Essay Example on ECUBIC: Edith Cowan University's Innovative Business Center

Introduction

The center for innovative practice based at Edith Cowan University prides itself on the development of innovative methods across the diverse range of professions, as well as organizations within the business and law industries. The Business Innovative Center in Edith Cowan, also known as ECUBIC, is located in Bunbury, Western Australia. The sole purpose of the innovation center is to provide business facilities, providing flexible low-accommodation, support in services, and management in terms of new and small businesses (BIC, 2019). ECUBIC has been operational since the year two thousand, and three after the school received a grant from the Commonwealth Department of Employment, Workplace Relations, and Small Business as an addition to their Business Incubator program. The center has taken part in several projects.

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One of these projects is the Rail Wanneroo Planning Support System that was planned and designed with the support of local councils who aided in the integration of land use and transportations and distribution decision making in collaboration with the community and state government as a way of assessing and seizing the value of the high rail infrastructure investment (ECU, 2017).

The other project is the social media and innovation project that was run by the Chief investigator on a grant by an Australian Research Council Discovery known as Craig Standing. He wanted to examine the potential and uses of social media as an aspect of improving innovation in business and government (Edith Cowan University, 2013). The City of Joondalup and Lotterywest also provided funding, whereas the ECU provided small financing and land for the location of the innovation center. When the funding arrives at the center, the individual responsible for its distribution in different areas within the center is Desiree Walsh.

The individuals in positions of leadership in this center include; Desiree Walsh, Colin Jorgensen, and Mark South. The mission statement of the center is to aid in the enhancement and formation of new and supportable small businesses through providing business center facilities and ancillary services in the Cities of Joondalup and Wanneroo (BIC, 2019).

Business Ethics critique

Every organization should strive to invest in practical corporate sustainability. This is a strategy that is used by organizations to establish long-term value of stakeholders by implementing a business plan that is focused on the aspects of conducting active business such as the ethics, social, environmental, economic, and cultural dimensions (Hill, 2018). The BIC creates sustainability by offering services to small business owners, such as incubation for small businesses.

Any business practice needs to develop and implement sustainable practices that are within the business ethics framework. The potential analytical framework is provided by business ethics, where there is the evolution of the management practice, as well as sustainability (Lashley, 2016). Ethical duties and regulations are suitable for moral agency and action strives, which should be understood in terms of sustainability.

The use of the biocentric perspective will give readers the three different variants on the ethics related to sustainability. The first one is sustainability as an efficient management tool for resources in an organization. Gifford Pinchot comes to mind with his scientific can sustainable forestry theory. The second variant is sustainability as the preservation of the wilderness, as well as the radical rejection of human use ethics that favors the human respect ethic and that of non-interference as suggested by John Muir.

The last variant is sustainability as the land citizenship or ethic, which is a synthesis of human use and the respect given to the requirements of the properties necessary to the biotic community. All of the three variants are crucial in ethical arguments related to corporate sustainability (Jennings, 2010). The framework for assessing the viability of a business is through screening the evaluation to determine whether to conduct the Sustainability Assessment and Management process followed by problem definition and the description of the set of analytic tools used.

The results of the assessment are then collected and presented to the decision-makers. Corporate social reasonability is defined as a business model that aids a company to be socially accountable to the public and its stakeholders (Schooley, 2019). Using ethics in leadership and decision making is one area where organizations must indulge in, especially when it comes to corporate social responsibility. One framework for assessing the CSR of an organization is the use of CSR indicators such as business in the community, which is a self-assessment survey used by companies to measure and manage their CSR.

Ethical Critique of the BIC's policies

Some of the ethical principles that BIC claims to uphold include; creating an ethical platform when it comes to the operations of incubators for small businesses, research, and commercial innovation activities which includes the accommodation and services that are offered by the BIC in relation to the business incubation and new ventures for commercial purposes. The other ethical principle they uphold is related to the residents in the BIC (BIC, 2019). They have core principles when it comes to advertising. Ethical advertising is one factor that has been upheld by BIC.

The advertisements that the residents put up need to comply with the ethics that are associated with the innovation center. The conflicts of interest are one area where BIC should analyze in terms of the ethical codes of conduct. A code of conduct focuses more on the behaviors and decisions that are acceptable and encouraged by an organization (Walker, 2019). It shows employees how to act in certain situations.

