初探企业市场营销过程中的道德因素

人们在从事职业活动中所应遵循的道德规范和行为准则即是职业道德,企业经营管理过程中的所作所为就是企业的营销行为。目前,我国企业营销行为中存在许多不道德现象,给企业带来了负面影响,为了企业的健康发展,我们必须采取一系列对策。本文主要简述了营销道德的涵义及不道德因素的表现,以及应采取的对策及措施。     

我国网络营销中的道德问题及其对策

网络营销作为一种新的营销方式,在发展过程中面临着诸如侵犯隐私权、信息欺诈、数字化产权、信息污染、信息安全等一系列营销道德问题.要从多方面入手,努力加强网络营销道德建设,使符合法律和道德要求的网络营销行为得到良好的回报,使违法的、不道德的营销行为受到限制、谴责和惩罚,从而形成良好的网络营销道德.在外部环境建设方面,要加快电子商务立法,修改《广告法》,完善《合同法》,加强舆论监督和行业协会管理,完善企业信用社会评价体系,监督和披露营销不道德行为;在企业内部环境建设方面,要树立社会营销观念,提高自身素质,坚守网络营销道德,促进网络营销道德和企业文化结合,建立网络营销道德规章制度等.     

论中国市场营销的伦理缺失

目前我国的市场中存在着大量的不道德营销行为,这势必对我国市场经济和企业的可持续发展带来不利影响。导致企业不道德营销行为的原因是多方面的,但根源在于其追求利润的天性。因此,可以此为切入点,寻求企业营销道德体系构建的方案。在国家、社会、企业共同参与下,以企业自律为核心,构建外部机制和内部机制共同作用的企业营销道德体系。     

中国企业营销道德失范分析

随着市场经济的发展,企业的市场营销活动已经渗透到社会经济生活的各个领域,对公众和社会的影响日益加深,同时,营销领域出现了大量道德失范行为。这些行为,不仅损害了广大消费者的利益和社会长远利益,而且严重影响了企业的生存和发展,导致企业信用退化,破坏了市场经济公平竞争秩序。文章从我国企业营销中存在的不道德的行为入手,通过从一般视角和博弈视角两个方面对企业道德失范原因进行详尽的分析。     

食品行业营销道德问题初探

食品行业的营销行为关系到人们的身心健康和生命安全。近年来,食品行业不道德营销行为日益频发。因此,食品行业营销道德问题必须引起足够的重视。本文针对食品行业中的不道德营销行为,分析了食品行业营销道德问题成因,指出要加强食品行业营销道德建设,需要食品企业、政府、行业协会、新闻媒体等多方的共同努力。     

企业网络营销道德问题研究

21世纪网络营销必将成为企业成功营销的必备手段之一,而网络营销中出现的诸多道德问题却阻碍着网络经济的发展。因此,企业必须认识到不道德的营销行为给企业带来的利益是短暂的,要想获得长期竞争优势,必须要加强道德建设,并从外部约束机制和内部自律两个方面来解决网络营销道德问题。     

关于灰色营销道德评价的一个初步调查

本文在调查的基础上分析了人们对灰色营销的道德评价问题。调查结果显示,人们对于推销中不同的灰色营销手段有不同的道德评价,且对某些有道德问题的营销行为并不反感;在道德评价上,人们对于推销人员的灰色营销行为的反感程度明显低于采购人员的灰色营销行为。文章认为,市场营销在中国的这种道德环境反映了中国传统文化对人们意识的深远影响,企业在制定市场营销道德规范时,要充分考虑这种实际环境,不提出过高的道德要求,要具体界定道德与不道德的行为,在理念上明辨是非,以提高员工的道德素质;从社会角度看,整治灰色营销行为,建立公平竞争环境,关键在于建立科学的采购制度,限制采购代理人的灰色营销行为。     

汽车行业营销道德问题的分析与对策

随着中国汽车工业的不断发展,中国汽车产销量居世界第一,已成为国民经济的重要支柱产业。中国的汽车产业目前有大量的不道德营销行为,这将不可避免地影响到中国汽车产业的可持续发展。本文从营销的角度来分析汽车行业市场道德的内涵,指出汽车行业的不道德行为,并从内部和外部分析营销道德失范的原因并提出相应的对策。     

论营销道德的复杂性及其衡量标准

影响企业营销道德的因素多种多样,有市场因素也有非市场因素,同时企业营销不道德的表现是形式也多种多样,呈现出复杂性。营销行为道德与否的衡量有功利主义和义务论两种基本的观点,对企业实际营销行为的判断必须兼顾道义论和义务论。     

灰色营销的道德评价:营销人员异同

通过对调查数据的分析和比较,研究了营销人员对于灰色营销的道德评价。营销工作由其性质决定,营销人员对于灰色营销行为的不道德评价低于企业的其他人员,而对灰色营销行为的同情心和灰色营销行为倾向高于企业的其他人员。     

