Your consulting services have been requested by the CEO of a large international corporation. The CEO is concerned about ethical issues surrounding corporate governance from a global perspective. A common example may be where a corporate board of directors breached one or more duties, such as the duty of loyalty or care to its shareholders.There are many other areas where business ethics are at the center of a case that originated at the governance level of an organization: Enron, WorldCom, Martha Stewart, to name a few.The CEO asks you to conduct research and analyze a similar industry case involving ethical issues surrounding corporate governance from a global position. Briefly describe the facts of the case, the legal issue, and decision of the court. In addition, discuss the effect of the case from a global business perspective, and on society, in general and how the CEO's corporation could prevent such issues in the future.Your document should be at least 350 words, including the restated questions, must be well written according to the CSU-Global Guide to Writing & APA (Links to an external site.). Finally, be sure to include at least one reference using the CSU Library or other professional and scholarly references.The MGT315 Business Law Library Guide (Links to an external site.)can help you with finding quality resources.

In our last discussion, we’re going to change it up a bit. There is no initial opinion question, but rather a library scavenger hunt for trending technology that impacts health care finance and budgeting. Below are the specific instructions. This last discussion needs to begin no later than Wednesday.Instructions to LearnersThis final discussion is based on what you have learned in your research and readings during this course. Use the library to research two articles and make your initial post no later than Wednesday.In an initial post share two (2) articles from the Excelsior library discussing a new trend of interest to you (such as smartphone apps, iPads or other mobile technology, robotics, nanotechnology, automated care, telemedicine, etc.) that influences some aspect of health care finance (revenues, expenses, billing, coding, etc.). Be sure to provide the full citation and permanent link, so your classmates and instructor can also check it out. Where appropriate, please feel free to include related websites in addition to the article. Librarians can help you locate the article’s permanent link.Provide a brief synopsis in your own words, including why you chose this trend and what its implications are for health care finance at the organizational and patient level. You might even ask your classmates questions concerning the technology’s impacts on finance!As you respond to your classmates’ posts on their technologies, share other implications that you may see and/or experiences you may have had with that particular technology.Please be sure to justify your responses with your readings, as well as your experiences where appropriate. Remember, you are scheduling your professional staff and NOT patients. Remember that an active discussion is the key to an interesting and engaging online course, so start early. Please do not attach any files to the discussion threads.Consult the Discussion Posting Guide for information about writing your discussion posts. It is recommended that you write your post in a document first. Check your work and correct any spelling or grammatical errors. When you are ready to make your initial post, click on "Reply." Then copy/paste the text into the message field, and click “Post Reply.”To respond to a peer, click “Reply” beneath her or his post and continue as with an initial post.EvaluationThis discussion will be graded using a rubric. Please review this rubric prior to beginning the discussion. You can view the rubric on the Course Rubrics page within the Start Here module. All discussions combined are worth 25% of your final course grade.ARTICLE 1 "MOBILE TECHNOLOGY"please cite this!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Title:The dark side of consumer life in the age of virtual and mobile technology.Authors:Zolfagharian, Mohammadali1 (AUTHOR) mo.zolfagharian@utrgv.eduYazdanparast, Atefeh2 (AUTHOR)Source:Journal of Marketing Management. Nov2017, Vol. 33 Issue 15/16, p1304-1335. 32p.Document Type:ArticleSubject Terms:*Consumer surveys*Attitudes toward technology*Mobile communication systemsConsumer behavior researchHuman-machine relationshipWell-beingAuthor-Supplied Keywords:Consumer misbehaviourdark sidemobiletechnologyvirtualNAICS/Industry Codes:517210 Wireless Telecommunications Carriers (except Satellite)Abstract:This study extends the nascent stream of research that investigates the contributions of mobile and virtual technology to consumer misbehaviour and dark side of consumer life. Using a qualitative approach, the present research explores the nature of consumer-technology relationship, specifically virtual andmobile technology, at the level of lived experience. The findings reflect eight important facets of technologyrelated dark-side consumer behaviour that, in one way or another, cause harm to the individual user, other consumers or society at large. These themes showcase human entrapment in mobile and virtual technology. The findings have significant implications for marketing managers as well as consumer well-being. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]Copyright of Journal of Marketing Management is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)Author Affiliations:1Department of Marketing, Robert C. Vackar College of Business & Entrepreneurship, University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, Edinburg, TX, USA2Schroeder School of Business Administration, University of Evansville, Evansville, IN, USAFull Text Word Count:16680ISSN:0267-257XDOI:10.1080/0267257X.2017.1369143Accession Number:126264903Persistent link to this record (Permalink):http://vlib.excelsior.edu/login?