The student team of Prof. Semra Aşcıgil, the faculty member of the Department of Business Administration at METU, won first and first runner up prizes in graduate division of the 23rd International Business Ethics Case Competition (IBECC), which was initially planned to be held in Boston between April 22-24, 2020 but eventually held as a virtual competition due to the epidemic.
The teams selected by Prof. Aşcıgil out of the term projects of “Business Ethics” course and improved during “Corporate Governance and Social Responsibility” course are eligible for participating in the competition every year. The competition is organized in the categories of Whole Presentation (financial, legal and ethical dimensions), Ethics Only (ethical dimension), “90 seconds Elevator Talk” and Essay Award, under the leadership of Prof. Thomas White, who acted as the Director of Center for Ethics and Business at Loyola Marymount University for years. 28-30 teams participate every year most of which are from U.S.A. Since 2019 IBECC became an independent organization after Prof. Thomas White’s retirement from LMU. Throughout its history, more than 1500 students, comprising 375 teams, representing 115 schools from 12 different countries have participated. Teams have come from: Australia, Canada, France, Hong Kong, Hungary, Kuwait, Spain, Turkey, the United Kingdom, the United States and Vietnam.
Prof. Aşcıgil and her students first participated in the competition as the first international team except Canada in 2006. Upon their good performance, they participated with full expense covered by the competition organization for three years, and once to Ethics and Compliance Officer Association’s (ECOA) annual conference in Seattle. ECOA co-organized the competition together with Loyola University and competition was realized prior to the ECOA annual conference for few years. METU teams took part in the competition via remote presentations in the following years as the number of participants from Europe (i.e. University of Oxford, Cambridge, INSEAD) increased. This year, with the decision to have all presentations remotely due to the COVID-19 epidemic, they were prepared by remote rehearsals with ZOOM meetings, which again entitled METU team to awards.
IBECC’s primary partners are institutions and University Centers of Business Ethics such as St. Thomas University, Bentley University, University of Massachusetts Lowell, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Abigail Adams Institute, and ECI Ethics and Compliance Initiative. Students are invited to demonstrate variety of skills such as teamwork, analysis of ethical issues, considering multiple criteria (financial, legal and ethical) in decision making and influencing board decisions under time constraints. Experienced managers, executives, lawyers, compliance officers and academicians with expertise in business ethics take place in the jury. The competition enhance students’ awareness on the ethical issues faced in the business world. Prof. Aşcıgil notes “sometimes teams identify and discuss ethical issues that are not yet in our business community’s agenda. Witnessing their foresight and performance, as well as the appreciation gained from jury members is the greatest award for me.”
The overall championship achieved in 2009 by METU with four awards, including the grand award, is the highest performance METU ever achieved. This was a championship record that is not yet attained. Since 2006, two teams involved visiting Erasmus students from Germany and Sweden, who took the business ethics course. The competition is an excellent experience for students and creates a very positive impression and a significant interest during the job interviews students have after graduation.
Upon taking permission from Prof. Thomas White, Prof. Aşcıgil organized ethics competition using the same format in Turkey in 2006 together with the Public Officers Ethics Board’s cooperation. METU was represented by Başak Aydın, Bahar Özdiler and Sena Herkiloğlu with a presentation on “Sperm Banks”. Nine Turkish universities attended the competition in the first year, but the event couldn’t continue in the following year due to lack of adequate number of applications.
Listed below are the presentation topics and awards of METU teams participating in IBECC since 2006:
2006 Business Ethics Forthnight, Loyola Marymount University, Creating a More Realistic Woman Image in Advertisements,(Gamze Şen, Binnur Eroğlu, İlgi Çalık), Special International Participant Award, (online presentation)
2007 Business Ethics Forthnight, Loyola Marymount University, Music Piracy, 5th degree, (Gamze Şen, Yeşim Usluca, Alexander Boone, Marvin Mills), METU-Loyola Marymount University Joint Team, LA, U.S.
2008 IBECC Loyola Marymount University Business Ethics Competition, Product Placement in Advertisements, 7th degree, Işıl Deniz Tunç, Doğan Güneş Susuz, Katharina Lohse, LA, U.S.
2009 Loyola Marymount University Business Ethics Competition, Duchess and Daughters: Their Secret Mission, overall championship, MBA division championship, best ethical analysis award, essay award- championship record with total 4 awards (Dilek Tüten, Pınar Üstün, Susan Kalinagil) LA, U.S.
EMMONS AWARD ($1000) Overall Championship
MEGGITT ETHICS AWARD ($500) awarded to the team in the preliminary round with the highest score for the ethics sections on the scoring sheet (shared by METU and LA SALLE University)
MBA Division champhionship : METU
CAROL GILLIGAN ETHICS ESSAY AWARD ($500) This award is funded by the Honorable Judge Ruth Kraft of the New York bench. The award is renamed every year in recognition of a different female philosopher. The best essay of 750 to 1,000 words about the ethical dimensions of the case. (METU)
2011 ECOA (Ethics and Compliance Officers Association) and Loyola Marymount University Business Ethics Competition-Homeworkers in Garment Industry, IBECC Carroll & Stanley Botts “best paper award” in Servant Leadership, 1st runner up in ethical analysis consolidation round (Sinem Başaran, Esma Yıldız) ECOA Annual Conference, Seattle, U.S.
2013 ECOA (Ethics and Compliance Officers Association) and Loyola Marymount University Business Ethics Competition-IBECC Quadruple Limb Transplantation, Recognition award (Chandaro Chimm, Meltem Özcanlı) Online.
2016 ECOA and Loyola Marymount University Business Ethics Competition-IBECC Sandblasting in Jean Industry, 1stRunner up in Elevator Talk Category, (Cihan Şimşek, Fırat Özata, Edvina Bihorac) Online.
2018 Loyola Marymount University Business Ethics Competition-IBECC Bitcoin Mania, 1st Runner up in Elevator Talk Category (Aykut Alagöz, Rahmi Ak, Ezgi Alaca) Online.
2020 IBECC International Business Ethics Case Competition, Graduate, Whole Presentation 1st runner up, Ethics Only 1st , Elevator Talk Category 1strunner up, Refugee Incubators: Making Employability and Inclusion Possible (Çağan Şatana, Yağmur Erşan) Online.
* The photograph used as the image belongs to the team that participated in the competition in 2009.