社会责任:企业永续经营的基石

本文认为,企业的社会责任是企业对社会符合道德的行为,主要包括对消费者的责任,对社会的利益和发展的责任,对自然环境及社会生态平衡的责任,对企业员工的责任。企业要长远发展,必须要有核心价值观,必须讲道德,必须承担社会责任。承担社会责任不仅有利于社会大众,更有利于企业自身,它可以提升企业的社会形象和声誉,提高企业经营效益,建立员工和顾客持续稳固的忠诚,从而使企业获得长期繁荣和持续发展。     

Inverting the Pyramid of Values? Trends in Less-Developed Countries

The authors discuss the consistency of transnational companies in their home, as well as in less developed host countries, concerning ethics, values and social responsibility. Ethical behavior offers good reputation, credibility and tradition to the corporation. It leads to corporate social, environmental and economic responsibilities, cooperating to the desired sustainability. This paper analyzes the inversion of values that corporate governance systems have suffered. The meaning and implication of the corporate social responsibility is investigated and discussed. A “pyramid of values” is built upon individual ethical values at the basis. Over them, the organizational ethical values should indicate the limits of operations, so that the corporate social responsibility can be sustained, in the top. The authors comment that ethical values no longer lead the organization. Its communication with the stakeholders, specifically through reports, has been gradually replacing the code of ethics and corporate values. These reports have taken the basis of the pyramid leading the organizations to socially irresponsible and unethical behavior. They do not guarantee transparency or communicate the needs of the society. It appears that transnational companies do not behave the same way in their home country as they do in host countries, particularly in less developed regions like Latin America and Africa. Lack of communication and transparency may induce employees to unethical decisions and transform the reporting system into a marketing instrument. In order to guarantee compliance with the codes, transparency and ethical responsibility, communication within the organization is essential.     

Ethical and Unethical Leadership: A Cross-Cultural and Cross-Sectoral Analysis

Current literature on ethical leadership and unethical leadership reflects a Western-based private sector perspective, pointing toward a compliance-oriented understanding of ethical and unethical leadership. As today’s executives increasingly have to ethically lead across different cultures and sectors, it becomes vitally important to develop a more holistic picture how ethical and unethical leadership is perceived in the Western and Eastern cultural cluster and the private and the public/social sector. Addressing this issue, the present study aims to identify cross-cultural and cross-sectoral commonalities and differences in international executives’ perceptions of ethical and unethical leadership. Findings from in-depth interviews (N = 36) with executives from Western and Eastern cultures working in the private or the public/social sector reveal collectively held perceptions of ethical leadership (including leader honesty, integrity, concern for responsibility/sustainability, and people orientation) and of unethical leadership (referring to leader dishonesty, corruption, egocentrism, and manipulation). Results indicate limited support for a compliance-oriented perspective on ethical and unethical leadership but yield a much greater trend toward a value-oriented perspective. Concrete practice examples illustrate these different perspectives. Cultural and sectoral particularities of executive perceptions of ethical and unethical leadership are discussed.     

Economic rationality and ethical behaviour: ethical business between venality and sacrifice

This paper argues that economic rationality and ethical behavior cannot be reduced one to the other, thus casting doubt on the validity of assertions such as 'profit is ethical' or 'ethics pays'. In order to express ethical dilemmas in a way which opposes economic interest with ethical concerns, we propose a model of rational behavior that combines these two irreducible dimensions in an open but not arbitrary manner. Behaviors that are neither ethical nor profitable are considered irrational (non-arbitrariness). However, behaviors that are profitable but unethical, and behaviors that are ethical but not profitable, are all treated as rational (openness). Combining ethical concerns with economic interest, ethical business is in turn seen as an optimal form of rationality between venality and sacrifice. Because everyone prefers to communicate that they act ethically, ethical business remains ambiguous until some economic interest is actually sacrificed. We argue, however, that ethical business has an interest in demonstrating its consistency between communication and behavior by a transparent attitude. On the other hand, venal behaviors must remain confidential to hide the corresponding lack of consistency. This discursive approach based on transparency and confidentiality helps to further distinguish between ethical and unethical business behaviors.     

Shareholder preferences concerning corporate ethical performance

This study surveyed investors to determine the extent to which they preferred ethical behavior to profits and their interest in having information about corporate ethical behavior reported in the corporate annual report. First, investors were asked to determine what penalties should be assessed against employees who engage in profitable, but unethical, behavior. Second, investors were asked about their interest in using the annual report to disclose the ethical performance of the corporation and company officials. Finally, investors were asked if they felt that ethics reports should be audited.The survey results indicate that many shareholders (42%) do not expect a high level of ethical behavior from corporate employees or officers. There is a significant amount of interest in disclosure of ethical issues (72%) and unwillingness to trust management to provide unbiased reports of ethical behavior. If such reports are included with the financial statements, 32 percent of the investors surveyed would prefer to have them audited to provide independent verification.Marc J. Epstein is currently a Visiting Professor at the Graduate School of Business Administration at Harvard University Ruth Ann McEwen, Associate Professor, and Roxanne M. Spindle, Assistant Professor, are members of the Accounting Department at Virginia Commonwealth University.     