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=bth&AN=126264903&site=eds-live&scope=siteCut and Paste:The" class="redactor-linkify-object">http://vlib.excelsior.edu/login?url=https://search... dark side of consumer life in the age of virtual and mobile technology.Database:Business Source CompleteThe dark side of consumer life in the age of virtual and mobile technology.This study extends the nascent stream of research that investigates the contributions of mobile and virtual technology to consumer misbehaviour and dark side of consumer life. Using a qualitative approach, the present research explores the nature of consumer–technology relationship, specifically virtual and mobile technology, at the level of lived experience. The findings reflect eight important facets of technology-related dark-side consumer behaviour that, in one way or another, cause harm to the individual user, other consumers or society at large. These themes showcase human entrapment in mobile and virtual technology. The findings have significant implications for marketing managers as well as consumer well-being.Keywords: Consumer misbehaviour; dark side; technology; virtual; mobileINTRODUCTIONThe digital era, a time in which information in its many forms is ready, available, accessible and immediately sharable as digital media, has presented a situation in which consumers are immersed in a vast and complex array of networks (Aron, [ 5]; Verhoef et al., [85]). The development and implementation of digital technologies (e.g. mobile, cloud and wearable technologies) have significantly influenced the structure of individuals' personal, social and professional lives (Holland & Bardoel, [45]; Rennecker & Godwin, [68]). These technologies are incorporated into the everyday practices of individuals and could consequently bring profound social and behavioural changes and even result in new lifestyles (Garcia-Montes, Caballero-Munoz, & Perez-Alzarez, [35]). In fact, the widespread and comprehensive use of smartphones, tablets and more recently smart watches, among other digital devices, raises questions about the possible consequences for users (connected consumers) and society.Researchers and practitioners have started to notice that the use of such technologies can be a double-edged sword (Turel, Soror, & Steelman, [83]). On one hand, they provide benefits to individuals, organisations and societies. Much research has been devoted to the positive aspects of technologies such as the impact of mobile/virtual technology on improving consumers' lives with the convenience of access to information, the ability to link people and places regardless of time and geographic limitations, increased productivity and performance, and flexibility and freedom of choice (Beard, [ 8]; Jarvenpaa & Lang, [46]; Turel et al., [83]).On the other hand, digital technologies can create adverse and even unexpected consequences for individuals, organisations and society. Only recently concerns over the impact of technology and its use on consumers and their lives have resulted in systematic research on possible negative aspects and consequences of technology use, a field of research referred to as the dark side of technology use (Rosen, Whaling, Rab, Carrier, & Cheever, [70]; Turel et al., [83]). This focus has presented a new and arguably unprecedented context to study consumer misbehaviour as related to digital technologies due to the fact that such technologies are no longer just tools for individuals, but have become an integral part of their everyday lives. As B.J. Fogg, director of Stanford Persuasive Technology Lab, argues, 'the more influence that technology devices exert over our behaviour, the less control we have over ourselves' (Leslie, [51], p. 70). This is in line with Hodder's ([43]) assertions that once individuals are invested in products, they become trapped in maintaining those investments and the benefits that they produce.Smartphones, for instance, have become necessities (Braun, Zolfagharian, & Belk, [13]; Lee, Chang, Lin, & Cheng, [50]; Samaha & Hawi, [73]). Some may even argue that the use of smartphones is a primary aspect of maintaining their productive lifestyles, managing social interactions and achieving professional success (Lundquist, Lefebvre, & Garramone, [55]). The latest data from Pew Research Center shows that 46% of smartphone owners believe that they cannot live without their smartphone (Smith, [74]). Mobile apps account for a significant portion of smartphone usage as well. A 2015 study by Nielsen showed that mobile apps account for 89% of consumers' media time including social network, email and news apps (Chaffey, [15]). Research in 2012 revealed that, on average, consumers checked their phones 34 times a day not necessarily because they needed to, but because it had become a habit (Oulasvirta, Rattenbury, Ma, & Raita, [63]). This number has now increased to an average of 150 times a day (Leslie, [51]), indicating an increasing dependency on mobile technologies.Some researchers have emphasised the downsides of digital technology, especially those of excessive and addictive technology use. Extant research, for instance, has recognised psychological damages of compulsive internet and smartphone use and even smartphone addiction such as depression, sleep disorder, declined academic performance and stress (Chesley, [16]; Lee et al., [50]; Samaha & Hawi, [73]). Other researchers have raised concerns over the negative impacts of online/virtual communications on the development of meaningful and quality social and individual relationships and satisfaction with life (Blais, Craig, Pepler, & Connolly, [12]; Kerkhof, Finkenauer, & Muusses, [48]; Samaha & Hawi, [73]), considering the fact that inelasticity of time results in less time spent with family and friends if more time is spent online (Nie & Erbring, [60]).The present research builds on extant research on dark side of technology use but takes a slightly different approach by drawing from Hodder's argument that humans and things are relationally produced and that these relationships present a dark side as humans get entrapped in their relations with, and or dependencies on, things ([43]). While the majority of consumer misbehaviour research has focused on how consumer misbehaviour could be damaging to marketers, technology-related consumer misbehaviour could focus on technology-related actions of consumers that have the potential to negatively impact them and/or other consumers. In fact, consumers fall victims to the availability of mobile/virtual, wearable and cloud technologies; their desire and use of these technologies; and the consequent entrapments (Hodder, 2004). In other words, technology users become victims of their own and/or possibly other consumers' consumption habits and dependencies, giving rise to situations in which the offender and the victim of the misbehaviour are not easily separable from one another.Thus, it is the objective of the present research to explore how the constant interactions of consumers with their mobile devices impact their individual and group behaviours, as well as the sociocultural norms and values of the modern society to provide a better understanding of the overall impact of these interactions on our lives. More specifically, this research is an attempt to shed more light on the dark side of consumer behaviour as related to technology use by focusing on human entrapment in digital technology as a result of technology–human relationships. Such a focus is scarce in consumer misbehaviour research, as the research has traditionally had a micro-orientation focusing on specific types of misbehaviour (see Fullerton & Punj, [34] for similar discussions). The findings contribute to the extant research on consumer misbehaviour by providing insights into the under-researched area of technology-related consumer misbehaviour and identification of the various aspects of the harm caused to consumers who, arguably, are victims of their own