College of Business Administration

Seminar in Business Ethics and Social Institutions

Discussion Questions for July 31, 2003:

Question related to Corporation-Consumer Social Contract (Weiss 159):

1) What is the Social Contract that connects Corporation and Consumer? Does consumer sharing of copyrighted music violate this Social Contract? Is music sharing wrong in every form, or are there ways in which it is right? Does the consumer have a contract with the artist, the RIAA or both?

Question related to The Moral Basis and Social Power of Corporations as Stakeholders (Weiss 161):

2) Keith Davis’ five points (Weiss 161-162) present the social responsibility of corporations. Using the financial services articles as a basis, to what extent does the consumer have responsibility for knowing what was being done with their money? Did the financial services companies truly fail to live up to their social responsibilities? To what extent have consumers failed to live up to theirs?

Question related to Corporate Responsibilities and Consumer Rights (Weiss 166):

3) Kraft recently revised its strategy in marketing food to kids, as has McDonalds. Kraft has gone on record saying they want to do "what's right." (USA Today article) Does this imply that what they were doing before was wrong? Had McDonald's and Kraft failed to take "due care" to prevent foreseeable injuries (in this case childhood obesity) by marketing unhealthy foods to kids or is it ultimately the consumers' responsibility?

Question related to Problems with Free-Market Theory (Weiss 168):

4) How ethical is it for McDonald's and other food marketers to target children with their messages? Do kids have the sophistication as consumers to make informed choices about their health? Who has ultimate responsibility for what a child eats? If mom has this responsibility, is it ethical for fast food marketers to advertise so heavily to kids?

Question related to Paternalism or Manipulation (Weiss 173):

5) Does the recording industry merely advertise music according to consumer demand, or do they advertise to manipulate the consumer into purchasing music from a specific artist or band? Does the consumer have a right to know about a greater variety of music that's available to them or just what the recording industry tells them to buy? Also, should all consumers have equal access to music?

Question related to Consumer and Lawsuits:

6) Are lawsuits an appropriate means to assert that corporations ought to behave ethically?

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