3006IBA Workshop Case Study Report: Business Ethics and Analysis

This workshop case study report examines ethical issues in business and corporate governance through the analysis of two case studies. The first case study explores surveillance capitalism, its implications, and related ethical challenges, including data privacy and technological determinism. It discusses consumer awareness, rights, and responsibilities, as well as controversial advertising practices. The second case study focuses on the ethical considerations surrounding the production and sale of firearms, specifically examining the case of Smith & Wesson, its stakeholders, and related ethical dilemmas concerning social responsibility, safety, and liability. A comparative analysis highlights the differences and commonalities between these diverse ethical issues, emphasizing the importance of ethical decision-making in various business contexts, including discussions on theoretical frameworks such as the contract view, due care view, and social costs view. The report concludes by emphasizing the need for ethical practices and responsible corporate behavior.

Running head: WORKSHOP CASE STUDY REPORT REVIEW 1
WORKSHOP CASE STUDY REPORT REVIEW
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WORKSHOP CASE STUDY REPORT REVIEW 2
CASE STUDY A
Activity 3:
Shoshana Zuboff wrote a book named "The Age of The Smart Machine", in the book
she described the term surveillance capitalism. The book was on digital technology that helps
people in capitalism by using technology. The term surveillance capitalism that provides
services to monitor behaviour that people use through technological help.
This surveillance capitalism was firstly integrated at google, and then it was done with
Facebook. She found a point that all people are dealing with an algorithmic enigma. For this
purpose, surveillance capitalism has evolved to provide services to managerial capitalism,
financial capitalism and for the exploitation of behaviour of users. The surveillance
capitalism was developed by a company to uncover data of users that are supposed to keep a
secret that is surplus data. The purpose of the development of this method is to target
advertising (Srnicek, 2017).
Shoshana studied that Google or any social media platform may cause an issue as
people can get personal behavioural data. Through this method, the company would able to
obtain personal information of the client, such as healthcare information, education, finance,
including insurance. Every internet-enabled device can leak those behavioural data through
digital assistance (Zuboff, 2015).
The company faced an ethical issue that was related to the loss of investor confidence.
Investors lost faith towards advertising as data can be leaked or be predicted through the
internet. To avoid this issue, investors decided to boost ad revenue by using exclusive access
to user data logs combining it with their analytical capabilities and computational power.
Surveillance capitalism is driven by technological determinism as it works, combining
different information and process, behaviours. Information technology produces a new
knowledge territory that gives information to the world. However, a surveillance capitalist
declared that they have rights to know information and they have the right to decide who will
know the data by using technology (Drew, 2016). In this context, an ethical lag arrives
against the surveillance capitalism and technological determinism that technology can
provide personal information of human which are supposed to keep private.
By using technological determinism, this issue can be solved. With the development
of technology such as biometric fingerprint-scanning, face lock detection can successfully

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preserve the data information. Surveillance capitalism is not precisely technological
determinism, but its go easier by the help of technology use. Moreover, recent technology can
determine the behaviour, thought but information technology denied to control over
knowledge which is derived from dispossession by others.
John Naisbitt’s approach was that people could get information by interacting with
each other, and it is the most straightforward process of spreading news. This approach is
related to surveillance capitalism, as it says, the building network of people enhances the path
of information spreading (Korstanje, 2017).
Yes, people have the right to privacy; in this context, people should be aware of their
privacy by circumventing individual awareness. People can make their information secure by
using technology such as security pin, face lock detection as well as fingerprint scanning.
Activity 4:
There are some ethical challenges related to surveillance capitalism as it is against
moral values and some social system's ethical values. Keeping surveillance over other people
can leak their data that should be kept private.
Working with a group will help to address the ethical challenges adequately. In order
to address challenges of surveillance capitalism, technological help is essential and through
this security of information can possible.
Firm and society need to acquire technological determinism to address ethical issues
by establishing privacy setup, security lock.
The government should make sure the privacy setup through increasing electronic
surveillance of citizen. By increasing electronic surveillance such as CCTV camera that will
ensure to identify any intruder who is suspected as connected with unethical activities. This
practice can increase the security of public and governmental activity as well.