misbehaviour.RESEARCH BACKGROUNDCONSUMER MISBEHAVIOURDuring the past decade, academics and practitioners have started to pay increasing attention to the concept of consumer misbehaviour (e.g. Akbari, Abdolvand, & Ghaffari, [ 1]; Daunt & Greer, [20]; Grove, Pickett, Jones, & Dorsch, [38]). This topic has attracted researchers from various disciplines (Fisk et al., [30]) including social psychology (e.g. focusing on unethical decision-making), organisational behaviour (e.g. focusing on employee fraud), services (e.g. focusing on failed service encounters) and criminology (e.g. taxation fraud).Consumer misbehaviour can result in material psychological damages to marketers and consumers and eventually impact the experience of all consumers (Fullerton & Punj, [34]). Due to its high economic impact, consumer misbehaviour has been an attractive topic for marketing researchers. In marketing, destructive consumer behaviours that violate consumption norms (Daunt & Greer, [20]) have been referred to using multiple labels including aberrant (Fullerton & Punj, [33]), Jay (Harris & Reynolds, [41]), deviant (Amine & Gicquel, [ 2]; Moschis & Cox, [58]) and dysfunctional behaviour (Harris, [39]; Harris & Reynolds, [40]). Consumer brand sabotage, consumer vigilantism and Pinocchio customer behaviour have also been identified as aspects of dysfunctional consumer behaviour (Aron, [ 5]). Specifically, dysfunctional consumer behaviour is defined as thoughtless or abusive actions that cause problems for the firm, employees and other consumers (Lovelock, [54]). Similarly, consumer misbehaviour signifies undesirable acts of consumers, and deviant/aberrant customer behaviour refers to the violation of social norms in consumption situations (Fullerton & Punj, [33]).The research on consumer misbehaviour could be grouped into three areas. First, the majority of extant research investigates why consumers engage in misbehaviours by examining motivating factors and traits associated with such wrongdoings to distinguish aberrant consumers from others (e.g. Akbari et al., [ 1]; Daunt & Harris, [21]; Dootson, Johnston, Beatson, & Lings, [24]; Egan & Taylor, [27]; Lee et al., [50]). These studies have focused on demographic, psychological and situational factors (such as age, gender and social class) impacting consumer misbehaviour. Extant research has identified several motives for consumer misbehaviour including absence of moral constraints, thrill-seeking, unfulfilled aspirations and negative attitudes towards exchange institution (Fullerton & Punj, [34]). For example, Dootson et al. ([24]) explored consumers' perceptions of right and wrong behaviour and their deviance threshold to draw the line between rights and wrongs to better understand why consumers engage in deviant behaviours in the marketplace. Akbari et al. ([ 1]) proposed a model of antecedents of consumer misbehaviour in retail stores by focusing on individual variables (e.g. self-esteem), environmental variables (e.g. retail lay out and atmospherics) and situational variables (e.g. perceived risk). Situationally derived opportunity has been identified as a key driver of consumer misbehaviour in extant research (Fullerton & Punj, [33]). Situational opportunism is supported by Routine Activity Theory (Cohen & Felson, [18]), suggesting that consumers do not typically misbehave because they are inherently bad; rather, they arrive at a point in which an opportunity to misbehave presents itself (Daunt & Greer, [20]).Second, research on consumer misbehaviour has focused on developing typologies of dysfunctional consumers or their behaviours. Such studies have focused on specific contexts such as retail (e.g. Akbari et al., [ 1]; Lovelock, [53], [54]) and hospitality (Harris & Reynolds, [41]) and offered typologies of misbehaviours. For example, Harris and Reynolds ([41]) identified eight types of deviant customers in the hospitality context including compensation letter writers, undesirable customers, property abusers, service workers, vindictive customers, oral abusers, physical abusers and sexual predators. Following a more general classification, Fowler ([31]) categorised consumer behaviour by whether it meets or violates cultural expectations and institutional norms. Similarly, Bitner, Booms, and Mohr ([11]) developed a typology of four deviant customer behaviours, namely drunkenness, verbal and physical abuse, breaking company policies and lack of cooperation. A recent categorisation developed by Greer ([37]) includes goods-related misbehaviour, interpersonal misbehaviour and relational misbehaviour as related to under-participation and over-participation of customers in service settings.Finally, the third approach to studying dysfunctional consumer behaviour has focused on the consequences of such behaviours. Harris and Reynolds ([40]), for instance, developed a model that identifies three major consequences of dysfunctional consumer behaviour, namely consequences for employees interacting with the consumer (e.g. psychological, emotional and physical effects), as well as consequences for customers (i.e. domino effects and spoils consumption) and organisations (i.e. financial costs). Following a different approach, Fullerton and Punj ([34]) studied the macro effects of consumer misbehaviour as related to the ideology of consumption and consumption experience and argued that consumer misbehaviour has the potential to do as much harm to consumers as do marketers' misbehaviours.Overall, consumer misbehaviour exists in various formats including misbehaviours directed at marketer employees (e.g. verbal abuse of employees), marketer merchandise (e.g. shoplifting), marketer's financial assets (e.g. warranty fraud), marketers' physical or electronic premises (e.g. vandalism) and other consumers (e.g. jumping queues) (Fullerton & Punj, [34]). Another important but under-researched area of consumer misbehaviour is those directed at the consumer himself or herself. Extant research on drug and alcohol addiction, compulsive shopping and gambling tend to view such consumers as victims of their own misbehaviours (e.g. Faber, Christenson, de Zwaan, & Mitchell, [28]; Hirschman, [42]). Notwithstanding these insights, the victimisation effects of technology-related misbehaviour have yet to be understood by consumer researchers.TECHNOLOGY AND CONSUMER MISBEHAVIOURCompared to the large body of research dedicated to the positive aspects of digital technology use, research on the complex and at times alarming ways in which digital technology affects individuals and organisations and the social life seems sparse (Tarafdar, Gupta, & Turel, [80]). The juxtaposition of these two literatures brings to mind extreme viewpoints or responses to the effects of technology, namely the utopian or optimistic (focusing on the positive aspects of digital technology) and the dystopian or pessimistic views (focusing on the negative aspect of digital technology; Fisher & Wright, [29]; Winner, [88]).The utopian view has