Sponsored by the Gabelli School of Business, the 2022 Business Ethics Case Competition (BECC) provides a venue for student teams to showcase their recommendations for how business, legal, and ethical elements interplay and align when applied to a current issue. Of note, the competition is also a feeder event for the IBECC, with the winning team moving on to represent Fordham University at the 25th International Business Ethics Case Competition, being held in-person on April 20-22, 2022 in Cambridge, MA.

About the Case Competition:

Each team must consist of 3 to 5 undergraduate students from any school at Fordham University.

Teams will submit a brief case outline and, if selected for the finals, a presentation of their case analysis.

All cases should raise questions and issues related to ethics, business, and law.

Case topics used for prior class projects may be submitted (with the consent of all original members).

Teams are encouraged to register by February 14, 2022. To register, email Dean Daly at rdaly9@fordham.edu providing: A) team member names, B) case topic, C) an outline of their proposed case study that identifies a decision-point, a decision-maker, and the time of the case, and D) be sure to put ‘2022 BECC Submission’ in your email subject line

Finalist teams will be selected from the case outline submissions and will be notified by February 18, 2022. Finalist teams must then produce and submit presentations by March 10, 2020.

The Business Ethics Case Competition will occur on Wednesday, March 2, 2022 at 3:00 p.m. in Keating 1st.

Topic Guidelines

By February 14, Teams registering for the Business Ethics Case Competition must submit an outline that answers the following questions:

• What is your decision-point (What should s/he do? It should be a moral dilemma about business.)

• Who is the decision-maker? (Who is in charge of this decision? The decision-maker should be the managers/executives of a company)

• What is the point in time? (It may be an ongoing case or something that happened in the past and is described by the students in present tense.)

Case Outline Guidelines

The outline of your case analysis should be 1-2 pages in length, focused on the problem you will discuss and highlighting the ethical, economic, and legal elements of the decision.

The outline should include each of the following elements:

clearly identify a decision-point (say, whether the company should recall a product), 

• explain why the decision is morally relevant (say, whether the decision is justified on grounds of social welfare, consumer rights, etc.), 

• describe the alternative courses of action (say, to recall or not to recall), and 

• state your team’s position about which alternative course should be adopted by your decision-maker (say, it should not recall because the evidence in support of the allegations that the product is defective is weak and unreliable).

• Your outline should also list the material you will use to research your case study (any citation style works)

Presentation Guidelines

Each group selected for the finals will then prepare a 10-minute presentation about its case analysis which they will present before a panel of judges. There will also be a brief question and answers period after each presentation. Group presentations will be evaluated on the basis of the following criteria:

• Creativity

• Appropriate use of evidence

• Organization and structuring of the material

• Clarity and effective use of visual aids

• Description of Alternatives

• Appropriate use of ethical, legal, and business theories to analyze and provide recommendations

Good luck to all, we look forward to reviewing your case outlines!

Mark your calendar: case outlines are due by end of day Monday, February 14th to Dean Daly (rdaly9@fordham.edu) — be sure to put ‘2022 BECC Submission’ in your email’s subject line.

Cash prizes for best papers and presentations:
Winning Team: $750, PLUS represent Fordham University at the 25th International Business Ethics Case Competition, being held online April 20-22. Learn more here: https://ibecc.net
First Runner-Up: $250

We hope to see you there!