University Report: Ethical Issues Faced by International Business

This report delves into the ethical dilemmas encountered in international business, particularly concerning the environmental impact of multinational corporations (MNCs) in developing countries. The report examines the negative consequences of business expansion, including violations of environmental sustainability norms due to relaxed regulations. It highlights the importance of environmental protection and the limitations of natural resources. The report provides case studies, such as Nigeria, Japan, Indonesia, Columbia, and Iran, to illustrate the environmental degradation caused by business practices and the role of MNCs. It also offers recommendations, emphasizing the need for companies to adhere to environmental sustainability policies and the importance of government regulations and public awareness. Furthermore, the report discusses the advantages and disadvantages of MNCs in developing countries, considering both economic benefits and potential negative impacts on local businesses and sustainability. The report concludes by emphasizing the importance of balancing economic development with environmental protection for the long-term well-being of developing nations.

Running Head: ETHICAL ISSUES IN INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
ETHICAL ISSUES IN INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
Name of the Student:
Name of University:
Author Note:

1ETHICAL ISSUES IN INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
Table of Contents
Assignment 1...................................................................................................................................2
Question a....................................................................................................................................2
Question b....................................................................................................................................2
Question c....................................................................................................................................3
Question d....................................................................................................................................4
Question e....................................................................................................................................5
Question f.....................................................................................................................................6
Reference.........................................................................................................................................7
Assignment 2...................................................................................................................................8
Question a....................................................................................................................................8
Question b....................................................................................................................................8
Question c....................................................................................................................................8
Question d..................................................................................................................................11
Reference.......................................................................................................................................12
Assignment 3.................................................................................................................................13
Answer to Question 1....................................................................................................................13
Answer to Question 2....................................................................................................................13
Answer to Question 3....................................................................................................................14
Answer to Question 4....................................................................................................................15

2ETHICAL ISSUES IN INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
Answer to Question 5....................................................................................................................16
Answer to Question 6....................................................................................................................17
Answer to Question 7....................................................................................................................18
Answer to Question 8....................................................................................................................18
References......................................................................................................................................21

3ETHICAL ISSUES IN INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
Assignment 1
Question a.
As a negative impact of the multinational companies in expanding their business in the
developing countries a number of issues can be seen which are closely related to ethics. In most
of the cases due to lack of business regulations in developing countries the multi-national
countries get the chance to violate environmental sustainability norms.
Question b.
Sustainability in terms of ecological degradation is considered to be very essential in
order to create a better and healthy life for the human beings. In that context, the protection of
environment and ecosystem is highly essential. It can also be argued that it is because of the
Earth that life is existed. The environmental sustainability encompasses all aspects of life from
creating living atmosphere to get a healthy lifestyle. It can also be kept in mind that there is a
limitation of natural resources in the Earth. Most of the environmental degradations are resulted
due to the human malfunctioning and lack of understanding about the importance of preventing
the nature. Issues like global warming or increasing emission of carbon dioxide (CO2) is going to
create an inhospitable environment which is detrimental for existence of life in Earth. In this
regards, the business organisations specially the multi-national companies play a major role in
damaging the environment by its deliberate attempt to earn more profit and business expansion.
In fact, in the developing countries people have dearth of perception about the preservation of
environment. Therefore, it is very easy for the multi-national companies to flourish their business
in the developing countries where regulations are less restraint for their business occupation. In

4ETHICAL ISSUES IN INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
this regards, the environmental sustainability issue is very pertinent related to the business
orientation of the MNCs in developing world and needs to be analysed.
Question c.
1. In Nigeria, the ecological degradation posed a great threat to the local as well as
global environmental sustainability. According to the scholarly reports it can be
argued that from 1973 to 2008 the country was facing severe challenges while
dealing with the environmental issues. At the same time, the country was enjoying
a drastic increase in the number of international business organisations who were
eager to invest in the crude oil export industry. On the contrary to this, statistics
also revealed that despite of the booming trend in business sector, the
environmental condition became downward gradually. In the same time span of
1973 to 2008 the ecological balance was reduced to 0.3 in compare to the
erstwhile amount of 1.92 in 1964 (Alege & Ogundipe, 2015).
2. In response to this, the role of the global companies in retaining environmental
sustainability is very imperative. Empirical evidences proved that during the
1990s there was a growing trend among the MNCs to produce sustainability
reports which is becoming obsolete nowadays. According to the global report, in
2011, around 95% of the global companies disclosed their sustainability
performance report which symbolizes an alarming fact for the future sustainability
(Barkemeyer et al., 2015).
3. The case study on Japan illustrates that due to the intervention of the private
multi-national vehicle companies in that country, the emission rate of CO2 has