Ethical Issues in Australian Marketing Research Services

Abstract

The study focuses on Australian marketing research professionals' perceptions toward ethics in the marketing research profession and research services. These perceptions are specifically related to the ethical environment, ethical guidance, and leadership responsibility, factors leading to unethical marketing research practices and ethical climate characteristics. Overall findings underscore the importance of the role of management in setting the ethical tone and developing an appropriate frame of reference for ethical conduct and guidance in Australian marketing research.     

Corporate response to an ethical incident: the case of an energy company in New Zealand

The ethical behaviour and social responsibility of private companies, and in particular large corporations, is an important area of enquiry in contemporary social, economic and political thinking. In the past, a company's behaviour would be considered responsible as long as it stayed within the law of the society in which it operated or existed. Although this may be necessary, it is no longer sufficient. In this paper, we examine an energy company's response to an ethical incident in New Zealand which prompted different responses across the country about the role of business in society. Thus, we argue that when a corporation is accused of unethical behaviour, executives of the company are usually compelled to offer responses to defend their actions and corporate image. Further, we use communicative response model, social issue life cycle theory, and organisational learning, to analyse the incident and how the company responded. Using social issues life cycle theory and organisational learning theory, we demonstrate that sustained pressure can potentially trigger a change of strategy that may serve to improve the ethical posture of a corporation and thereby improve the corporate image long term. We conclude that, although corporations may understand the significance of social issues to the performance and success of their business, this same understanding does not always translate into meaningful social action.     

Gender Differences in Double Standards

The purpose of the present study is to investigate gender differences in the use of double standards in ethical judgements of questionable conduct instigated by business or consumers. We investigate if consumers are more critical towards unethical corporate versus consumer actions and if these double standards depend on the gender of the respondent. In the first study, we compared evaluations of four specific unethical actions [cfr. DePaulo, 1987, in: J. Saegert (ed.) Proceedings of the Division of Consumer Psychology (American Psychological Association, Washington DC)] instigated by either the consumer or the corporation. In a second study, we investigated the perception of some general consumer and corporate (un)ethical actions in addition to DePaulo’s unethical scenarios. Both researches show that females are less likely to use double standards when it comes to their own (un)ethical behaviour compared to corporate (un)ethical actions. Furthermore, gender differences in the use of double standards depend on the type of unethical behaviour. Limitations and suggestions for further research are discussed.     

The Normative Foundations of Unethical Supervision in Organizations

As research in the areas of unethical and ethical leadership grows, we note the need for more consideration of the normative assumptions in the development of constructs. Here, we focus on a subset of this literature, the “dark side” of supervisory behavior. We assert that, in the absence of a normative grounding, scholars have implicitly adopted different intuitive ethical criteria, which has contributed to confusion regarding unethical and ethical supervisory behaviors as well as the proliferation of overlapping terms and fragmentation of research. Accordingly, we offer a definition of unethical supervision grounded in the normative theories and develop a framework of unethical supervision by analyzing the constructs associated with unethical supervision from a normative perspective. Our analysis suggests a heavy emphasis on violations of the right to dignity. We also note that utilitarianism and certain forms of rights as well as justice have been largely overlooked in the unethical supervision literature. We conclude by considering the implications of our conceptualization for theory on the antecedents and consequences of unethical supervision and by explaining how our approach extends to the larger literature on unethical and ethical leadership.     

‘Consumers’ Evaluation of Unethical Marketing Behaviors: The Role of Customer Commitment’

While there is a significant amount of research investigating managerial ethical judgments, a limited amount examines consumer judgments of unethical corporate behavior and its impact on the marketplace. This study examines how consumers’ commitment to a company impacts not only their ethical judgment of corporate behavior but also the outcomes of that judgment. The authors test hypotheses with data from 334 consumers and find that consumers’ level of commitment attenuates the level of perceived fairness. More specifically, highly committed consumers may forgive companies for behaviors when perceived harm is low, but become progressively dissatisfied as the level of perceived harm increases. Results of the study point to the importance of considering ethical behavior from a consumer perspective. If corporate actions are perceived as unethical, the company stands to lose favor with their most committed customers. Considering that more time, effort and investment is required to gain a new customer as to retain an old, this study shows that engaging in behavior perceived as unethical by consumers risks alienating the most committed customers.