Culture Differences

Individualism vs. Collectivism. US. vs. Europe. I wonder, are my opinions totally European? I am well aware of my culture being different compared to the American, but I have always liked the idea of doing business in the US. But after a discussion in class today I had a change of thought. Never would I believe our ways of thinking could differ that much. I don't want to generalize, but after being me against everyone else, me being the only European, I discovered how different we can observe our world.

No one agreed with me in today's discussion about Social Responsibility, in my marketing class. For me it is obvious, all companies should care and be responsible for their society. My professor, however, explained for us that it is all about Profit Responsibility. If the company forgets about their economy, everyone else will suffer. An example is GM. They lost track of their economy, many people became unemployed, and small retailers had to end their businesses. The society lost. I can agree this far. But who says that company can't care about their profit AND their society? Why can't companies be responsible for their production at the same as they make sure their numbers are profitable?

My professor continued: "it is up to the costumers to decide". The companies will produce after demand, and if their customers are requesting a fair and responsible production, such as sustainable, environmental etc, the businesses will follow. My question is then, what if the costumers don't ask for it, they don't know what to ask for? Who is responsible for keeping the market educated? How will we make sure there is no child labor, animal abuse, or other horrible working conditions? Who will be responsible if the businesses aren't?

Free Market was what my teacher referred to. A market where we have no specific regulations from the government, a market where demand and supply controls.


In my opinion, we can't rely on the customers. We can not trust the people in the market to be educated enough to make the right decisions to affect our suppliers to have an ethical behavior. We are all human, and act for our own best. We rather choose a cheap option if the outcome is the same. And once again, why is there always a cheap option?