Marketing in Digital Age and CSR in Organization

Running head: MARKETING IN DIGITAL AGE AND CSR IN ORGANIZATIONS
MARKETING IN DIGITAL AGE AND CSR IN ORGANIZATIONS
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Answer to Question 1 - What was the business opportunity for Cambridge Analytica? How
did the company capture it? (Whether in the American elections or the referendum on
leaving the EU in the UK)
Cambridge analytica is a British Consulting firm which combines misappropriation of
data mining, digital assets, data brokerage and the data analysis with a strategic communication
through electoral processes. This was started in 2013 as the offshoot of the SCL group. After
closing the operations with the legal proceedings that include bankruptcy the members of this
group had been continuing the operations under the legal entity named Emerdata Limited. This
particular company was closed in 2018 in this course of Facebook Cambridge analytica data
scandal do this firms exist and operative. The scope of this particular companies business related
to the information analysis which ultimately helps the companies to identify the behavior of the
customers towards their product and services and then bring changes in those offerings.
Cambridge analytica offers services to the business as well as the political parties who
want to manipulate their audience behavior this claims to be applicable to the analysis of huge
amount of consumer data as well as combining those with the behavioral science for identifying
people who the companies can target with their marketing materials (Fogg, 2008). Display data
from the wide range of sources the social media platforms like that of Facebook along with its
own polling. The company has its headquarters in London. Cambridge analytica works directly
for leaving European Union and the UKIP executive without any payment. The company has
supplied the Member of Parliament with the documents which show the firm had analyzed data
to understand the scope of business. This company the researchers pay the users a small amount
of money to take a personality quiz by downloading an App. this would script some of the
private information from the profiles as well as of their friend’s. This will be permitted through

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Facebook. The approach can reveal most of the information about the persons as well as there
personal information known to their family members and friends. While working with strategic
communication Laboratories Cambridge analytica had used the University of Cambridge is
psychometric Centre to map the personality traits based on the liking of the users on the
Facebook (Center for Responsive Politics 2016). The company uses data as a digital Shadow of
personality so that whenever a person enters in the social media platform and choose their likings
it immediately revel all the clues about the person. This is how the company reveals the data and
analyze all of them so that they can identify the reference of the customers as well as their
behavior regarding certain products and services in order to manipulate those according to their
choice. By using the same process Cambridge Analytica had used Facebook data to manipulate
people associated with the presidential election in America. However this information was came
into front after a person acted as whistle blower within the company. This is an unethical
initiative taken by this company because it was made only for understanding the customer
behavior of the product or service of their client rather than acting as manipulator of its audience
in a political system. Trump’s presidential election therefore has been manipulated immensely
through Cambridge Analytica.
Answer to Question 2 - Stand in the shoes of CEO Alex Nix: What could have been done
better BEFORE the scandal in 2017 and earlier? What could have been done better
AFTER the scandal broke (early 2018)?
From the shoes of the CEO Alex Nix, it can be stated that the company could have been
avoided this particular scandal with Facebook much before (Cambridge Analytica 2018). as the
company had been only focusing on the company’s growth in terms of understanding the
marketing behavior and help them to strategize properly, it could have not affected its

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reputation and business. it is important to note that this scandal of 2017 which ultimately lead
Cambridge analytica to face scandal with Facebook in 2018 would never had taken place if the
company only focused on analysis of the consumer behavior without thinking about the political
parties. According to the CEO before 2017 the company employees had taken bribes supported
every types of unethical behavior from the part of the clients and developed false credentials.
The company had also employed sex workers in order to understand the motives of the
clients as well as the consumers whose data will be collected for the political war (Alex Nix
2016). The Facebook also on the other hand would not have permitted this company to collect
their data from the users to utilize for their own interest. There are evidences that different apps
in the mobile can utilize and misses data and inter all those websites used by the consumers. This
is an unethical step that affects the privacy policy breach of the companies. The company may
have thought about the corporate responsibility that eliminate the companies in attaining honest
response of the customers. It had developed fake identities and websites so that they can increase
the value and validity of their Research and create a positive impression for the consumers.
After this particular scandal broke out the company would have taken the communication
with the stakeholders more seriously. A serious apology by both the companies should have
mitigated the grievances of the uses. This has manipulated the consumers to develop a feeling of
distrust about these companies and the stakeholders lost their reputation in the market. The
communication strategy of these company had to be strengthened and included change of
policies so that it can easily avoid the displeasure of the Government and the entire Law system
(Bloomberg 2018). The impact on the brand awareness and brand trust have been lost but true
repentance could have solve this problem.

