Introduction. Ethical conduct emerges as a topic of discussion especially when conflicts arise between people, which cannot be resolved by regulation because of new circumstances and situations, or when legal norms prove insufficient or are disregarded, therefore leading to ethically unacceptable practices. Ethical issues of this kind are now at the forefront of social treatment, mainly because modern management practices have become increasingly problematic, areas of activity are expanding, and businesses and other forms of activity are increasingly under ethical pressures from multiple stakeholders. According, ethical behaviour is becoming a global issue and a pressing topic both in general and professional discussions; scientific analysis is therefore extremely relevant. Aim and tasks. This article’s aim is to study the ethical principles and morally ethical problems that arise in various business environments, such as medical, technical, legal, and commercial, as well as in sectors, including state, non-governmental, and private markets. It also explores ethical bases change over time and depending on social flows. Undoubtedly, stakeholders are interested in such ethics-based governance, which means that ethical issues should be effectively put into practice. The study identifies the key paradigms of how different sectors operate and what issues arise. Results. The diachronic study finds that there was almost no interest in studying business ethics over the last century. The beginning of the 21st century saw strong increase in interest regarding these issues, as evidenced by the number of studies and analyses, the introduction of ethical business courses, and other ethical issues. Hyperconnected modern society is increasingly globally interdependent, wherefore interest in the appropriate culture and ethics of action is increasing with the aim of reducing risks and conflicts. Nongovernmental organizations increasingly involved in these processes, develop their business practices of responsibility and care for vulnerable groups and the environment. They have indirectly become a strong factor in leveraging for the ethical conduct of free market operators as well as state/public institutions. Conclusions. The existing studies identified seven key ethical paradigms that emerge in the operation of non-governmental, state, and market sectors, differing in key two dimensions: the first extends from emphasizing community (communitarianism) to exposing individuality, and the second from self-orientation (egocentricity) to a focus on the other (sociocentricity). On this basis, an array of various approaches to ethics can emerge, providing for useful tools for the professional analysis of business practices, as well as to assist stakeholders in introducing better business at all levels.

The aim of this research was to investigate how retailers advertise the green packaging of green products offered in online shops and which packaging attributes should be given more attention when advertising products in online shops. For this purpose, we first conducted a preliminary analysis of 31 green products sold in Slovenian online shops. We found that green packaging is generally poorly advertised in online shops, although it could be a competitive advantage for retailers. To prove that there are attributes of green packaging in relation to other attributes when purchasing green products, we conducted a questionnaire using the included MaxDiff method. The questionnaire was answered by 134 Slovenian respondents. Based on the results, we found that less than one‐third of the respondents trust the manufacturer's information about green products, two‐thirds of the respondents are willing to pay more for green products as they believe that the quality of these products is higher than of comparable non‐green products, and that our respondents have trust in the labels “Made in Slovenia” and “Locally grown,” although more than one‐third of the respondents buy green products regardless of the country of origin. The results of the MaxDiff analysis showed that three attributes associated with green packaging are more important when buying green products and should be highlighted in the description of a product also in online shops, that is, the material of the packaging, the possibility of its reuse, and ecolabels.

This article deals with differences in users’ perception towards COVID-19 vaccination and towards individual COVID-19 vaccine brands. Since COVID-19 is much more dangerous to the elderly population, this article deals with differences between those under the age of 60 and those over the age of 60. The results show that there are some differences between those two groups. For the group of people under the age of 60, the duration of protection is more important (39%), while the brand of vaccine is less important (25%). In contrast, the vaccine brand is of much greater importance (34%) and the duration of protection less important (25%) for the group of people over the age of 60. The study also showed differences in relation to individual brands of COVID-19 vaccines, with both groups preferring Pfizer to other brands, which is not surprising, since there was the least amount of negative media coverage about Pfizer, especially compared to AstraZeneca. The vaccine brand is surprisingly more important to those over the age of 60 than to those under the age of 60, while the effectiveness of the vaccine is equally important for both groups and both groups are equally sensitive to duration and side effects of the vaccine.

The textile industry, where clothing industry has an important share, is one of the most polluting industries in the world, wherefore clothing consumption has a significant impact on the environment. The consumption of clothing has been increasing quickly along with the growth of the middle classes in developing nations and the fast-fashion business model. At the same time, consumers are becoming more and more aware of the importance of sustainability, and they have been changing their consumer behaviour accordingly. In this study, we focused our attention on awareness of the environmental impact of clothing production and consumption from the point of view of consumer knowledge, linked to different generations, marital statuses, living environments, family income and type of purchasing store. The study reveals a high-level consumer-evaluated knowledge regarding the effects of clothing production and consumption, but also still the purchasing preference in fast fashion stores.