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CASE STUDY B
DISCUSSION ABOUT THE MODULE TOPIC
Consumers awareness, consumer rights and responsibilities
Customer awareness is enforcement that makes sure the consumers or the buyers is
getting the appropriate information about the services, goods and consumer rights. Consumer
awareness is a crucial factor within any company as buyers can make the right decision and
choice because of that. Consumers have the right to safety, right to information and freedom
to choose (Iglesias, Markovic & Rialp, 2019).
Theoretical approaches to customer responsibilities
Contact view: Its describers the duties of any company or organization towards its
customers. The relation between the company and its consumers is fundamentally contractual
(Soltani, Zareie, Milani & Navimipour, 2018).
Due Care View: Regarding the Due Care View theory, any company has the moral
obligation to protect consumers from various kind of risks that manufactures can antedate
(Hatch, 2018).
Social Costs View: According to the Social Cost View theory, any organization is
responsible for any kind of harms associated with the product (Ashraf & Bandiera, 2018).
Controversial Advertising Issues:
Internet Advertising: Online advertising is the most approachable and easy way to
influence the most significant number of consumers, but it also has a few negative impacts.
Few organizations have started to use unscrupulous approaches for advertising which can be
immoral, abusive and even illegal (Tian, Zhu, Xia, Zhuang & Zhang, 2015).
Potentially Harmful Products (PHPs): When any organization or company conduct
any campaign or advertisement for potentially harmful products; that can be recognized as
illegal act for any kind of harm instigated by the products showed in the advertisement. Even
if then company is not charged as legally responsible, the reputation of the company can be
highly damaged (Lüdicke, Baker, Magnette, Picavet & Weitkunat, 2016).
Advertising to children: In modern times, there are many kinds of advertisement
process, and it also has a negative impact on the young generation such as growth rate
alcohol and cigarette, eating disorder, obesity and poor nutrition (Wiseman et al., 2016).

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WORKSHOP CASE STUDY
Guns, Stock Prices, Safety, Liability, and Social Responsibility
The sale and production of firearms is an unceasing issue for social responsibilities.
For many years, there have been various methods taken in order to have control over
manufacture, sale and distribution of guns. All these efforts have undertaken by the judicial
bodies, legislative and regulatory. The NRA has established to have a prohibited presence in
the legal debates and public. On the other hand, it has an ongoing presence in law legislation
and its constitutionality under the Second Amendment of U.S. Constitution on the “right to
keep and bear arms.”.
Main stakeholders of Smith & Wesson
Smith & Wesson is a gun manufacturing g organization, mainly focused on projected
Massachusetts litigation and regulation to hold gun procedures. These procedures are
accountable for the injuries of crime victims, was distraught know the way to handle all the
possible liability. Tomkins, P.L.C., is a parent company of Smith & Wesson and also a
primary stakeholder of the company. Tomkins has acquired Smith & Wesson for $112.5
million in 1987. However, the key stakeholders of the company are employees, directors,
owners, government and its agencies, unions, suppliers and various communities where the
organization inducement its source (Jennings, 2015).
Major ethical issues of Smith & Wesson
Leading competitors of this company are Browning Arms, Ruger and Glock.
Expanding on the foreign market also a challenging factor as the legal and political laws
prohibiting the use and sale of weapons. Smith & Wesson does not dominate the pursuing
enthusiast market.
Key factors of Smith & Wesson
Smith & Wesson, one of the most popular weapon brand all over the world. This
company manufacture and distributes a full package of weapons for law enforcement,
defence, sporting and hunting. It provides products used by almost all police agencies and
military force from all over the world. The Smith & Wesson Academy is the longest
successively firearms training faculty for the military, security professional and law
enforcement in the United States.

