Ethical And Social Responsibility Issues Into Multinational Business Decisions

1. Exhibit 1 is a decision tree. A model for incorporating ethical and social responsibility issues into multinational business decisions. The decisions are decided by the users’ responses to a number of relevant questions regarding the matter at hand. The first question the model asks is whether the decision efficiently optimizes the common good or benefits of the business firm, society, the economy, and the individual. From the tobacco business standpoint, the answer is yes it does. They are making huge profits my doing business in the Third World international markets. Next the economy benefits because Third World government often profit from tobacco sales. Brazil collects 75 percent of the retail price of cigarettes in taxes, over $100 million per month. As far as the society is concerned, one could argue yes to this point as well. The people living in these Third World countries are not living in the best of conditions. Our US tobacco manufactures offer them a small escape from their world to our more affluent western world by smoking our products. This is questionable because the idea of tobacco benefiting any society is one that is man made, in that the idea is spawned through aggressive advertising and promotions. You ask the people who live in these societies they most all agree, being like their friends in the west no matter how brief is like heaven. Lastly, when considering the individual there are two perspectives to consider, the individual form his/her…