GROUP ASSIGNMENT COVER SHEET

STUDENT DETAILS

Student name: Pham Nhat Vy Student ID number: B1112015141

Student name: Nguyen Pham Thu Uyen Student ID number: B1112015149

Student name: Tran Thanh Thong Student ID number: B1112015147

Student name: Ngo Quoc Huy Student ID number: B1112016591

Student name: Student ID number:

UNIT AND TUTORIAL DETAILS

Unit name: Academic English Unit number: AEn-S320WSB-5

Tutorial/Lecture: Class day and time: Thursday 12:00 PM
Lecturer or Tutor name: Ms. Heather Lennie
ASSIGNMENT DETAILS

Title: Group Essay

Length: 1200 words Due date: November 11 Date submitted: November 11

DECLARATION
I hold a copy of this assignment if the original is lost or damaged.
I hereby certify that no part of this assignment or product has been copied from any other student’s work
or from any other source except where due acknowledgement is made in the assignment.
I hereby certify that no part of this assignment or product has been submitted by me in another
(previous or current) assessment, except where appropriately referenced, and with prior permission
from the Lecturer / Tutor / Unit Coordinator for this unit.
No part of the assignment/product has been written/ produced for me by any other person except
where collaboration has been authorised by the Lecturer / Tutor /Unit Coordinator concerned.
I am aware that this work may be reproduced and submitted to plagiarism detection software programs
for the purpose of detecting possible plagiarism (which may retain a copy on its database for future
plagiarism checking).

Student’s signature: Pham Nhat Vy

Student’s signature: Nguyen Pham Thu Uyen
Student’s signature: Tran Thanh Thong
Student’s signature: Ngo Quoc Huy
Student’s signature:

Note: An examiner or lecturer / tutor has the right to not mark this assignment if the above declaration has
not been signed.
Topic: Many people are concerned about the ethical issues surrounding E-

business. Illustrate with examples and provide solutions to this problem.

The digital era has changed the business world in many ways, and one of the most

recognizable aspects is the arrival of E-commerce, also referred to as E-business. The drastic

growth of E-business over the years has transferred the relationship between businesses and

consumers, in a way that people and business units can communicate and connect more effectively.

However, the drastic growth of E-business has brought up public concerns regarding ethical issues,

especially issues relating to identity and data privacy. These unethical actions are likely to cause

serious damage to the company’s image and credibility. This essay will examine the threats

associated with unethical behaviors in E-business market through recent case studies, and offer

solutions to minimize the possibility for these actions to occur in the future.

It is suggested that the cause of the problem is identified in order to examine it. The root

cause of unethical behaviors in E-business is likely to come from the lack of business ethics

application. Since regulations for business ethics in E-commerce have not been issued widely, it is

crucial for businesses to acknowledge the importance of practical application of business ethics. It

is believed that ethical companies gradually enhance their value, while the unethical damage their

reputation and their position in the marketplace. Application of business ethics also has a beneficial

effect on the employees’ productivity and the consumers’ loyalty.

In many cases, companies have seen positive outcomes from applying business ethics

practice in their business operation. For example, six key characteristics including product quality,

trust, social responsibility, and how employees are treated were the standards used to determine the
best reputable companies among 60 largest companies in the US (MarketWatch, 2013). In

particular, Amazon was the firm that ranked 1st in the survey for its positive responses from the

customers. The firm spent billions of dollars annually supporting its seller by optimizing the servers

and infrastructure to help keeping online stores open at all times.

In contrast to ethical businesses, there is a number of companies that neglect the foundation

of business ethics in their actions which eventually lead to consequences that affect the business

itself and the customers. Palmer and Stoll (2013) provided a number of examples and cases used to

illustrate these ethical concerns. A case of data theft was reported in Wyndham Hotels, which owns

The Marriott, Super 8 and Ramada hotel chains. On three different occasions over a two-year

period, the credit card information of Wyndham’s customers was stolen. According to the Federal

Trade Commission, hundreds of thousands of customers’ credit card information were posted on a

Russian-hacker website. However, Wyndham refused to take responsibility for the damage. The

hotel’s representative declared that the hotel had informed customers about the breach and offered

affected customers credit monitoring services. This is an example of unethical behavior in E-

business in the form of a lax information security system.

