Recreation & Sports Equipment Corporation sells a product that is capable of seriously injuring consumers who misuse it in a foreseeable way. Does the firm owe an ethical duty to take this product off the market? What con-flicts might arise if the firm stops selling this product?

Answer 1

Ethical behavior can sometimes generate sufficient good will to warrant practicing it out of a desire for increased profits. By the same to-ken, unethical behav-ior can sometimes generate enough bad publicity to warrant avoiding it out of the same desire. A business firm's activities that are perceived as ethical and receive wide publicity can benefit the firm's owners in the short run-and even in the long run if the firm's enhanced public image continues to attract more consumers to its products.
There is nothing unethical about making a profit. It is the behavior that generates the profit that can be questionable. Business ethics thus has a practical element. A business firm should act in its best interest. A firm inter-ested in profits should also be interested in the public's opinion.

Of course, it is not a company's fault when consumers mis-use its product. If continuing to sell a product is not a strict violation of the law, stopping its sale would likely re-duce profits. This could impact the firm's owners, employees, and others. But suspending sales could re-duce injuries, and it could lead to increased profits from the sales of other products, if the suspension stops negative publicity.

When a busi-ness en-tity decides to re-spond to what it sees as a moral or ethical obliga-tion by removing a product from the market, an ethi-cal conflict is raised be-tween the firm and its employees and between the firm and its share-holders. This conflict arises directly out of the impact that the decision has on the firm's profits. If meeting this perceived obligation in-creases the firm's profitability, then all parties "win" and the dilemma would be easily re-solved in favor of "doing the right thing."