In this paper, we are going to be focusing on possible ethical research activities in the article titled Determinants of Firm Compliance to Environmental Laws. This is accomplished by looking at: unethical research behavior, the injured parties, the impact on the organization / the individual / society and how this can be resolved. Once this takes place, is when we show the way these issues can be addressed to improve the accuracy of the findings.
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Over the last several years, a wide variety of corporations have been facing increasing amounts of pressure to follow various environmental regulations. In the article titled the Determinants of Firm Compliance to Environmental Laws, Dao (2008) is focusing on how this impacting Vietnamese businesses. The way that this is accomplished is through using the Three Pillars Theoretical Framework. This is a theory stating that all firms will follow different environmental regulations based upon three criteria to include: regulatory, consequential and social cognitive pillars. (Dao, 2010, pp. 91 -- 112)
To determine how this is impacting businesses a study was conduct surveying 63 managers in Vietnam. The results were that executives are mostly focused on: the consequences, regulations and the social cognitive factors. The reason why, is from the fear of the negative impact on the firm. This is what pushed most managers to follow particular policies. In some cases, this could occur with government officials threatening to take specific punitive actions. While at other times, this will happen through possible customers, communities and social groups not approving of these activities. To prevent this, the majority of firms will take a proactive approach in addressing environmental regulations. (Dao, 2010, pp. 91 -- 112)
However, the results of these finds could have been obtained with a certain amount of bias. To determine this, there will be a focus on: unethical research behavior, the injured parties, the impact on the organization / the individual / society and how this can be resolved. Together, these different elements will provide specific insights as to the validity of the study that was conducted.
What unethical research behavior was involved?
The possible unethical behavior could have occurred when actuaries were conducting the research. This is because all data was collected through face-to-face interviews. The problem with this approach is that respondents could overly impact the way any kind of information is recorded (based on their rapport with actuaries). (Dao, 2010, pp. 91 -- 112)
When this happens, there will be a particular emphasis given to one area over of all of the others. As a result, the findings from the data are potentially flawed. This is when the results of the survey may easily have a number of irregularities. (Dao, 2010, pp. 91 -- 112)
Who were the injured parties?
The injured parties are those people who were respondents in the survey. This is occurring with them not having their responses recorded correctly. Moreover, future researchers will have trouble mirroring these results. This is because a number of different tests were used during the process of analyzing the data. (Dao, 2010, pp. 91 -- 112)
For most individuals, this makes it difficult to mirror the results and build off of these findings. This is problematic, as they may have to conduct their own survey (prior) to the main project. When this happens, there will be a certain amount of wasted time and increased costs. (Dao, 2010, pp. 91 -- 112)
How has the unethical behavior affected the organization, the individual, and society?
The way the unethical behavior will impact the organization is to make the information appear to be inaccurate. This will cause others to question a host of studies that were conducted. For the individual, they will have a sense of disappointment by not having their real feelings and viewpoints represented in the survey. In the case of society, this data cannot be used to help understand what factors are influencing managers. When this occurs, everyone will become worried about how this will shape the kind of actions that businesses will take pertaining to their environmental practices. (Dao, 2010, pp. 91 -- 112)
How could the unethical behavior be avoided or resolved?
The way that this could be resolved is through increasing the sample size and having everyone fill out a questionnaire. This will take actuaries out of the process, which is reducing their influence on how responses are recorded. Once this occurs, they can be able to objectively document and analyze the data. (Dao, 2010, pp. 91 -- 112)
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