The Field Project
5 Pages Posted: 21 Oct 2008
Abstract
Four business students agree to conduct a distribution study for the world's foremost consumer-packaged-foods company, U.S. Dairy, Inc., in exchange for academic credit. U.S. Dairy's distributor (Athens, S.A.) is a respected but ailing company located in Panama City, Panama. The students are told that the object of their visit is to gather information about Athens's operations so that U.S. Dairy can decide whether the rlationship should be continued. If the students recommend that Athens be dropped, they should have gathered enough information to enable U.S. Dairy to duplicate Athens's operations. As the study progresses, however, the students realize that their findings will be used by U.S. Dairy to enter into direct competition with Athens. Upon their return to the United States, they must produce two separate reports: a comprehensive one for U.S. Dairy and a superficial version for Athens that should not "tip them off" to U.S. Dairy's real intentions. This case explores the definition of and any limits on "corporate intelligence" as a business tool, and highlights the balancing of stakeholder interests in this "real-world" ethical dilemma.
Keywords: decision making, business ethics, competitive intelligence, ethical issues, international case, international, ethics, Alternative Business Issue or Setting, cross-cultural issues, nationality
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