Business Ethics at Does It Pay to Be Good by Trudel and Cotte - Article Example

The paper "Business Ethics at Does It Pay to Be Good by Trudel and Cotte" is a perfect example of an article on business. In the article, the authors bring out a notion that people will most probably reward a company based on how ethical they are. They presume a direct relationship between corporate social responsibility and performance though there are not empirical results that confirm such. This is a vital attribute that may either validate or question their research criteria. An assumption that people will be willing to pay more for the ethically produced goods while forcing those with perceived lower ethical standards to reduce their prices is quite biased. This is because very few people would give more for a product while leaving a cheaper one that would most certainly serve the same purpose (Trudel and Cotte, 2009). In surveys, they stipulate that individuals are willing to admit as such but the goods that run out faster in shops are those with lower prices. Thus, even if a company participates in local social responsibilities, the pricing may be a huge determinant though they may be biased towards a company that provides support to the community.

They have gone further to deviate from the norm and used methods that allow the consumer to express more about their wants and their likes regarding a brand. This is unlike where only surveys are used to collect information. Instead, they have included rigorous experimental designs that allow the participant to view both the bad and the good information about the company and then decide how much they would pay for it (Trudel and Cotte, 2009). They found out that a company with higher expectations of ethical production would be highly rewarded compared to that which has lower ethical expectations. This means that as Paine (2002) writes in her book, the values have suddenly changed the way companies perform and produce their services. People are looking for what they can believe in and thus, are ready to offer their money to reward that which is seen as ethically produced.

One thing that is, however, visible from afar is the fact that people are more willing to pay more provided they are fed with information that is relevant. As shown by the control and those under experimental variations, what they are fed with in terms of information provides a chance for the buyer to weigh the options and decide on what they want for their own consumption. Moral action is thus rewarded more as Paine indicates (2002). However, as noted, consumer differences also play a huge role in determining some of the dominant factors that surround the purchasing of items. This is also true in the expectations of the company behavior because they will use what they view in the surveys as a way of defining their products and their morals to attune to what the clients want.  As noted, the ethical goods will go at a higher price but even the unethical ones will be purchased, though at a lower and more substantiated price (Trudel and Cotte, 2009). Thus, the research provides an excellent point of view for a company to choose wisely between what it believes and how it wishes to be viewed by the buyers of its products.