received support from modernisation theory, arguing that all societies move through stages of growth and development associated with technological sophistication and its integration with social life of individuals, the outcome of which is material prosperity and advanced lifestyles (Winner, [88]). To the optimists, there are technological solutions to social problems such as the enabling effects of information technology whereby inexpensive and convenient telecommunication overcomes geographic and social limitations (Fisher & Wright, [29]).The dystopian view, however, draws on theories of technological society and focuses on human and environmental costs of rapid technological development (Winner, [88]). This view claims that technology fragments society and isolates people, resulting in loss of strong bonds among consumers (Fisher & Wright, [29]). To pessimists, benefits of access to information and online community are outbid by the decline in habits of sociability. For instance, individuals stay in touch in the virtual world while avoiding direct contact with each other in the public world. Winner ([88]) warns: 'we can stay in our rooms, stare at flat screens, surf the Internet, and be satisfied with simulacra of human contact' (p. 1010).Fisher and Wright ([29]) proposed a framework for understanding these extreme responses to technology. Drawing from the theory of cultural lag by William Ogburn ([62]), they argued that the effects of technology will be understood with a lag (i.e. the effects will not be apparent to social actors for some time after the technology is introduced to a society). As such, the optimistic or pessimistic views about the recent forms of digital technology are ideologically charged views that are filled with the hopes and fears of their advocates. Katz and Rice ([47]) also argued that both the utopian and dystopian views are too extreme and neither can accurately describe the individual–technology relationship phenomenon. In fact, the individual–technology relationships are much more complicated than the one-way focus of utopian and dystopian views.The study of consumer misbehaviour with respect to technology has been pursued in two major loci. Psychology, Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) and medical literatures have generally followed a micro approach and focused on the psychological and physiological impacts of technology use on users (e.g. Rosen, Cheever, & Carrier, [69]; Rosen et al., [70]). This is accompanied by a macro approach that aims at understanding the broader sociocultural impacts and the paradoxes of technology in modern life (e.g. Jarvenpaa & Lang, [46]; Mick & Fournier, [57]).Extant research with the micro perspective has examined consequences of instant messaging in the workplace (Cameron & Webster, [14]), compulsive internet use (e.g. Kerkhof et al., [48]), internet addiction (e.g. Young, [89]), smartphone addiction and compulsive use of social media such as Facebook (Rosen et al., [70]). For instance, the use of social networking site (SNS) mobile applications is found to be a significant contributor to mobile phone addiction (Salehan & Negahban, [72]). According to the theory of optimal flow (Csikszentmihalyi, [19]), the enjoyable experience of using information and communication technologies (e.g. mobile devices) for some individuals could result in their interest in maintaining that state even at high costs, ultimately falling in addiction traps (Salehan & Negahban, [72]). Excessive smartphone usage leads to preoccupation with the device; increasing amount of phone use; failure to control or stop phone use; restlessness when the use is reduced; endangering relationships, educational and job opportunities due to the use of phone; and using the phone as a way to regulate mood and feelings of guilt, anxiety and depression (Lee et al., [50]). Such excessive and habitual checking on missed calls or messages has been linked to mobile phone addiction (Bianchi & Phillips, [ 9]; Oulasvirta et al., [63]), causing sleep disorder, depression and psychological distress (Chesley, [16]).More recent studies have found that compulsive behaviour under smartphone context shares similarities with other forms of compulsive behaviour such as drug and alcohol addiction and credit card abuse (Lee et al., [50]). Smartphone addiction has been found to have a direct and negative impact on academic performance and a negative and indirect impact on satisfaction with life via increased perceived stress (Samaha & Hawi, [73]). Moreover, invasive mobile use has been associated with health-related risky behaviours like smoking and alcohol consumption (Peretti-Watel, Legleye, & Beck, [66]). Modern diseases and syndromes such as technostress (i.e. stress due to information and communication overload; Ragu-Nathan, Tarafdar, Ragu-Nathan, & Tu, [67]) and vibration syndrome (i.e. false perception of vibration; Drouin, Kaiser, & Miller, [26]) are among other side effects of excessive mobile use. Technostress combines with technology user's personality traits to engender negative consequences such as high job burnout and low job engagement (Srivastava, Chandra, & Shirish, [76]). Therefore, mobile phone addiction has consequences not only in the individual's personal life, but also for institutions he or she is part of.The macro approach, on the other hand, recognises both the advantages (e.g. time and labour efficiency, freedom and convenience) and disadvantages of technology (e.g. damages to the environment, lowered human competence and human dependence). It argues that technological products are inescapable in the modern society (Mick & Fournier, [57]) and technology use creates paradoxes or situations that have contradictory qualities (Jarvenpaa & Lang, [46]). Mick and Fournier identified key paradoxes of technology consumption and reported that paradoxes such as control/chaos, freedom/enslavement and new/obsolete are widely experienced by users and are concrete concepts, while other paradoxes such as assimilation/isolation and engaging/disengaging are rather subtle, possessing more abstract qualities. Competence/incompetence, need fulfilment/need creation and efficiency/inefficiency reflect other paradoxical aspects of technology use (see Mick & Fournier, [57]).In line with this stream of research and following an international focus group of technology users in Asia, Europe and United States, Jarvenpaa and Lang ([46]) examined consumer experience with mobile technology and developed a technology interaction process model. The model recognises the role of situational factors in the emergence of eight mobile technology paradoxes, of which four are similar to those identified by Mick and Fournier while the rest (i.e. dependence/independence, engaging/disengaging, public/private and illusion/disillusion) highlight additional aspects of technology paradoxes.Similarly, Bawden and Robinson ([ 7]) identified and discussed some of the main paradoxes of information and communication