UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Three members of the Business Ethics Case Team at the Penn State Smeal College of Business collaborated to place first in two competitions and second in the third at the 2024 International Business Ethics Case Competition (IBECC), held in late April at the University of Massachusetts.
The IBECC, founded in 1996, invites teams from universities across the nation. The competition aims to enhance students' teamwork and presentation skills while addressing complex ethical issues in today's business landscape. This year, 25 teams representing 10 universities competed.
Lydia Mabamije, a fourth-year marketing major and a member of the Sapphire Academic Leadership Program; Angela Lam Li, a third-year marketing major; and Grace Hubbard, a second-year corporate innovation and entrepreneurship major and a member of the Sapphire Academic Leadership Program member, placed first in the overall case analysis for their 25-minute presentation.
In addition, Li placed first in the 10-minute ethical analysis presentation and Mabamije placed second in the 90-second presentation.
This is the second consecutive year that Smeal has won the 25- and 10-minute presentations.
The IBECC is unique in that each team is responsible for developing its own ethical issue to address, and it is broken into three separate competitions:
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A 25-minute competition in which each team prepared a PowerPoint presentation and spoke for 25 minutes on the problem it investigated and the solutions it developed. Teams analyzed the financial, legal and ethical considerations of the problem and solution.
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A 10-minute presentation with two to three team members. The teams were not allowed to use PowerPoint and were asked to speak solely on the ethical issues of their problem and solution.
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A student, acting as an employee, joins executives in a conference room to discuss an issue without anyone addressing its ethical aspects. The student has 90 seconds to convince the group to acknowledge and address the problem as an ethical issue.
This year, the Smeal team decided to explore the impact of social media platforms on the moral development and social awareness of young individuals, specifically on the ethical implications of TikTok's influence on users aged 13 to 17.
The team’s thorough analysis encompassed legal, financial and ethical dimensions, presenting a comprehensive solution to address the need for TikTok to assume social responsibility in influencing the moral development of young users. Li emphasized the importance of establishing trust between TikTok and key stakeholders, proposing that “TikTok must go beyond mere safety measures and prioritize the well-being of young users to establish a partnership in responsibility."
Michelle Darnell, director of the Tarriff Center for Business Ethics and Social Responsibility, advised the Smeal Business Ethics Case Team.