Do Business Well

We will now consider more specifically the benefits and drawbacks of ethics to online marketing:

Ethical benefits

• Online marketing has the potential to remove prejudice and barriers, as transactions are carried out via disembodied computer screens.

The lack of need for a physical presence in a particular place allows the inclusion of people whose physical needs make working in an office environment difficult.

Internet-based business activities are opening up markets, thereby improving information provision and freedom of speech about different products, including non-corporate information (see Hamelink 2000: 139-164). For example, typing ‘Nike’ into a search engine also finds sites about Nike products alleging human rights abuses by the company. Continue Reading »

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Competitive intelligence is the term given to the gathering of information on business rivals through legitimate means such as via published data and interviews. The practice has its own representative body, the Society of Competitive Intelligence Professionals (SCIP), and is now taught on some courses as a key business skill. Proponents claim that competitive intelligence focuses on understanding competitive dynamics and helps in planning future change. The Internet, of course, provides a comprehensive and easily accessible source of data about competitors. So the challenge these days is less about collecting information than it is about analysis and focus. Useful information might include news about an imminent product launch or the appointment of a new chief executive. The best competitive intelligence relates to what a competitor is going to do, rather than what it actually is doing at that time. The knowledge gained then has to be disseminated throughout the organization (a process known as organizational learning) so that it is available for possible use by other people in the company at a later date. Continue Reading »

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