Business Issue with Competing Pressures: Based on what you see in the three videos, identify a specific issue with competing pressures. How is a business issue influenced by a social concern?
Based on the video, authenticity of a product can be a major issue for competitors in a market. For products like food and drinks, quality and production are major components to many of the consumers. Recently, products that provide a more artisan approach to food production have become more appealing to many consumers. This change stems from a general shift in the public in which they say far more attention to where their foods and drinks come from. This shift has spurred on a major renaissance in “authentic” and original products that are made naturally in a more archaic but careful fashion. This trend has created an issue in authenticity marketing. When this trend grew, there were few government regulations in how companies could promote this, so the lines between artisan and manufactured were blurred. This is still an issue around the world, but programs like PDO are providing means for authentic producers to market more accurately.
Rationales For and Against Regulation: Based on the issue you have selected, make one statement for government regulation to address the issue (rationale for regulation) and one statement for minimal regulation/the free market to address the issue (rationale against regulation):
Governments are created to look out for the best interests of the public who has created and funded them. Therefore, it is there duty to protect the interests of the public from corporations that have the means to manipulate them. The EU has acted to protect and inform its public on the origin of its food, allowing them to make more informed purchases and creating a more just marketing environment.
The government stepping in to the corporate environment always favors some companies over others, creating an unjust atmosphere. Leaving the market unregulated will allow the issue to solve itself. Customers will either support whatever brand is conducting business more successfully, be it the better tasting “natural” Parma cheese, or the more affordable manufactured Kraft cheese. In this scenario, the customer will directly choose which company will dominate.
Other Examples Like This?: Based on the competing pressures you see in this video, identify another issue that has an ongoing debate among people who argue for government regulation to address the issue versus those who argue that the free market should address the issue.
A major regulatory issue is data collection. Tech giants like Google and Facebook are relatively unrestrained in their ability to tap into the privacy of their customers. This issue has recently surfaced in the past few years with news reports and Zuckerberg’s Congressional hearing. To reign in these corporate behemoths, many have called for the government to issue regulatory restraints on their ability to take consumer info with minimal consent or awareness. On the other hand, many believe the government itself cannot be trusted to protect our information, and would rather rely on the free market to solve this issue. They support using alternative digital platforms that do not sell or store customer information and emphasize the protection of the customer (Ecosia