Unethical Business Ethics Essay

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Are businesses that behave unethically destined for failure? Currently, businesses are facing a growing societal pressure to perform responsibly and sustainably. Western cultures have become more aware of the effect their consumption has on the environment. Furthermore companies are being put under pressure to treat labour, and where applicable, animals with greater care. However this is to an extent optional and it is often argued that corporate social responsibility is taken up voluntarily by the business and that following laws regarding ethical trading is just a prerequisite to “fulfilling the responsibility of enterprises” (Enderle, 2014, pp 723 - 735). Some businesses have monopolised on the added value of ethically sourced products, through promoting a positive brand Using the definition of Ucbasaran D. et al, I would only count business failure as “the cessation of involvement in a venture because it has not met a minimum threshold for economic viability as stipulated by the entrepreneur” (2012). Ending ventures and strategies is a long lasting manoeuvre that a stakeholder will not see any return from. Often unethical accounting ventures have the most disastrous effect and although CEOs have been replaced for this, many companies have not survived the scandals. If the venture was heavily invested in, this can lead to irreparable damages. An example of this business failure is the scandal of Enron in 2001 in which unethical actions of the financial directors impacted the business, losing $63.4 billion in assets. The financial directors misled the shareholders by hiding millions of dollars of debt and misdirecting the committee on high-risk accounting practices, leading to the bankruptcy of the company. Other businesses such as Hollinger International, WorldCom and Tyco all found their CEOs to be altering accounts, (accounting-degree.org,

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