in the contemporary world as related to digital technology. Too much information and paradox of choice refers to the quantity and diversity of information available and its resulting impact on information overload and information anxiety. This paradox maintains that there is too much information to handle, and also there are several formats and channels of communication to share the information resulting in information overload. Experiencing information overload could result in feeling overwhelmed due to loss of control (especially when multitasking) or even tendency for information avoidance due to information anxiety. Such consequences give rise to the paradox of choice in terms of access to information (Bawden & Robinson, [ 7]). Moreover, Web 2.0 and the end of civilisation is another paradoxical issue that is related to the changing information environment with the advent of Web 2.0 and its potential impact on the loss of identity and authority. According to Bawden and Robinson ([ 7]), the possibility of maintaining anonymity and pseudonomity when making comments or modifying contents has given rise to false claims and confusion regarding the genuineness of information available on the web (Bawden & Robinson, [ 7]). This has caused phenomena such as micro-chunking (de-contextualisation of information), shallow novelty (expectation of constant novelty yielding shallow and short-lived material) and information impermanence (constant updating of information undermining the notions of original or final formats; Bawden & Robinson, [ 7]).The paradoxes of information and communication also highlight issues related to privacy, trust and self-disclosure in the digital era. Self-disclosure refers to the amount and ease of information shared with others (Taddei & Contena, [79]). However, this openness of self and self-related information could be threatening to personal privacy. Privacy is defined as no interference in the individual's life without permission and is strongly related with having control over information about self (Taddei & Contena, [79]). As such, perceived control over information can generate trust, lower privacy concerns, and result in more information sharing and self-disclosure.The birth of online social networks has increased the tendency and even the necessity for self-disclosure, encouraging users to share and exchange information about their personal lives on SNSs. It has, however, also given rise to risks associated with use of these environments including defamation, sexual misconduct and intellectual property theft (Taddei & Contena, [79]). Sociology, criminology and ethics literatures emphasise the role of norms and expectations in forming trust or having faith in other individuals to avoid misbehaviour. Consequently, concerns over the norms and expectations of behaviour related to privacy/trust in the digital era are accelerating and creating yet another aspect of dark side of technology use.Overall, research on paradoxes of technology provides insights into areas that deserve further exploration to shed light on the dark sides of technology use. Technology paradoxes are an inherent part of user experience. The identified paradoxes, in fact, highlight rather a grey area of technology use, but do not necessarily identify technology-related consumer misbehaviours. Such a task would require a deeper analysis of the consumer–technology interactions to pinpoint consumer victimisation instances. For instance, the empowerment/enslavement paradox highlights the permanent connectivity via mobile technology and the inability of users to distance themselves from other users (Jarvenpaa & Lang, [46]). This has resulted in a culture that expects constant availability. Another example is the independence/dependence paradox, which is related to the power to connect regardless of space and time limitations and the consequent dependence it creates (Jarvenpaa & Lang, [46]). This paradox may explain constant checking of smartphones discussed earlier.Dual-systems theories provide a fertile ground to better understand the use of mobile technologies (Soror, Hammer, Steelman, Davis, & Limayem, [75]). According to dual-systems theories, human behaviour is guided by two systems, namely reflexive (automatic) and reflective (controlling) systems. The reflexive system processes information using cognitive and affective associations to trigger rapid behavioural responses by directly activating pre-existing action tendencies or habits. In contrast, the reflective system processes information based on rules to exert control over and if needed override automatic responses. Smartphone use (and perhaps use of other digital technologies such as tablets, smartwatches, etc.) could be explained as an outcome of the interplay between the reflexive and reflective systems. Individuals face the choice between responding to internal (e.g. feeling bored or anxious) and external (e.g. receiving a notification of an incoming email, text message) triggers, stimulating use of the digital devise or deferring it until a later point in time. Habit drives us to automatically exhibit learned responses towards the triggers (e.g. to answer the phone when we hear it ring or to check for text messages when we hear a 'ding'), without much deliberation about the setting in which we are exhibiting our behaviour (e.g. alone, with friends, in a meeting or while driving). Furthermore, the evaluation of the suitability or appropriateness of exhibiting the smartphone use habit in a specific setting is a function of the reflective system. Consequently, this leads to individuals evaluating the appropriateness of exhibiting the habitual behaviour and overriding it when necessary (Soror et al., [75]).Once individuals buy into the culture of availability and develop the habit of constantly checking their digital devices, they find it difficult or uncomfortable to be disconnected, even temporarily, as they depend on their connectedness to provide them with immediate updates. This culture of availability comes with its own norms of behaviour. For instance, inability to respond due to forgetting the mobile device or running out of battery is deemed an unacceptable excuse. Unsurprisingly, a common problem of smartphone users is running out of battery.Another important aspect of mobile technology is related to engaging/disengaging paradox (Jarvenpaa & Lang, [46]). It is difficult for most users to engage in parallel activities. In fact, the level of engagement with the former task decreases once the user engages in the latter. This highlights another dark side of technology use related to the quality of presence. In fact, the culture of availability and presence in multiple spaces cause relatively lower engagement in each activity and consequently, lower quality of presence. In other words, the higher quantity of communications does not guarantee higher quality of communication experience.The present research is an effort to identify the nature of