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been escalated into a rapid pace which perturbs the condition of the environment
in Japan (Debnath, 2015).
4. As a whole, in the South-East region of Asia is suffering with a great deal of
pollution. According to the report, it can be estimated that the massive amount of
emission of CO2 the Indonesian region is accounted 0.049 gigatonnes per year
(Lee et al. 2016).
5. In Columbia, water pollution is considered to pose a grave danger for
sustainability. In this country, approximately 36% of the waste has dropped into
the rivers by the multi-national companies who were active in that region (Mol,
2016).
6. In fact, the Iranian states are also suffering with air pollution. In fact, Zabol, an
Iranian city is considered to be the most polluted city around the world and
19,600 premature deaths were attributed in 2013 due to air pollution. In most of
the cases, the private organisations are seemed to be responsible for this (Zhang,
Mol & He, 2016).
Question d.
There are at least two possible recommendations for solving the rapidly increasing habit
of environmental deterioration. In this regards the two assumptions are:
1. The private companies should follow the policy of environmental sustainability in actual
sense. It is often presumed that the companies officially follow sustainability policy but
in practice there is no such policy that the companies are followed. In this context, the
government must have strict regulations which will enforce the multi-national
organisations to maintain environmental sustainability in business practice.

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2. In addition to this, the second recommendation is related to the perception of people
about ecological sustainability. It can be asserted that there must be a global
understanding about the significance of preservation of environment. In fact, it is
necessary to teach the authorities of global companies about the nature and their attitude
towards ecology. Therefore, it has to be the company initiative to build a consensus about
the importance of environment.
Question e.
While discussing the role of Multi-national companies in developing world there are
some advantages and disadvantages of the MNCs in developing countries. Based on the
utilitarian theory, it can be argued that everything has a good and bad impact and in this case the
advantages and disadvantages can be identified as
Positive
1. MNCs are able to generate more investment in the developing countries which will
facilitate economic and social development for the countries.
2. The MNCs are considered to be associated with technological superiorities. Hence,
investing in the developing countries can also bring technological exchange which is
beneficial for the countries.
3. MNCs create job opportunities for the local population which in result help to minimize
the issue of unemployment in developing countries.
Negative
1. Due to enormous financial power and influence the MNCs can manipulate the business
industry and the government of developing countries.

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2. It is not beneficial for the local small and medium enterprises to compete with business
giants. Henceforth, because of enormous pressure from the market the SMEs will lose
their permanence in the local market.
3. Sustainability is a key concern for the government in order to deal with the MNCs.
Sustainability in terms of economic, social and environmental aspects are often violated
due to lack of government regulations.
Question f.
It can be concluded that the positive impacts of MNCs in developing world can be
regarded beneficial for the countries in terms of economy and this economic benefits will lead
towards the prosperity. Nevertheless, the punitive measures such as lack of environmental
sustainability, practised by the MNCs show that it is more fatal for the country than creating
development which can shatter the future of a developing country.

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Reference
Alege, P. O., & Ogundipe, A. A. (2015). Environmental quality and economic growth in Nigeria:
A fractional cointegration analysis. International Journal of Development and
Sustainability, 2(2).
Barkemeyer, R., Stringer, L. C., Hollins, J. A., & Josephi, F. (2015). Corporate reporting on
solutions to wicked problems: Sustainable land management in the mining sector. Environmental
science & policy, 48, 196-209.
Debnath, S. C. (2015). Environmental regulations become restriction or a cause for innovation–a
case study of Toyota Prius and Nissan Leaf. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 195, 324-
333.
Lee, J. S. H., Jaafar, Z., Tan, A. K. J., Carrasco, L. R., Ewing, J. J., Bickford, D. P., ... & Koh, L.
P. (2016). Toward clearer skies: challenges in regulating transboundary haze in Southeast
Asia. Environmental Science & Policy, 55, 87-95.
Mol, A. P. (2016). The environmental nation state in decline. Environmental Politics, 25(1), 48-
68.
Zhang, L., Mol, A. P., & He, G. (2016). Transparency and information disclosure in China's
environmental governance. Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability, 18, 17-24.