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The company after the revolution of this scandal mind acknowledge the effect of the
whistle blower and allowed him to get support from the stakeholders. By revealing all the other
projects of similar features through a press release could mitigate this problem. a direct
communication to both the local as well as International users who had felt the impact of this and
ethical decision making of this company could have understood the actual program of this
company and might have supported it this time. In addition to this by investing more and
compensating the victim consumers might have reduce the grievances of the stakeholders as well
as the consumers. This issue who is an example for each and every company who analyze
consumer data and reveal those to the client companies.
Answer to Question 3 – How do you judge the value of data for influencing decision
making, in business as well as in politics?
Corporate social responsibility or CSR is considered to be a self-regulating business
model that is able to help an organization so that it can become socially accountable in nature to
the stakeholders and to the firm itself. The firms are also able to gain corporate citizenship with
the help of proper fulfilment of corporate social responsibilities. The conscious organizations
have an impact on various aspects of the society that include social, economic and
environmental. The business organizations can engage in the CSR activities in ordinary course of
the activities that can further enhance the environment and society. Social responsibilities that
are fulfilled by the organizations are also an important part of the CSR activities that are
performed in an effective manner (Baines et al. 2017).
The case study that has been taken into consideration is mainly based on the scandal
related to Cambridge Analytica and the media firestorm that had been faced by the organization
after a sting operation that had been conducted. The senior executives had faced the wrath of the

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media as they talked about the use of psychological manipulation, fake news based campaigns
and the entrapment based techniques. The scandal also involved the giant social media
organization Facebook and the ways by which it was used for the US Presidential elections.
However, both the organizations had denied the allegations that had been provided by them by
the various media houses and other individuals as well (Fucks and Diamantopoulos 2010).
Cambridge Analytica had also claimed that various reporters had tricked the firm and the
scenarios were also false in nature. The organization had further denied that its data had been
used for the purpose of developing Trump’s Presidential elections. Facebook on the other hand
claimed that Cambridge Analytica had used its platform in an illegal manner for the purpose of
transferring data related to the elections. The activities that have been performed by the two
companies have violated the ethics related aspects of business operations in various industries
(Porter 2008). The organizations had provided more importance to the profits that can be gained
as a part of the Presidential election campaign. The profit related activities of the company have
not taken ethics into consideration. The data generated by Cambridge Analytica was a major part
of fake news campaign that was with the usage of Facebook. The decision making capabilities of
individuals were influenced in a huge manner by the fake news which was circulated in a huge
manner through Facebook (Schau, Muniz and Arnould 2009).
Answer to Question 4 - Explain the work and service Cambridge Analytica provided
Trump’s campaign. Apart from the legal side, in your perspective, was it right for
Cambridge Analytica to provide this work for Trump?
Cambridge Analytica had worked for the Presidential campaign of Trump in order to use
the data of millions of Facebook users in order to spread the fake news. The staff of Cambridge
had been able to provide detailed analysis of the data that is related to American electorate. The

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raw data related to aspects like contact information, demographic information and data related to
feelings of voters related various issues were however not provided by Cambridge Anaytica. The
organization has aimed at the development of detailed personality profiles of the Americans for
the purpose of fulfilling their purpose of psychological targeting (Porter 2008). The
psychological campaign was thereby related to the ways by which voters can be manipulated by
the organization. Cambridge Analytica had also received a payment of 5.9 Million Dollars for
development of the Trump Campaign and 5 Million Dollars had gone towards television
advertisements.
Code of ethics can be defined as the guide of the principles that are mainly designed for
the purpose of helping the professionals in order to conduct the business in an honest manner and
with integrity as well. The ethical code will be able to encompass different areas that include
code of the professional practices, business ethics and the employee code of conduct as well. The
Kantian approach to business ethics can be implemented for the purpose of analyzing the
situation that has been developed after the Cambridge Analytica scandal (Jobber and Ellis-
Chadwick 2013). This theory is considered to be a major deontological theory in which the
actions of individuals or organizations are not effectively justified by the consequences. The
argument which was mainly raised in this case by Kant was the acts are considered to be morally
acceptable in nature and can also be propelled by the motive or duty. The issues that were faced
by both the organizations including Facebook and Cambridge Analytica can be related to the
Kantian theory (Ozuem and Bowen 2016).
The actions related to manipulation of data of the voters and using the platform to spread
fake news has not been justified effectively by the implementation of Kantian theory. The
actions that have been implemented by the organizations cannot be justified by the result of the