the consumer–virtual/mobile technology relationships, and the ways in which such relationships and their inherent paradoxes have led to darks aspects of consumer behaviour. Our findings reflect eight important aspects of technology-related consumer misbehaviour causing harm to the individual user, other consumers or the society at large by recognising human entrapment in mobile/virtual technology.METHODA qualitative method was employed given the exploratory purposes of this research. Data was generated in Southwest United States. The initial source of data consisted of 37 open-ended, in-depth interviews with non-student, adult consumers. Later, follow-up interviews were conducted with five of those participants, as well as three interviews with new participants (the latter focused mainly on virtual reality technology). In-depth interviews allow for a profound understanding of the topic from the consumer's point of view. Through qualitative methods like in-depth interviewing, the respondent has the opportunity to detail the intricate aspects of an experience, such as emotional states and cognitive processes that are difficult to learn through other research methods (Thompson, Locander, & Pollio, [82]). Interviewees were recruited from the research team's social network after holding hands-on training sessions aimed at increasing consistency across the team members, which consisted of faculty members and graduate students. Interviewees were between 22 and 61 years, with the median age of 42.The interviews began with general questions about the participants' experiences with products to enable participants to discuss their opinions, views, emotions and experiences, eliciting 'free-form consumer-driven text' (Stern, Thompson, & Arnould, [78], p. 197). To avoid socially desirable responses from interviewees or over-reporting or under-reporting of true events, the interviewees were not directly asked about their personal experiences with the dark side of mobile/virtual technology or their own misbehaviours in that regard (Fisk et al., [30]). Instead, they were asked about (a) the ways, positive or negative, in which people were using such technology; (b) how those usages were altering existing, or creating new, lifestyles, behaviours and habits; (c) what needs to change to minimise the undesirable situations (see the Appendix). Given the responses, contingent follow-up questions and probes were asked in each section to zoom in on the dark side of technology usage in as unobtrusive a manner as possible (Rubin & Rubin, [71]). Interestingly, we did not anticipate and were pleasantly surprised by (a) participants' openness and voluntary movement towards their own personal experience and (b) their relatively greater interest in and stories about the dark side.The second source of data was 130 essays from undergraduate and graduate students about their experiences with a specific product or service. Given the non-interactive nature of essay as a means of communication, more targeted instructions towards the dark side of technology were provided to students. As such, there was more direction and structure in the essays than the interviews. Instructions prompted students to (a) select a product from the mobile/virtual technology; (b) draw on their own or others' experience with the product and identify specific ways in which the technology has negatively impacted the individual or society at large; (c) discuss how it is altering existing, or creating new, lifestyles, behaviours and habits; (d) try their best to make their essay as in-depth and detailed as possible through introspective and creative storytelling (see the Appendix). These students were between 21 and 41 years, with the median age of 25.The data set was about 600 pages of single-spaced text, consisting of interview transcripts and essays, which comprise highly accepted and utilised forms of written texts in marketing and consumer research (e.g. Arnold & Fischer, [ 4]). Our interpretive approach was hermeneutic (Arnold & Fischer, [ 4]; Thompson, [81]), requiring us to exercise a repetitious back and forth movement between the texts of individual participants and the formative understanding of the complete data set. This process engendered an interpretation of meanings, which was initially shaped, questioned and adjusted until a consistent framework was reached. Hence, each consumer text was initially regarded as an isolated case with its own relevant meanings. Throughout the analysis, each case was compared against the entire set of texts, enabling the emergence of commonalities across the entire data set. Commonalities were then used to induce underlying cultural meanings. Thus, each individual consumer text is not merely expressed from a subjective perspective, but is assumed to be influenced by a shared system of meanings.In order to establish credibility of the interpretation (Lincoln & Guba, [52]; Wallendorf & Belk, [86]), the authors triangulated across sources by interacting with multiple participants. Debriefing by peers and member checks offered additional support by confirming the accuracy of the descriptions with participants. Confirmability was established by audio recording and transcribing the interviews and securing copies of the written essays, which checks what took place and what was said. Building rapport and trust and safeguarding the participants' identities (names were replaced with pseudonyms) supported integrity. Although the emergence of themes is based on the entire data set encompassing all interviews and essays, the authors report the most noteworthy themes observed here. Thus, the findings introduce a subset of participants, technologies and products to illustrate the themes.To identify systematic variation attributable to age and gender, a graduate assistant with considerable experience in interpretive research reviewed the entire data set with the sole purpose of identifying age and gender patterns. Results were discussed among the research team. Younger participants appeared (a) more elaborate about technology-enabled breach of trust and privacy; (b) more aware of intensified consumer immediacy desire; and (c) more optimistic about the future of the human–technology relationship. Older participants were more concerned with technology as a force behind escalated consumer information processing and reliance on external (as opposed to human) memory. No differences were observed between gender groups.Finally, the deviant case technique was used to add variability to the sample/data and enrich the emerging categories (Denzin, [23]). Specifically, we searched the data for any hints of rival experiences/meanings that could challenge the premise of one or more of the themes. We kept this in mind also in the follow-up interviews with previous participants as well as interviews with new participants. While the deviant case analysis increased our confidence in the robustness of seven of the themes, one of the themes (i.e. slants