Business Research Ethics

Business Research Ethics

Ethics in business research refers to the code of conduct that is projected to be scrutinized while conducting the research. The ethical conduct affects equally the company and the individuals researching the conduct. The ethical behavior should be taking into account in each step of the research process from data collection and analysis, to reporting the findings. If the company or individual researcher does not stand by the code of ethics for the business research, he or she could end up confronting penalties from lawsuits to legal penalties.

In 2007, a lawsuit was filed against CVS Caremark pharmacies by the community pharmacist for disclosing information in the interest of financial gain from its patients. "American Pharmacies' members are business entrepreneurs who can compete with all entities. Regrettably, the CVS Caremark merger has breached the principles of fair play on which our country so proudly stands. It is for these reasons that American Pharmacies proudly supports the courageous actions of its Board members, the six plaintiff pharmacies (Businesswire.com, March 24, 2011)." The six plaintiff pharmacies are Rogers Pharmacy, Victoria, Brookshire Bro. Pharmacy of Kirbyville, Hometown Pharmacy, Fairfield, Hibbs Pharmacy, Bay City, Kinsey's Pharmacy, Tyler, and De La Rosa Pharmacy, Weslaco.

The lawsuit was filed in the federal court in September 2010 in which it accuses CVS Caremark of violating the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) and the use of misappropriate trade secrets. The complaint also stated that CVS Caremark required the patients to purchased medications and maintained the purchase only from CVS Caremark, which that is a violation of the Texas "Any Willing Provider" law. CVS Caremark affected the patients and physicians contract to only be able to obtain the prescription from the CVS Pharmacies by which it would financially benefit CVS Caremark. Caremark mailed letters out to patients that used independent pharmacies warning them that if he or she would continue to fill their prescriptions in their current pharmacy they would be subject to an increase in their prescription copay.

The unethical behavior that affected the organizations and individuals are the patients, the physicians and the independent pharmacies. Which in this unethical research behavior it violated the patients privacy, as the patient placed their trust on CVS Caremark in receiving the best prescription drugs plans for their costs associated with their medical plans. The patients were forced to pay a higher copayment and move to a CVS Caremark pharmacy. This situation installs fear on the patients making it unethical on the patient's privacy of choosing the pharmacy he or she wanted to use and fear of losing their insurance coverage. In the case of the physicians if they would not participate, they would