Analysis of Facebook's Ethics and Sustainability in Business Practices

This report examines the ethical and sustainability practices of Facebook, focusing on its defensive strategies against competitors, the impact of ethical branding on corporate reputation, and the cultural shifts within the company. It analyzes Facebook's acquisition of WhatsApp and Instagram as a defensive move to challenge Google. The report also explores how Facebook utilizes advertisements to target a wider audience and build brand awareness, emphasizing the importance of effective communication strategies. Furthermore, it investigates the effectiveness of Triple Bottom Line (TBL) reporting, perceived transparency, and accountability within Facebook, highlighting how TBL reporting contributes to the company's image and its commitment to social and environmental responsibility. The analysis includes references to academic literature and Facebook's own publications to support the findings.

Running head: ETHICS AND SUSTAINABILITY
Ethics and sustainability
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author Note:

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Table of Contents
Question 3........................................................................................................................................2
Offensive or defensive strategy of Facebook..................................................................................2
Effects of ethical branding and corporate reputation.......................................................................2
Cultural or ethical shift within Facebook........................................................................................2
Question 4........................................................................................................................................3
Effectiveness of TBL reporting, perceived transparency and accountability of Facebook.............3
Reference List..................................................................................................................................5

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Question 3
Offensive or defensive strategy of Facebook
Defensive strategy is adopted by Facebook where they are working best against the
competitors for the future of social media in a fast-moving competitive world. Facebook had
acquired both whatsapp and Instagram (Biedenweg, Monroe and Oxarart 2013). This move was
defensive by nature as they wanted to disrupt Google as well as find ways to establish Facebook
as the most dominant platform in the mobile app ecosystem.
Effects of ethical branding and corporate reputation
Facebook advertisements are treated as one of the powerful toll that aims at targeting
wider audience within limited time. It is not possible to enhance any brand without proper or
appropriate communication strategy. It is important to understand internet sales psychology as it
help in engraining string and lead along. The advertisement campaign of Facebook can be quite
frustrating and time taking sometimes. In order to build corporate reputation, Facebook need to
create efficient campaigns that help in customizing the goals in an effective way. This can be
done by increasing website traffic as well as building hype and enhancing the sales that
automatically help in building brand awareness as a whole (Carroll and Buchholtz 2014).
Cultural or ethical shift within Facebook
It is more of a culture shift within the operations at Facebook as earlier there was not so
much of a craze of using social networking sites for communicating with others. Nowadays,

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people have adopted these social networking sites and used this as a medium of communication
and many more. It is not feasible to shout for ethics all the time within corporate structures as it
is finding ways to prioritize economic gains (Facebook 2017).
Question 4
Effectiveness of TBL reporting, perceived transparency and accountability of Facebook
Triple Bottom Line Reporting shows how business enterprise manages and writes about
effect as well as conduct that relates to people. The effectiveness when Facebook paid special
attention to TBL reporting as well as perceived transparency and accountability plays major role
in re-building the image of the company (Akrivou and Bradbury-Huang 2015). This further
shows that it is essential to consider TBL reporting as it help Facebook to become more socially
as well as environmentally cautious that adds on possible benefits for the company both in terms
of economic constraints and financial constraints. It is important to analyze the developmental
stages of non-financial reporting especially in Business Corporation. This can be done by
interpreting the views of different interviewees from some of the main ethical Corporation Body
on matters relating to model of non-financial reporting. Triple Bottom Line Reporting links with
the empirical data and shows how it helps Facebook progress at various stages when non-
financial reporting is missing to large extent. It is noted that Facebook selects various
sustainability indexes that is best adaptable in that area and have a TBL approach to non-
financial reporting (Facebook 2017). On analysis, it is understood that Triple Bottom Line
Reporting got Facebook to start with the journey of non-financial reporting but even aims at

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developing a more integrated approach for reporting financial performance within the business
strategy as a whole.

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Reference List
Akrivou, K. and Bradbury-Huang, H., 2015. Educating integrated catalysts: Transforming
business schools toward ethics and sustainability. Academy of Management Learning &
Education, 14(2), pp.222-240.
Biedenweg, K., Monroe, M.C. and Oxarart, A., 2013. The importance of teaching ethics of
sustainability. International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education, 14(1), pp.6-14.
Carroll, A. and Buchholtz, A., 2014. Business and society: Ethics, sustainability, and stakeholder
management. Nelson Education.
Facebook. 2017. Facebook – log in or sign up. [online] Available at: http://www.facebook.com
[Accessed 22 Nov. 2017].