9ETHICAL ISSUES IN INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
Assignment 2
Question a.
1. Improve brand image and competitive advantage for the company.
2. Reduce waste and make a healthy environment for living.
3. Making progress for the developing countries in future run.
Question b.
1. The improvement in brand image helps the multinational country to make benefits in a
rapid pace. Besides this, it will also facilitate a competitive advantage in the market.
2. A number of health issues can be resulted due to increase in waste. In fact, most of the
companies pollute the environment through their waste materials. In response to this, the
reduction of waste is not only creating profit for the organisation but also drives people to
live a healthy life.
3. In the present scenario most of the countries are looking for sustainable products and in
response to this many big companies start manufacturing green items. Therefore, the
policy of sustainability taken by the government also encourages the companies to invest
in that country which indirectly helps the country to get benefitted and prosper in
economy. Besides this, the country can set an example for the rest of the world to follow
the model of sustainability and in return the company earn respect and reputation which
is considered to be a moral backbone of the country.

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Question c.
According to Kant, imperative is identified as a binding commitment aligned with a
number of commands and formula of that command is defined as imperative (Kant, 2017). In his
words, Kant argued that there is no need of imperative for a good will because the person
comprised of good will subsequently possesses moral law. Henceforth, there are two types of
imperatives categorical and hypothetical. The hypothetical imperative deals with the practical
measures to resolve an issue. This is some kind of theoretical implication of a thought which is
yet to imply in reality. On the contrary, the categorical imperative inculcates a real depiction of
the solution framework (Mill, 2016). According to Kant, only the categorical implication is
considered to be moral in nature. It can also be argued that the categorical imperatives are
established on the sacrificial ethics which helps to sort out the problems. It is also important that
false promises are identified as contradictory morality.
i. The ethical question circles around the issue of environmental sustainability in
developing countries. The business orientation of the multinational companies in
developing world is growing day by day and also has a series of positive impacts.
Nevertheless, the cynical consequences are far too long to shade the way of optimism
regarding the intervention of MNCs in developing world. In response to that the specific
rule in determining the ethical decision is direct and closely related to the ethical issue of
the subject. In this context, the specific rule of the subject deals with the understanding
about the role of multinational companies in damaging environmental sustainability of
developing countries (Bowen & Prescott, 2015).
ii. There is a general approach to acknowledge the overall scenario of environmental
sustainability. In respect to that the general rule does not possess any direct relation with

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the issue. Rather it puts more emphasis on the overall perception of the specific problem.
Therefore, it can be asserted that in this context the overall approach is lingered with the
general issue of environmental sustainability. It can be argued that there are a number of
factors that can pose obstacles in the process of environmental sustainability in a
developing country. The role of multinational companies in this matter are seemed to be
just a part but there are other factors which are also play significant role in damaging the
environmental balance.
iii. It can be argued that the issue is very simple and straightforward. It is related to the issue
of environmental sustainability in developing countries. In the context of this general
rule, the ethical question has a close affinity with the given issue and it is considered to
be a part of the general outline. Therefore, there is no contradiction regarding the general
rule of the issue. However, it delivers a direct reflection of the illustration.
iv. The Kantian rule of categorical imperative is essentially relied upon the pragmatic
approach of the issue. It can be argued that the general issue is based on the general
concept of the given ethical issue so it cannot be taken as an example of categorical
imperative. As it is familiar that without any categorical imperative it is impossible to
draw a moral implication. The general rule only ventilates an overall idea and the Kantian
ethics requires a specific issue to analyse. Hence, it can be claimed that the general rule
violates the fundamental principle of Kant’s practical imperative.
v. The general rule delivers a clear understanding of the possible factors of damaging
environmental sustainability. However, there is very little information about the role of
MNCs in creating challenges to the environmental sustainability in developing countries.
Therefore, it can be ascribed that the general rule poses an obstacle in understanding the