Ethics and Business Information Systems

In the contemporary business environment, information systems have revolutionized the strategy firms employ in doing businesses. Apart from increasing the customer market base, businesses have been able to carry out international businesses without leaving their physical locations. Moreover, advanced information systems have assisted increasing number of businesses to be more competitive both locally and internationally. Despite the benefits derived from the use of information systems, the firm still faces ethical issues in the businesses environment. A violation of privacy of customers, employee, and suppliers have been one of the ethical issues with the use of information systems. Fur example, an online business can assist firms to collect private information of their customers, which include the credit card information and other personal information. Many firms go to the extent of storing the credit card information of their customers thus violation privacy law in the United States. Moreover, firms themselves have been affected with the recent advanced in the information systems, firms intellectual properties and secret trade may also be compromised with the new technology.

The objective of this proposal is to discuss the ethical issues in the information systems in the businesses environment. The study develops the hypothesis that will be used to test the research data.

H1: Use information systems is the primary factor that contributes to the ethical issues within the business environments.

Definition of Key Terms

Information Systems: These are the collection of computer and other information processing tools used to store and transmit information within thin the businesses environment.

Information Ethics: The Information ethics are the branch of ethics dealing the moral use of information systems in the corporate business environment.

Intellectual Properties: The Intellectual properties are the information intellect or other products created by individuals or organizations and enjoying the monopoly, which is designated by law.

Pirating: The concept is referred as the unauthorized use or access of other parties intellectual properties without an authorization.

One of the best approach to tackle a research is to discuss the research problems. By discussing the research problem, the researcher will be able to identify the problems pertinent to the proposal and develop the strategy to address the problems.

The use information systems have created both opportunities for businesses and risks. While businesses many are able to improve their competitive market advantages with the recent improvement in the information systems, one of the greatest risks is the loss of revenue with an increase in pirating. Before a new product is launched, businesses are required to invest million of dollars through an R&D ( research and development), and the costs of the R&D are part of the costs of operations anticipating recovering the costs after the products have been launched in the markets. However, many companies may face challenges to recover the costs with the recent problems of pirating. This is a particular issue in the software businesses where some unscrupulous individuals may develop the copies of the original products and sell them on the internet at cheap prices. These issues have made many firms to lose millions of dollars and unable to recover the costs of operations in the process. Violation of intellectual properties has been the greatest problems that businesses face with the recent advanced information systems. Some companies have experienced their intellectual properties being stolen, and their products available online before they are even launched. In the contemporary businesses environment, businesses are no more storing their information at the physical location, they store their information online. However, faced with recent hacking activities in the business environment, a loophole in the information systems can make cogent information of firms being stolen and customer information being exposed. Moreover, information systems have made illegal coping of the digitalized MP3 music very easy over the internet. Moreover, the ethical issues are threatening the viability of trade secrets. Typically, trade secrets assist in driving -up innovation, and economic growth. The trade secret also improve a country stability and security.

PricewaterhouseCooper (2014) defines the trade secret as "all forms and types of financial, business, scientific, technical, economic, or engineering information, including patterns, plans, analyses, program devices, formulas, designs, prototypes, methods, techniques, processes, procedures, programs, or codes, whether tangible or intangible, and whether or how stored, compiled, or memorialized physically, electronically, graphically, photographically, or in writing. "(p 7).

However, a theft of trade secret can jeopardize the business viability.

Despite the problems that firms face in the contemporary business environment, no quality research paper has yet been written to address the problems. This proposal attempts to fill the gap by carrying out a comprehensive research to address the problem. The data collection is one of the strategies that the proposal will employ in solving the research problems.

The methodology to solve the research problem consists of a systematic collection of data to test the hypothesis. The proposal will use the quantitative technique to collect data because this is the best data collection method to achieve the research objective. Unlike qualitative research that collects data with the semi-structured interview, the quantitative researcher collect data through a survey. One of the benefits of quantitative research is its cost and time effectiveness. Unlike qualitative research that uses the enormous time for data collection, quantitative research has been able to address this problem by saving the researcher enormous amount of time and costs. Moreover, the quantitative research assists in testing the hypothesis using the statistical technique, and the findings of the research can be applicable to the large segment of the population. Data collection through the online survey is one of the benefits of the quantitative research, apart from using a little time to collect data through this process, the quantitative research is appropriate in validating the theory and replicating the research findings. Moreover, the knowledge derived from the quantitative research can be used for the quantitative prediction assisting in enhancing the research validity and credibility.

The statistical technique is one of the features of quantitative research that involves analyzing data using the descriptive statistics, and regression analysis with the goal to test the hypothesis. The results will be presented in report, tables and chart.

Organization of the Proposal

The proposal will be organized as follows:

Chapter 1 will discuss the study background, develops the hypothesis, research objective, research problems, developing the research questions, and define the key terms.

Chapter 2 will review the past studies related to the proposal with the goal of answering the research questions.

Chapter 3 will discuss the data collection method using the quantitative method.

Chapter 4 will carry out the data analysis using the statistical technique.

Chapter 5 will present the research findings in charts, words, and tables.

Chapter 6 will discuss conclusion and recommendations.