An example of how conflicts of interest might arise is when two residents want to use the same advertising platform to reach their target markets. This can create areas where unethical decisions can be implemented to achieve a competitive advantage at the expense of the codes of conduct in BIC. One of the frameworks that the BIC claims to follow concerning sustainability is by taking responsibility for the social, environmental, and economic impacts of the operations of BIC.

A sustainable culture has other aspects that are related to the ethics and values of BIC. The ethical values of BIC are embedded into the organizational culture through the creation and implementation of a code of ethics that is supported by communication and engagement, leadership, supportive environment, training and reinforcement, risk assessment, and monitoring and accountability. The implementation of the above factors creates a platform where there is an open and responsible culture that influences conduct and behavior (Grayson, 2019). This enhances the trust and reputation of BIC's image in public, which in turn improves its financial and operational performance. Concerning sustainability, codes of conduct have been implemented to ensure that the operations that the residents in BIC utilize to try and influence the success of these businesses.

There have been instances where there is unprofessional behavior in the center. There was a period where many companies were misusing company time. With many small companies requiring aid form BIC, many usually lay back instead of taking the driver seat, making the stipulated time for success delayed. The ethical policies and frameworks that are upheld by BIC concerning CSR include; professional competence and due care for the interest of the community and professional behavior when it comes to the representation of the company in the community (BIC, 2019).

These behaviors show the image of the center is a public aspect, which in turn creates a platform of favor in terms of the representation of the organization in the community. One of the areas that might have an issue in terms of the codes of conduct that are related to organizations is on the subject of confidentiality. It won't be advisable for the organization to release the information about its consumers to third parties, especially personal information that doesn't need to be disclosed. This information should be disclosed only with the right permission (Grayson, 2019).

Critical Critique of the BIC operations

The framework for achieving sustainability in BIC is by screening the evaluation to determine whether to conduct the Sustainability Assessment and Management process followed by problem definition and the description of the set of analytic tools used. The results of the assessment are then collected and presented to the decision-makers. These activities make it easier for BIC to implement the strategies that will aid the residents to achieve their objectives concerning the incubation of small businesses (BIC, 2019).

The processes that are involved in ensuring the analytical tools of measuring the sustainability of the operations of BIC need to be followed to the letter to ensure the effectiveness of sustainability in relation to implementing a business plan that is focused on the aspects of conducting active business such as the ethics, social, environmental, economic, and cultural dimensions. The organization must ensure that there is the provision of workplace opportunities where ECU students are engaged or employed (BIC, 2019). Operations such as the creation of employment within the cities of Stirling, Joondalup, and Wanneroo are one area that generates high sustainability of BIC through the acquisition of numerous incubatory businesses.

Operating activities are the daily activities that an organization is involved in when it comes to the production and selling of products and services with the aim of the generation of revenues (Coleman, 2013). BIC is involved in many operations that successfully put the innovative center on the map with other influential organizations in the education industry. Some of the critical operating activities that BIC is involved in include sales and advertising, as well as manufacturing activities. The operating income that is shown on the financial statements of an organization usually depicts the operating profit after the deduction of the operating expenses from the operating revenues. Even though there are several operations that BIC can be involved in, there are others that are not suitable for the activities at BIC. One of these critical issues is how the small businesses that have been incubated respond to competition (Gazprom Energy, 2019). With more information out there in the markets, the chances for increase competition yield making it hard for these small businesses to know how to respond to competition without the aid of BIC.

The framework for achieving CSR is the use of CSR indicators such as business in the community, which is a self-assessment survey used by companies to measure and manage their CSR. Some of the areas in which BIC is excelling in terms of corporate social responsibility are on how they aid small businesses in the community to achieve success through incubation where particular services are provided by BIC, including ancillary services to support the small businesses in the community to grow. This affects the social and economic aspects by increasing the economy of the area due to the constant flow of money in the different industries and markets in Western Australia (BIC, 2019).

Apart from aiding the community economically, it also brings the community together on a social aspect where events held to enhance the development of bonds through networking of business owners and other individuals. There are several issues related to business operations at BIC. One of them is monitoring performance (Gazprom Energy, 2019). With a large number of residents, it...