of authenticity in over-calculated, hypercompetitive life) was revised substantially given the variability of participants' lived experiences and associated meanings.FINDINGSThe findings reflect eight key facets of technology-related dark-side consumer behaviour that, in one way or another, cause harm to the individual user, other consumers or society at large (see Table 1). These themes showcase human entrapment in mobile and virtual technology. The findings have significant implications for marketing managers as well as consumer well-being.Table 1. Summary of emerging themes.Dark side themesIdentifying elementsPotential impacts1. Overabundant, overlingering visibilityExplosion of digital memory, proliferation of social media, excessive visible consumer information, insensitive encountersIndividual, other consumers2. At best, trust the intention, not the ability behind privacy guaranteesStealth recording devices, enabling anonymous breach of trust and/or privacy, illusion of privacyIndividual, other consumers, society3. Targeted destructionCybertargeting, altering of original content, manipulation of information source identityIndividual, other consumers4. Presence divided, tasks collidedSynthesise or switch between virtual and physical, multidimensional presence, quality of presenceIndividual, other consumers, society5. Compulsion: benign and fatal consequencesMobile problem-solving, excessive use, habit, impulse, physical, psychological and social impairmentIndividual, society6. Digital immediacy as frame of referenceReal-timisation, immediacy as mindset, spillover, escalated expectations, ever-declining satisfactionIndividual, other consumers, society7. Slants of authenticity: calculation, monitoring and competitionGeneral feeling of overcalculation and hypercompetition, contextualised appreciation of detail and precise information, balanced judgements of (in)authenticityIndividual, other consumers8. Cerebral and physical: new frontiers of outsourcingDecreased reliance on cognitive and motor skills, over-reliance on objects/technology, technology dependencies, evidence of diminished well-being in medical researchIndividual, societyOVERABUNDANT, OVERLINGERING VISIBILITYCoupled with the proliferation of social media, the explosion of digital memory, whether privately secured by the consumer or collectively managed by institutions, has resulted in the production and lingering of an unprecedentedly voluminous amount of socially visible artefacts about any active or semi-active member of the net. Notwithstanding the bright ways in which such phenomenon might facilitate consumer escape and enjoyment, it can also contribute to a plethora of complications for oneself or loved ones, which can spill over to and negatively influence other facets of life such as health, employment and social life (Taddei & Contena, [79]). Miley's (female, 31, preschool teacher) account of the sudden passing of her younger sister's (Cecil, female, 28, IT specialist) husband, Mathew, is telling:Mathew was known as 'the gig' in their circle of friends at college. He had a knack for technology and whatever [social media]. So, besides love, they connected well on that, too, because Cecil is a social media animal ... Mathew's death came out of nowhere and hit us hard ... Cecil was in shock at the beginning, but very soon she fixated [on] reading Mathew's posts and emails; everything she could access. We thought nothing of it until it went on for too long. She would contact people Mathew knew of, like bloggers, and speak of him as if he was still there ... When we asked her to seek help, she said she would, but after going through Mathew's history. I consulted with a so called grief recovery expert, who thought going to the bottom of Mathew's history could be a turning point for Cecil. It's been more than 9 months. After changing two jobs and settling for a huge pay cut, she still spends much of her time and energy finding new stuff from Mathew online. [original emphasis].Miley continued detailing several difficulties that Cecil and her family experienced due to Cecil's obsession. She then contrasted the 'digital age' against the 'olden days,' considered a key difference to be the amount of socially visible artefacts a typical consumer leaves behind, and warned that the overabundance of overlingering visibility today intensifies the obsession of the bereaved after one's death.Although in the pre-digital era, too, numerous artefacts existed that could cause the bereaved to linger in the situation, the evolving digital and social technology extend and deepen the mourning process, and make it socially visible, far beyond what was possible in the past by exponentially increasing not only the size of the network, but also the volume and stickiness of social activity among them (Bisceglio, [10]; Coen, [17]). On the bright side, technology makes the bereaved aware of the larger community of support since more people can be involved in the grieving process without imposing on immediate family. Notwithstanding the supportive sentiments and gestures from most others, growing network and social activity are usually accompanied by greater incidents of insensitive encounters and public humiliation (Coen, [17]).Portia (female, 37, paralegal assistant) offers a slightly different view of the same experience. After Alice, her partner, passed, Portia felt responsible for her once active, now silent social media accounts, especially Facebook. Much of the interview with Portia revolved around the implicit pressure she experienced in social media not only to publicly express her grief, but to 'keep it going on Alice's behalf':Those closer to us thought it [would be] neat if I sent a Facebook invitation to the funeral from Alice's [Facebook] account. That wasn't the end of it, though! I had to reply to friends' replies and like their comments and pic[ture]s...I still keep it going...Sometimes, maintaining two separates accounts in different apps seems unbearable ... If you ask me, others have played a huge role in this because it takes two to tango. It's perpetual give and take. We perpetuate it together ... Alice's death made me realize how strong these social chains are.The burden Portia has experienced or the consequences of Cecil's obsession were largely unprecedented in scope and intensity before the proliferation of SNSs. Despite the many benefits of SNSs such as connectivity and convenience, the habits shaped and the additional social pressure felt due to (excessive) use of these networks or obligation felt to behave per network expectations may interfere with consumer well-being, whether the user is aware (Portia's case) or not (Cecil's case).AT BEST, TRUST THE INTENTION, NOT THE ABILITY BEHIND PRIVACY GUARANTEESAn a priori theme emerging across participants and germane to almost every social setting was the concern about privacy. While gossiping could be as old as humanity, today's near-infinite virtual space dedicated to social mingling is a