Summary of Ethical standards for online advice giving: an overview of the issues for business and financial advisers

Purpose: The purpose entailed by this research study is to investigate and identify ethical issues, which are relevant to the online advice giving especially for businesses as well as financial advisors. The primary focus is to find ethical issues and solution to deal with them. 

Design/Methodology: The method used for data collection is content analysis through detailed literature review, where different cases has been reviewed to see that which ethical issues are present in the different online advice giving business. This content analysis helped to develop understanding of the topic and find a way out recommending solutions.

Findings: the research study was able to find out various ethical issues, which are there especially related to delivery of service. The identified ethical issues included cultural and language issues, contractual considerations, nature of relationship, quality of services and information, regulation and enforcement, and privacy and security. 

Research Limitations: In this research, the content analysis method was used to find out ethical issues regarding online advice giving environment around businesses, but there was no qualitative or quantitative method used to get data from the market experts and online advice giving experts to see what they think about these issues. The content analysis just provides one aspect of the research, which is already studied.

Social and Practical Implications: The research study is good one for those, who are associated with online advice giving business and consultancy. Moreover, it is good one for authorities and online regulators as well.

Originality/Value: With the increasing use of internet and technology, the online professional advisers business is also gaining success, but not without some ethical issues as professional advisors don’t know about any set code of ethics to follow. This research has reviewed various cases and data already available to see what issues are there, and what recommendations could be suitable to deal with these issues. 

Critique (Positives): The research is one of its kinds to touch a topic, which is not touched by many scholars. It is a good one, because online advice giving business is gaining more ground without any code of ethics to regulate this professional advising environment. It has allowed researchers, professional advisers and regulators to see ethical issues relevant to the topic, and then having some viable recommendations to deal with these issues by developing a comprehensive code of ethics.

Critique (Negatives): The research is limited to just reviewing the available cases and data regarding the online advice giving environment for professional advisors, but it lacks a new research method by interviewing the professional advisors, online experts as well as regulators to see what they think about code of ethics, and what is recommended by them. It would have been great if this research would have included any qualitative or quantitative research study to get measurable insights from the industry’s experts (Yamamura & Grupe, 2005)

References of Ethical standards for online advice giving: an overview of the issues for business and financial advisers

Yamamura, J. H., & Grupe, F. H. (2005). Ethical standards for online advice giving: an overview of the issues for business and financial advisers. Journal of Information, Communication and Ethics in Society , 3 (2), 69-77