduce a full salary cap, as opposed to the Luxury Tax now in effect. This regulation would allow for a “level playing field”.