game changer. Coupled with individualised access to mobile recording devices (i.e. audio, photo, video), technology-enabled social activity has increased privacy concerns by manifold and added to the complexity of legal and ethical dilemmas therein. Our data is clear that consumers have no expectation of privacy in anything they say or do in public places or during public events. Within private settings, too, consumers are learning, some the hard way, that they can only trust the intentions, but not the ability of their trusted friends, with trust defined as 'the willingness of a party to be vulnerable to the actions of another party based on the expectation that the other will perform a particular action important to trustor, irrespective of the ability to monitor or control that other party' (Mayer, Davis, & Schoorman, [56], p. 712). Joule (female, 31, beauty specialist) voluntarily assays the role of technology in altering the relationship between privacy and trust. She professesFriends and hackers are like gasoline and matches. Friends have your info and hackers can hack anyone. The more [the] technology advances, the more impossible [it] gets for anyone to guarantee privacy ... Consider Facebook. Their own Help Center makes it clear that even if you get Zuckerberg to permanently delete your entire account, that still doesn't remove it all. Things that friends have of you will stay because they aren't part of your account ... So you can get exposed because a friend was hacked. This has nothing to do with the friend; it's the way the technology works.Nonetheless, some places or events come with ground rules about recording and reproduction/representation. Such events give consumers the expectation or illusion of privacy, the breakage of which can have devastating repercussions for the individual. Bertrand (male, 48, food truck owner) remembers his experience with the 'Decorate Your Nipples' party hosted by a college friend. Once at the party, he realised he had gone a bit too far, especially compared to guests with decoration put on their shirts rather than bare skin. Even though no cameras were allowed except in the designated picture room during the designated picture time (an optional feature of the party), pictures were taken of Bertrand and, to his surprise, posted online alongside pictures of other people, some female, posed in similar fashions. Bertrand remembersI always trusted Nick [i.e., the host]; he never let me down. As much as I blame him, I know he had not[hing] to do with it. He did try to maintain privacy. It's just not safe out there anymore. These days things as tiny as pens, pins, and rings can take photos and videos of you in the worst moments possible. You must assume you are constantly under surveillance, no matter where you go and who you meet ... Those pictures gave me so much drama with my girl[friend]. She is right, though. I acted naïve.More than with Nick's trustworthiness, Bertrand's exposure has to do with public access to stealth recording devices. This point was also elaborated on in many of the essays, among which Scarlett's (female, 27, graduate student) stands out for its depth of insight: 'I think technology fills the gap between three things: evil intentions, the ability to cause harm, and anonymity'. The statement abstracts the role of technology in criminal, or otherwise unethical, consumer behaviour including, but not limited to, the many ways in which it enables acquaintances or strangers to breach one's privacy by posting one's voice, photo or video on social media such as Facebook and Flickr without one's informed consent. Hence, technology has the potential to undermine trust and engender distrust.While the foregoing exemplifies how technology is weakening the pacifying effect of trust on consumer privacy concerns, other cases illustrate the need for consumers to check, before they engage in social activity, whether a given social context can be trusted. Oftentimes, needs of the latter type are discovered only after the consumer experiences a gruelling embarrassment, such as when his or her image or video is posted online without his or her consent and/or modified and misrepresented for cross purposes, often towards commercial ends. Veronica (female, 20, biology lab technician) was reluctant at first to share 'the most embarrassing time in [her] life' when an ephemeral frolic turned into a pornographic nightmare:We were 17. Carolyn's dad gave her an expensive Nikon [digital camera] on her birthday. One afternoon when her parents were out, we were fooling around with the camera and taking naughty photos; we were gonna delete them right after ... She em

Smitheford Pharmaceuticals is facing other issues. The company had not kept up with modern manufacturing technology and was in the process of modernizing the injectable manufacturing facilities in Pueblo and Colorado Springs. There were several modernizing scenarios under analysis. Perform cost-benefit analysis calculations for 2 equipment scenarios. The data are provided below.Scheduling the various manufacturing operations has become more complicated. In the 1990s, the Pueblo plant expanded tremendously, based on forecasts for the growth of a promising osteoporosis medication, Osto54. The facility doubled in size, mostly with tanks and processing equipment. Osto54, however, caused heightened enzyme levels in the liver and led to seven deaths in the elderly because of drug interactions. Smitheford faced the loss of millions of dollars in liability suits and had excess intermediate manufacturing capacity in Pueblo.Two years ago, a new immune system treatment, Ultamyacin, was discovered by a Smitheford researcher. The drug could be manufactured at the Pueblo facility for the bulk manufacturing, but the final manufacturing steps could be made in Puerto Rico for final purification and then sent to Fort Collins for final manufacturing into sterile bottles for injection.Smitheford leadership has narrowed the decision making down to 2 options. The first is a higher technology option in one location, and the other is a lower technology option in several locations.High TechnologyCentralized LocationLow TechnologyDecentralizedAnnual Fixed Cost$620,000$110,000Variable Cost/Product16.3118.89Estimated Annual Production(in number of products) Year 1100,000100,000Year 5170,000170,000Year 10225,000225,000Use applicable business formulas to determine costs for both options.Consider the following questions:Which is the lead cost alternative in Years 1, 5, and 10?How much would the variable cost per unit have to be in Year 5 for the automated alternative to justify the additional annual fixed cost of the automated alternative over the manual alternative?Determine what other factors should be considered when deciding the following:When to centralize manufacturingWhen to opt for higher technology optionsPlease submit your assignment.Deliverable Length: 1000–1500 words. Please include references and intext citations. APA Format.