Ambition and Ethics in Marketing : When ambition affects companies' ethical behavior
Ho, Thuy (2018)
Centria-ammattikorkeakoulu
2018
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Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2018120920598
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2018120920598
Tiivistelmä
The aim of this thesis was to study the importance of ethics in business, and why companies are shifting into the unethical direction. It also aimed to deliver the real-time condition of firms’ ethics in marketing particularly. Another aim was to discuss how much ambition can impact a company’s ethics towards its customers, and what are the outcome of unethical marketing practices.
The theoretical framework introduced concepts and definitions of what ethics are about, what ethics principles should be considered in marketing. Additionally, observation research, interviews, and a case study were conducted to provide a profound understanding of the topic, as well as supportive practical materials. The observation was done in an e-market environment, two semi-structured in-terviews were conducted with two savvies in Philosophy and Marketing. One informal interview was also done with an individual working in the beauty industry, one of the focused industries in the the-sis. A case study focusing on Volkswagen’s TDI Emission scandal was carried on for more deep insights.
The results indicated that in business, ethics were slowly getting ignored by the pressure of finance. It was also discovered that some companies managed to get away with their unethical marketing practices while some did not, depending on the execution and the level of seriousness and harm. The thesis opened a discussion about the likelihood that companies’ ethics would be compromised by ambitions in the future.
The theoretical framework introduced concepts and definitions of what ethics are about, what ethics principles should be considered in marketing. Additionally, observation research, interviews, and a case study were conducted to provide a profound understanding of the topic, as well as supportive practical materials. The observation was done in an e-market environment, two semi-structured in-terviews were conducted with two savvies in Philosophy and Marketing. One informal interview was also done with an individual working in the beauty industry, one of the focused industries in the the-sis. A case study focusing on Volkswagen’s TDI Emission scandal was carried on for more deep insights.
The results indicated that in business, ethics were slowly getting ignored by the pressure of finance. It was also discovered that some companies managed to get away with their unethical marketing practices while some did not, depending on the execution and the level of seriousness and harm. The thesis opened a discussion about the likelihood that companies’ ethics would be compromised by ambitions in the future.