Overview of Business Ethics

Business ethics are considered a key area of study in business school. This is because there is extensive debate on the importance of business ethics in the business world.

Such debate is founded on moral theories that business ethicists more often use to explore the different interests that would make businesses act ethically.

To understand the entailed interests, it is necessary to establish what business ethics encompass.

Per se, business ethics could be defined as:

 

“Form of professional or applied ethics that explore different ethical principles as well as ethical and moral issues that come up within the business environment”.

 

Accordingly, this understanding is critical when exploring different business ethics research paper topics.

 

Areas for Business Ethics Research 

Note that writing a business research paper is most likely to be a requisite to graduation in business school.

That said, your graduation assignment could for example require that you produce either a research paper on local business conduct or an international business ethics research paper.

Note that when it comes to business ethics as a research area, you have to examine different domains of business operations for appropriate business research paper topics.

Such domains may encompass:

 

1. Social Medial Marketing

This an important area to explore particularly for controversial business ethics topics. The social media has become a major marketing platform and controversial as well.

As such, you could seek to evaluate different issues involved in social media marketing, including false marketing or even marketing of regulated products.

 

2. Workplace Diversity

Although it is an area that has been accorded extensive attention, workplace diversity still raises significant ethical dilemma.

It can be a source of controversial business ethics topics especially due to the continued immigration and labor issues associated with the immigrants.

 

3. Customer Data Usage

This is another area of interest when it comes to generating business research topics. Within the contemporary environment, customer data has been used in all sorts of ways.

Accordingly, you could decide to examine the arising ethical issues or the approaches businesses should adopt when acquiring and using customer data.

 

4. Pricing Factors

Pricing is also an area you could explore for potential business research topics. This could examine the different key considerations in product or service pricing approaches.

In this, you could explore the different implications and importance of business ethics in pricing within the modern business environment.

 

5. Corporate Social Responsibility

This is another viable area to explore for different business ethics research paper topics. It is evident that CSR has become quite central to business operations across the globe.

As such, CSR could be an interesting area to explore for topics for your international business ethics research paper.

 

6. Product Safety

You could choose to examine the numerous concerns arising in the area of product safety. This may look at the entailed legal requirements and scientific knowledge.

Although this may be a little more inclined towards the history of business ethics, you could look for emerging issues within the modern business environment.

 

7. Workplace Safety

This is also an area you could focus on when looking for suitable business research topics. Workplace safety is of significant concern for organizations.

Note that you could also explore the history of business ethics in relation to workplace safety.

 

8. Bribery and Corruption

Bribery and corruption are at the core of business ethics and practices. Accordingly, you could focus on topics seeking to evaluate the prevalence, form, consequences, and corrective approaches.

This could be for both local and international organizations.

 

9. Commercial Interactions

There are many ethical concerns in the area of commercial transactions for all business enterprises. This makes it a viable area for business research topics.

In this, you could opt to focus on the interactions between businesses and other enterprises or businesses with their customers.

 

10. Employee Issues    

This is another important area to consider for business ethics research paper topics. The modern work environment has brought up issues in areas such as remote working, employee ownership, etc.

You can explore the ethics relating to these issues.

 

For your research paper, you can explore the above areas for viable ideas on business ethics research paper topics.

Note that there are many other areas that could be studied depending on the issues you are interested in.

Some of these areas usually focus on the history of business ethics or controversial business ethics topics.

 

Examples of Business Ethics Research Paper Topics

After determining the area of your study interest, it is time to go ahead and find the exact topics to study.

That said, some of the business ethics research paper topics you can explore include:

1. Is corporate social responsibility (CSR) attributed to excessively high prices and fees charged by companies?

2. The role of ethical conduct among business managers in the success of a business enterprise.

3. The impact of false advertisement practices on customer trust levels.

4. The effects of gender bias and discrimination on employee performance within an organization.

5. The role of ethics in employment practices adopted by institutions of higher learning.

6. Challenges facing adoption of ethical business practices requisite in the development of sustainable tourism.

7. The relationship between unethical decision making and business failure/ bankruptcy.

8. The impact of a company’s poor environmental management on customer trust and loyalty.

9. The interaction and conflict between business research studies and publication incentives and objectives.

10. The results of the profit motive on product quality for an organization.

11. The impacts of exploitation of construction industry workers on the society.

12. The utility of business ethics theory taught in higher learning within the practical business environment.

13. Approach towards ethics in publishing business in sponsorship authoring deals.

14. The application of ethics in decision making within the online business environment.

15. An analysis of the way business ethics are taught in institution of higher learning between developing and developed countries.

16. Effective application of business ethics within the stock exchange market in the US.

17. The relationship between code of ethics adopted by business enterprises and cultivation of employee trust.

18. Understanding the code of ethics for business from the perspective of a manager.

19. This history of ethics in decision making among business enterprises.

20. The relationship between the gift giving behavior and business ethics among pharmaceutical companies.

21. Analysis of the different challenges business enterprises face in ethical decision making.

22. The role of culture in defining the business ethics adopted by immigrants.

23. The relationship between code of ethics and the sales force behavior among pharmaceutical companies.

24. Business ethical codes that should govern trade associations.

25. Building organizational structures that foster the adoption of ethical conduct within the business environment.

26. Effective business ethical approaches towards CSR among automobile manufacturing companies.

27. The role of ethics in effective interaction between business organizations and the civil society.

28. Factors that foster the development of unethical conduct within the workplace.

29. Business oriented factors to consider when making ethical decisions within a business environment.

30. The different types of ethical dilemmas business enterprises face when making decisions in the modern society.

31. Elements for building a culture of ethical responsibility common between the employer and the employees.

32. The psychological aspect of corporate ethics among employees.

33. The nature of corporate and white color criminal conduct in the modern business environment.

34. Approaches in ensuring that the ethics adopted by an organization effectively reflect the reality in the business world.

35. Management of sexual harassment within the workplace environment.

36. Inculcating common work ethics among employees from different cultural backgrounds.

37. Factors to consider when developing the environmental policy of multinational companies in different countries.

38. The role of ethics in effective corporate governance.

39. Individual professional conduct in relation to work ethics, ethical behavior, and crisis management within the work environment.

40. The role of ethics in prevention and management of conflicts within the business environment.

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