Gabelli students win at International Business Ethics competition

Undergraduate | Apr 27, 2016 | Gabelli School of Business

From left, Travis Navarro, Abigail Ahern, Kara Norton, James Kodi and Alisha Mehndiratta, all BS ’16, performed well at the 2016 International Business Ethics Case Competition.

Five Gabelli School of Business seniors rode an ethics presentation on Uber all the way to victory in this year’s International Business Ethics Case Competition.

Travis Navarro, Alisha Mehndiratta, Abigail Ahern, James Kodi and Kara Norton, all BS ’16, took home two first-place awards and one second-place award in the competition, held in Cambridge, Mass., this month.

The competition asks students to examine a real-world ethical dilemma and devise legal and ethical solutions. The Fordham team was one of 28 from universities from all over the globe. Others included Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, LaSalle University in Philadelphia and University of California, Berkeley.

The Gabelli School students chose the surge-pricing tactics of the car-service app Uber as their presentation topic.

Their thesis was that surge pricing beyond three times the normal fare was unethical because the increased costs unfairly affect poorer customers and contradict the company’s stated mission to serve everyone. Toward a solution, they proposed a tiered surge-pricing system that built in alternative ways to handle peak demand, ranging from a simple tripled fare in the first tier up to mandatory carpooling in the third.

The team took home first place in both the 30-minute presentation with question-and-answer session and the 10-minute presentation. The group also placed second in the 90-second presentation.

In addition, Norton took part in a 5K run sponsored by the competition and came in third place.

The team worked with Assistant Dean Greer Jason-DiBartolo and Professor Miguel Alzola on its presentation.