Other concerns about E-commerce are data mining and data usage. In the digital era, data

and information have grown to become a valuable asset. Palmer and Stoll (2013) presented a case

relating to data breaching in Echometrix, a company that sell software to parents who want to

regulate their children’s online activities. The company was reported to collect the information from

the children and sell it to third-party marketers. The parents, who were not aware of these

transactions, were considered as victims of fraud. As a result, the state of New York filed a lawsuit

against Echometrix, and eventually paid a penalty of one hundred thousand dollars. In another

context, data mining and data usage can largely influence many aspects, such as society, economics,
and politics. In 2018, a whistleblower named Christopher Wylie exposed a scandalous issue of

Facebook stealing millions of users’ profiles (The Guardian, 2018). The project was executed by

Cambridge Analytica - a data analytics company, Facebook – a company offering online social

networking services, and Donald Trump’s election team. The campaign took personal information

without authorization to target individual voters with personalized political advertisements. After

being published, the news quickly resulted in a controversial dispute about data breach by many

tech companies. Internet users became extremely concerned about privacy security, and

consequently lost their trust and willingness to share their information on social networks.

With the raising concerns cases regarding E-business ethics, solutions are needed to rebuild

customers’ trust and the E-business market reliability. Many possible solutions were offered, such

as prioritizing customers' satisfaction above profits, building authentic brand images, and improving

consumer information security. There are many practical solutions that E-commerce companies can

put into practice, which include, but not limited to, introducing company’s privacy policy to

customers, encrypting customer information to ensure safety when making transactions online

(Agag, 2017). By implementing these methods, customers might be more willing to engage in the

E-business market.

Finally, effective way to prevent unethical behavior in the future is educating the younger

generation on business ethics is. One of the first schools that applied business ethics in their

program is Fairfield University, Connecticut. The school aims to help students identify ethical

issues in the workplace by opening a conventional class, which provides a problem-based learning

program. Students are allowed to take on projects with real companies. Fairfield University reported

an increase in awareness of real-world business ethics from students that completed the class.
 In conclusion, it is worth noting that the concept of business ethics is crucial to not only

traditional business, but also E-business. Modern technology opens the business world with more

possibilities, enables businesses to reach more potential consumers and achieve more profits. On the

other hand, it also presents challenges that require a solid foundation of business ethics. It is a

significant matter that businesses keep adapting to the constant growing marketplace with decent

value.

Reference list

Agag, G. (2017). E-commerce Ethics and Its Impact on Buyer Repurchase Intentions and Loyalty:

An Empirical Study of Small and Medium Egyptian Businesses. Journal of Business Ethics, 154(2),

389–410. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-017-3452-3

Business - Business Ethics; Reports Summarize Business Ethics Study Results from Fairfield

University (Removing the Blinders: Increasing Students' Awareness of Self-perception Biases and

Real-world Ethical Challenges Through an Educational Intervention). (2020, Aug 01). Real Estate

& Investment Week https://www.proquest.com/docview/2428051451?accountid=63189

Cadwalladr, C., & Graham-Harrison, E. (2018, March 17). Revealed: 50 million Facebook profiles

harvested for Cambridge Analytica in major data breach. The Guardian.

https://www.theguardian.com/news/2018/mar/17/cambridge-analytica-facebook-influence-us-

election?

MarketWatch. (2013, June 3). 10 U.S. companies with the best reputation. MarketWatch.

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/10-us-companies-with-the-best-reputation-2013-03-06
Nguyen, K. (2016). Business Ethics in E-commerce (p. 12,13) [Thesis].

https://www.theseus.fi/bitstream/handle/10024/119487/Final Thesis-

KhanhNguyen.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y

Palmer, D. E., & Stoll, M. L. (2013). Ethics in e-Business: Emerging Issues and Enduring Themes.

Progress in IS, 865–887. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-39747-9_36