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Comparative analysis of Case Study A and B
In Case study 1, surveillance capitalism is describing by Shoshana Zuboff, that is a
human-created phenomenon. It uses to monitor over people to get data or information
through online or offline basis. Surveillance capitalism is driven by technology, but it is not a
technology. Technological determinism enhances the path of surveillance over people by
evolving technology such as information technology that provides biometric data. However,
there are some ethical issues related to this topic, such as moral values, social system's ethical
values. In this perspective, personal data should be kept private for a particular reason. The
government should organize privacy policies for the security purpose of the public. Also,
they should keep electronic surveillance over the areas where intruders can attack for getting
personal information about governmental activities.
Moreover, in business, security enhancement through technology is essential
regarding conserve personal data of employees as well as company stakeholders. Company
and society need privacy setup, in order to protect employees and family from intruders that
can be harmful to both. Case study B represents two subjects. The first subject is about
consumers awareness, consumer rights, responsibilities and other related factors. The second
subject is about Guns, Stock Prices, Safety, Liability, Social Responsibility and one of the
most popular weapon manufacturing company, Smith & Wesson. In the first case study, it
has been discussed that customer awareness is a prosecution which makes sure the consumers
or the buyers is receiving the proper information about the services, goods and consumer
rights.
The theoretical approaches for consumers responsibilities are contract view, due care
view and social cost view. Controversial advertising issues such as internet advertising,
Potentially Harmful Products (PHPs) are also connected with consumer awareness as it has
an entirely negative impact on society. The second subject describes the present market about
guns and its stock prices, safety, liability, social responsibility and a favoured weapon
manufacturing company Smith & Wesson. After comparing the above mentioned two case
studies, it can be concluded that both cases studies are different from each other, and there are
no relatable factors between those two case studies.

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References
Ashraf, N., & Bandiera, O. (2018). Social Incentives in Organizations. Annual Review Of
Economics, 10(1), 439-463. doi: 10.1146/annurev-economics-063016-104324
Drew, R. (2016). Technological Determinism. A Companion To Popular Culture, 165-183.
doi: 10.1002/9781118883341.ch10
Hatch, M. (2018). Organization theory (4th ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Iglesias, O., Markovic, S., & Rialp, J. (2019). How does sensory brand experience influence
brand equity? Considering the roles of customer satisfaction, customer affective
commitment, and employee empathy. Journal Of Business Research, 96, 343-354.
doi: 10.1016/j.jbusres.2018.05.043
Jennings, M. (2015). Business ethics (8th ed., pp. 127-133). United States: Cengage Learning.
Korstanje, M. (2017). Threat mitigation and detection of cyber warfare and terrorism
activities. Hershey, PA: Information Science Reference.
Lüdicke, F., Baker, G., Magnette, J., Picavet, P., & Weitkunat, R. (2016). Reduced Exposure
to Harmful and Potentially Harmful Smoke Constituents With the Tobacco Heating
System 2.1. Nicotine & Tobacco Research, 19(2), 168-175. doi: 10.1093/ntr/ntw164
Soltani, Z., Zareie, B., Milani, F., & Navimipour, N. (2018). The impact of the customer
relationship management on the organization performance. The Journal Of High
Technology Management Research, 29(2), 237-246. doi:
10.1016/j.hitech.2018.10.001
Srnicek, N. (2017). The challenges of platform capitalism: Understanding the logic of a new
business model. Juncture, 23(4), 254-257. doi: 10.1111/newe.12023
Tian, T., Zhu, J., Xia, F., Zhuang, X., & Zhang, T. (2015). Crowd Fraud Detection in Internet
Advertising. Proceedings Of The 24Th International Conference On World Wide Web
- WWW '15. doi: 10.1145/2736277.2741136
Wiseman, K., Cornacchione, J., Wagoner, K., Noar, S., Moracco, K., & Teal, R. et al. (2016).
Adolescents’ and Young Adults’ Knowledge and Beliefs About Constituents in Novel
Tobacco Products. Nicotine & Tobacco Research, 18(7), 1581-1587. doi:
10.1093/ntr/ntw009

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Zuboff, S. (2015). Big other: Surveillance Capitalism and the Prospects of an Information
Civilization. Journal Of Information Technology, 30(1), 75-89. doi:
10.1057/jit.2015.5