Corporate Social Responsibility and Ethics

Question 1 – Ethics and Testing of Medicines Case
Animal experiments are widely used to develop new medicines and to test the safety of other products. Many of these experiments cause pain to the animals involved or reduce their quality of life in other ways.

Using this case and theory taught in the module, identify two contrasting ethical theories. Critically analyse how these two theories could be used to argue the case both for and against testing of medicines on animals. You should ensure that you use a range of relevant sources to support your work, including at least two peer-reviewed journal articles.
Question 2 – CSR Theories and Amazon Case Study
Amazon is a successful global online company that sells a huge range of goods. However it has been criticised for avoiding paying taxes on a worldwide scale. In Europe it uses a company base in Luxembourg to reduce the amount of tax paid in other European countries and in the US it uses loopholes around having a physical presence in certain states to avoid paying tax there. In 2013 it was reported that in the UK, Amazon paid £2.4m in tax on a total bill of £3.2m for 2012, but received £2.5m in government grants. This was on a reported sales figure of £4.2billion and a turnover of £230m. Amazon’s boss would argue that they are following the legal rules and have therefore done nothing wrong. In 2015 their sales were £5.3billion, with a profit of £34.4m and paid tax of £11.9m. Additionally there have been recent accusations against Amazon regarding their treatment of staff and their employment practices; they have been accused of over-packaging, which is a wider environmental issue; they have been accused of treating some of their suppliers poorly (see weblinks below for further details).

Using this case, identify two theories/models of CSR. Then analyse the level of CSR development that is evidenced by
a) Amazon’s policies and statements about ethical and CSR issues and
b) Amazon’s activities in regard to paying tax and other business practices such as employment practices, treatment of suppliers and so on.
You should use the websites listed below, a range of text books and at least two peer-reviewed journal articles to support your analysis.