Business ethics is the accepted set of moral values and corporate standards of conduct in a business organization. The specifics of what this actually means can vary from one organization to another.(Paul Merchant http://business.lovetoknow.com/wiki/A_Definition_for_Business_Ethics).
The social responsibility of business is to increase profit and give good welfare to the people of the business. Taking an example of CVS in Washington who they stopped selling cigarettes and other tobacco. For them business ethics were to take care of people’s health.Chronic problems like high cholesterol, high blood pressure and heart disease, all of which are linked to smoking. As Larry J. Merlo, chief executive of CVS said “They came to the decision that cigarettes and providing health care just don’t go together in the same setting.”
CVS even doesn’t sell electric cigarettes, highly popular but debated devices that deliver nicotine without tobacco and emit a rapidly vanishing vapor instead of smoke. Companies such as CVS as an idol to stop selling cigarettes and other tobacco products. Antismoking groups and health care professionals will probably use CVS’s decision to try to pressure others to consider doing so. It was an unpredictable step for CVS but that was their strategy was to promote anti smoking and business ethics. In my opinion it was a very smart move for CVS to take such a huge step knowing that it would affect their profits, but it didn’t care about profits rather thought about people health. http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/06/business/cvs-plans-to-end-sales-of-tobacco-products-by-october.html?module=ArrowsNav&contentCollection=Business%20Day&action=keypress®ion=FixedLeft&pgtype=article