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Presidential elections. The activities are thereby considered to be a major violation of the ethics
of organizations and this had also influenced the image of the organizations in a negative
manner. The major issue was that the firms had violated ethics for their profits and gains
(Stephen 2010).
Answer to Question 5 - How do public goodwill/license to operate and data-driven
technology companies interrelate?
The data driven organizations have to develop the business strategy by integrating data
analytics in a proper manner. Data and analytics are made an important part of the business
strategies that are developed and implemented by the data driven technology organizations. Data
is considered to be the most important aspect of the development of faster, better and cheaper
business processes of various organizations. The data driven organizations are highly committed
towards gathering data that is related to all aspects of business operations. The employees in data
driven firms will be successful in using the right amounts of data at right time and data can also
foster the conclusive decision making process in order to enhance the competitive advantage of
firms (Laudon and Traver 2015).
The public goodwill that is gained by the organizations and the licenses gained to operate
in the industry can also have an impact on the data driven organizations and their operations. The
interrelation of public goodwill and data driven technology based organizations can have an
impact on the ways by which organizations are able to operate. The value of data in
organizations is mainly based on the exponential growth that is gained in various industries. The
examples of Amazon and Google can be taken into consideration for the purpose of
understanding the ways by which data can influence the organizational operations and the levels
of growth as well (The Guardian 2018).

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Data transparency is considered to be an important factor that can increase the ability of
individuals so that they are able to access data and use it for various purposes. The accuracy of
data is also able to influence the operations of organizations that are data driven in nature. In the
digital and data driven era the organizations can use analytics and metrics in order to improve the
process of decision making. The decision making activities of the organizations are totally based
on the proper implementation of data analytics (Fogg 2008). Data is considered to be the most
essential commodity of the organizations that has the ability to improve the operations of firms
and can also help them to understand the needs and demands of the consumers. Data
transparency on the other hand helps the organizations to earn the trust of employees and
increase their levels of engagement as well. Human nature is considered to be collective in nature
and the sense of belonging and purpose is able to enhance the contribution that employees can
provide to the organizational operations (Kosinski 2017).
Social responsibility mainly entails the investment that is made by the organizations in
the activities and projects which are able to improve levels of welfare of the society. The social
responsibilities are able to support in strong development of relationships between the internal
and the external stakeholders of the firm. The measures are mainly implemented by
organizations in order to reduce the impact of their operations on the levels of profitability and
revenues (CBS News 2018). The organizations in this case are able to coexist with government
and the local community for the purpose of development of the effective operations. The
business ethics and effective governance are considered to be a major part of social
responsibilities of the modern organizations. The stakeholders who are a part of the organizations
are also considered to be accountable for the transparent actions and dealings. Modern

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organizations in this case can provide major levels of contribution to the welfare of the society
(The Economist 2018).
Answer to Question 6 - Facebook continues to face major ethical and legal challenges.
What challenges Facebook brand is facing today? And what implications these challenges
and the case of Cambridge Analytica have for the future of Facebook from your
perspective?
Facebook has faced major levels of criticism with respect to the levels of content
moderation, privacy violations and the various anti-competitive acquisitions. The three major
regulatory areas in which Facebook has been facing major levels of challenges include the
following,
 Antitrust – Regulators have the new evidence that can also demonstrate the
acquisition of Whatspp by Facebook that is considered to be a major anti-
competitive move that is implemented by the organization.
 Content moderation – Facebook has also faced major levels of criticisms due to
the shift from implementation of censorship practices. The lack of transparency in
data used by Facebook is considered to be a major issue that has influenced its
reputation in the industry (Kosinski 2017).
 Data privacy – Facebook has faced many different financial penalties for
violations of privacy has led to the failure of complying with the requests from the
state governments.
The challenges and legal issues that Facebook has been facing in the industry will have a
major impact on the reputation and levels of trust of the users as well. The lack privacy and

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wrong usage of user data will be able to influence the operations of the firm or the social media
platform. The anti-competitive nature of Facebook that has been shown after the acquisition of
Whatsapp will also be able to influence the reputation and user base of the organization in a huge
manner (Ozuem and Bowen 2016). On the other in case of the Cambridge Analytica Scandal the
usage of Facebook for manipulating the consumers will be able to influence the perceptions that
users regarding the news articles that are shared on the platform. The accountability of the
organization will be lost and Facebook will not be able to maintain the user base in an effective
manner (Laudon and Traver 2015).

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References
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Cambridge Analytica (2018). Cambridge Analytica and Scl Elections Commence Insolvency
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