Reference research: Utilizing the Web

This blog wishes to bring forth attention to recent ethical issues occurring in the business realm. There seems to be an increasing trend in which corporations engage in unethical business practices in order to secure corporate profits and deceive customers, especially during the recent financial turmoil. In a social perspective, such unethical practices have caused great disturbance to the general public, either directly through the failing products customers are using, or indirectly increasing their skepticism for other products in the market. On the other hand, in the corporate perspective, there has to be valid reasons as to why they choose to engage in such unethical practices. Hence, this blog will look into and discuss the various perspectives behind unethical practices and the effects they have on society. As a new entrant in the blogosphere, I am planning to utilize resources mainly from the Web to support my discussion on recent ethical news. On the right under “linkroll”, are some of the websites I find useful as reference. The websites chosen are extracted based on the Webby Awards criteria, which contains knowledgeable content, consistent and transparent structure, good visual design and high functionality. Adhering to the IMSA criteria, reference blogs are chosen by the reliability and insightfulness of its content, in other words, the level of authority of its writers. In addition, the blogs should be alive and frequently updated. Keeping such criteria in mind, I went on Google and Yahoo directory and search with terms relating to business ethics, such as “white collar crime”, “corporate social responsibility” and so on. After vigorous scouring of the Web, I found websites documenting recent news particularly on business ethics, such as Business Ethics Magazine, China Daily and Corporate Social Responsibility Newswire; governmental websites such as the Federal Bureau of Investigation; authoritative websites that explains the correct approach to business ethics, such as Knowledge @ Wharton, Institute of Business Ethics and Markkula Center for Applied Ethics; the White Collar Crime Prof Blog that discusses recent white collar cases in a certain perspective; and so on.