Description and Analysis of the Hawthorne Study 

Aaron’s Furniture facilitated and perhaps directed its franchisees to install spyware on computers rented to customers. Aaron’s must have thought there would be sufficient value in knowing details about its customers, probably under the guise of “data analytics,” to outweigh the risk that this would be discovered. If discovered, consumers would likely be very upset, and sue the company, as the many links show. Plus this brought about government inquiries and settlements. Examine the decision by Aaron’s, what were the possible upside benefits, what were the downside costs, and what did this in fact cost Aaron considering the settlement costs and loss of business. The links make for a good start on this study. You will probably want to review Aaron’s annual reports and management statements for the years 20110 through 2014 to see how Aaron’s described this, if at all. Below are links to help you write the paper. Length of paper should be 5-7 double spaced.