Ethics and the Relationship with Company Strategies

Running head: CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY
Ethics in corporate Strategy in Creation of Competitive Environment and Social Responsibility
Student’s Name:
Institution:

ETHICS AND THE RELATIONSHIP WITH COMPANY STRATEGIES 2
Table of Contents
1.0 Introduction................................................................................................................................3
1.1 Research Question.....................................................................................................................3
2.0 Literature review........................................................................................................................4
2.1 Business Ethics and Competitive advantage..........................................................................4
2.2 Social Responsibility and Competitive advantage.................................................................6
3.0 The Conceptual Framework......................................................................................................9
3.1 The Hypothesis Comprises..................................................................................................10
3.1.1 Business ethics in corporate strategy promotes the competitive environment..............10
3.1.2 The role of ethics in corporate strategy enhances corporate social responsibility........11
4.0 Methodology............................................................................................................................11
4.1 Introduction..........................................................................................................................11
4.2 Empirical application with the use of Secondary Data........................................................11
4.3 Business ethics in corporate strategy improve the competitive environment......................12
4.4 The role of ethics in corporate strategy enhances corporate social responsibility...............13
5.0 Conclusion...............................................................................................................................15
References......................................................................................................................................17

ETHICS AND THE RELATIONSHIP WITH COMPANY STRATEGIES 3
1.0 Introduction
The research examines the role of ethics in corporate strategy to ensure that companies in
their business aspects take into consideration competitive environment as well as social
responsibility. The motivation of the research is that moral decay seen by academia and
professionals concerning ethics and morals are alarming. There is a continual increase in the
deterioration of business ethics and this point out that there is a need for corporations to relook at
ethical strategies as well as environmental policies. As an attestation to this, Google as a result of
unethical practices had to pay a fine of 1.7 billion EU for disadvantaging customers on the use of
its platform. It illustrates unethical practices in which big corporation’s top management promote
unethical practices to take the upper hand in the competitive European market. As per Reid,
(2019) in publication done in CNBC, Google has been accused on several occasions concerning
the same issue. The company was fined 4.34 billion as well as 2.42 billion EU in 2018 and 2017
respectively (Reid, 2019). Because of the increased unethical business practices, the research
seeks to establish the role of ethics in corporate strategy in the understanding of the competitive
environment and social responsibility in each aspect of the business. The investigation begins by
first examining the implication of various past works of literature on the role of ethics in
corporate strategy and proposes a conceptual framework model to determine whether there is a
relationship between ethics and corporate strategy, state the empirical application, and in the end
give a conclusion.
1.1 Research Question
1. What is the role of ethics in todays’ corporate strategy in ensuring organization’s
competitive environment and social responsibility in all the aspect of business?

ETHICS AND THE RELATIONSHIP WITH COMPANY STRATEGIES 4
2.0 Literature review
2.1 Business Ethics and Competitive advantage
In the area of corporate strategy, ethics is the use of ethical business virtues in the daily
practices of doing business. The ethical behaviour in a business setting implies that one employs
the principles of fairness and honesty in dealing with customers as well as employees. It also
means that the organization is utilizing ethical and moral principles in undertaking its activities.
It is a broad term the set codes, rules, laws or standards that act as a guide for exercising morally
accepted conduct in making managerial decisions in the operations of the business as well as
creating a good relationship with the community. The essence of adopting good business ethics
is for creation of amble working climate whose results are shared-value system and the
employees are going to enjoy the system for best performance (Khattak, & Pinto, 2018).
Ethical behaviour in a business context is known to create customer loyalty. The business
thrives well when there are frequent customers. These arise when the company is providing
goods or services that are in line with acceptable standards and does give a customer benefits
based tp the cost incurred. Additionally, the reputation of the organization spread well and vast
among the society which means good business for the organization indicating that customer
satisfaction is guaranteed. Furthermore, the organization can keep good and talented employees.
It is because the skilled employee gets remunerated well based on the skills and level of
education. Organizations with no ethical principles neglect the welfare of its employees and this
force the employee to look for other companies. Additionally, the organization through the
guidance of good ethics can create right working environment for its employees as well as the
surrounding society. When an organization adheres to all ethical principles, legal suits get
avoided and thus there is no wastage of finances on legal suits (Kher, & Paliwal, 2010).

ETHICS AND THE RELATIONSHIP WITH COMPANY STRATEGIES 5
According to previous researches, business is thought as unethical; however, the
changing business trends experienced presently compels many people to consider the application
of ethical practices in doing business. It is augmented with the implementation of social
responsibility in all aspect of the business to change and impact on the lives of the neighboring
community. The professionals of today have established that organizations ought to stay liable
for social welfare as they work and flourish in the societal arrangement. The main factors of
concern in the globalized economy continue to be ethical behaviour, corporate governance as
well as corporate social responsibility. When the case of Google is taken into considerations, it is
of paramount importance that people in the top management need to be practicable in the
application of best business practices. In the application of the good moral code of conducts, they
need not only to ensure pleasant business environment but also, they need to accept that
competition is probably in the competitive market, take and devise best methods to compete
favorably (Kher, & Paliwal, 2010).
The role of ethics in an organization as per Kher & Paliwal, (2010) depends on the task
that a company is able to handle, and it is augmented by Khattak, & Pinto, (2018) by adding that
on top of the amount of social responsibility, organizations need to take into considerations the
competition that prevails in the completive market as it is beneficial to the customer. As a result
of this, companies such as Google that circumvent the wheel of competition are on the spotlight
and risky legal suits. Even though literature indicates that policymakers considered the general
assumptions based on the current economic crisis, there is no consideration of the virtue of
competition. In order to tackle business ethics in the competitive market, there is the need for
organizations to comprehend that completion is never an issue in business but it is a way of
giving the best product or service to the customer and it does not have any remedy. Despite this,

ETHICS AND THE RELATIONSHIP WITH COMPANY STRATEGIES 6
researchers still question the role of business competition to the client as it exists in the current
business environment. As per Kher & Paliwal, (2010), researches done concentrated more on
articulating, justifying the roles of corporate strategies as well as the managers concerning the
community.
Mohammed (2018) (2017) posits that ethics in business is now taken as one of the
guiding principles in corporate strategy geared to the creation of ethical business philosophy for
competitive advantage. Ethics set the pace to attain both the short term as well as the long-term
results. The results lead to the exploitation of core and relevant tangible and intangible resources.
As per Khattak, & Pinto (2018) competitive advantage takes place when organizations
implement strategies that add value and that which cannot be imitated by other companies. The
only most significant problem encountered by firms is sustainability in the integration of ethics
in the creation of competitive advantage. Mohammed (2018) establishes that change is
mandatory in maintaining a corporate sustaining competitive advantage and requires that
organizations have to explore changing industry trends. The market is becoming aware and
discriminating firms that avoid or fail to meet ethical operations and management in their
activities (Khattak, & Pinto, (2018). In order for corporation use business ethics in the
development of competitive advantage, organization have to set, build and maintain relationships
of integrity cemented on mutual respect and trust. The stakeholders have to be taken and treated
as constituents rather than spectators.
2.2 Social Responsibility and Competitive advantage
The stakeholder’s theory stipulates the need for corporate social responsibility where
business gets managed by all people linked directly or indirectly to the market. The theory posits
that the business entity is not a one-man show but rather for the people and the community