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RESEARCH PRODUCT

An ethical perspective on problems multinational companies in the apparel industry face, when outsourcing their production to developing countries with inadquate institutions

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Masteroppgave økonomi og administrasjon- Universitetet i Agder, 2014 This thesis addresses the ethical problems multinational companies in the apparel industry face, when outsourcing their production to developing countries with inadequate institutions. I will use a case study of Bangladesh, to reveal the actions of Primark, Kappahl and the Benetton Group. These companies will be evaluated in light of three main schools of ethics; Virtue ethics, consequentialism, and deontology. I will show how companies have been dealing with ethical problems, and I will in relation to the ethical schools find out how these problems should be dealt with. The thesis shows that problems in the apparel industry of Bangladesh are not being handled in a satisfactory manner according to the three schools of ethics. The findings in the thesis also show that the allocation of responsibility in the apparel industry of Bangladesh has to change. Corruption and low levels of transparency prevent human flourishing, and the deviation in how companies try to portrait them self and how they actually occur, has revealed dishonest companies willing to break many ethical barriers to earn a profit. Finally the consequences of inadequate institution have been shown.