Report on Ethics within the retail sector.docx

Report on Ethics within the Retail SectorIntroductionIn recent years, it is known thatethics and ethical behavior have become an increasing more important areas for retailers with many high street chains claiming to have ethical credentials.The ethical issues are about corporate social responsibility, product safety, environment protection, green issues, grey imports and sourcing of products. Ethics and ethical behavior is vital for the long-term growth of the business. This report firstly overview the growth of ethical considerations in contemporary retail marketing. Then I analyze the evaluating ethical concepts and applying them to the retail sector.BackgroundEthics have become a major area in retail marketing recently. For example, there has been the rise of the ‘green consumer’.Major firms, take GAP as an example, have had their corporate reputation damaged due to ‘ethical issues’ with regard to alleged child labour. When retailers drive down costs and ‘off shore’ production to lower cost economies, there are often victims of the ‘high street’ living thousands of miles away. President John F. Kennedy outlines in his 1961 inaugural speech what came to be known as the Consumer Bill of Rights:the right to be safe, the right to be informed, the right to be heard, the right to choose freely and this set the agenda for Europe. TheoryEthics are rules of conduct. Business ethics are basic values that guide the behavior of a firm.Ethics is defined as a system that humans have developed to resolve conflicts of desire and interest (Steare 2006). Ethics are concerned with the requirements for the well-being, health, success and happiness of human beings. Ethics are principally mind attitudes. Codes of ethics are written standards of behavior such as bribery, political contributions, equal employment opportunity, environment, health, safety and so on. Good ethical governance embraces good corporate governance (Hong Kong Institute of Certified Public Accountants 2005). Manag