The influence of personal and organizational values on marketing professionals' ethical behavior

The authors examine empirically the influence of personal and organizational values on marketing professionals' ethical behavior. The results indicate that personal and organizational values underlie differences in marketing professionals' ethical behavior, albeit small terms of the proportion of explained variance. The results also suggest the relationship between organizational values and ethical behavior to be significant. However, the same is not the case for the relationship between personal values and ethical behavior.Ishmael P. Akaah is Professor of Marketing at Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan, Professor Akaah's articles have appeared in many journals includingJournal of Marketing Research, International Marketing Review, Journal of Business Logistics, among others.Daulatram B. Lund is Associate professor of Marketing at University of Nevada, Reno. Professor Lund's articles have appeared inJournal of Retailing, Journal of Business Research, Industrial Marketing Management, among others.     

The incidence of unethical practices in marketing research: An empricial investigation

The authros examine from the perspective of marketing professionals the incidence of unethical research practices and the influence of organizational factors as determinants of the incidence of unethical research practices. The results indicate some degree of indicence of unethical research practices, particularly of those involving respondents. In addition, the results suggest four organizational variables— extent of ethical problems within the organization, top management actions on ethics, organizational role, and industry category—as determinants of the incidence of unethical research partices.     

Predictive performance of self-explicated,traditional conjoint,and hybrid conjoint models under alternative data collection modes

Although data collection in conjoint analysis has traditionally involved the use of in-person interviews, recent years have seen a trend toward the use of alternative data collection modes, including mail questionnaires and telephone interviews. Since these alternative modes differ in environment, the author examines the predictive performance of conjoint models under three data collection modes, i.e., in-person interviews, mail questionnaire, and telephone interviews. The results indicate the conjoint models examined to be comparable in predictive, performance across the three data collection modes.     

Cluster analysis versus Q-type factor analysis as a disaggregation method in hybrid conjoint modeling: An empirical investigation

The author compares the predictive performance of cluster analysis and Q-type factor analysis as disaggregation methods in hybrid conjoint modeling. The results indicate that cluster- and Q-type-factor-based models perform about equally well in predictive validity terms. The paper, however, suggests the need for more empirical research.     

Fiscal policy,government size and EMU business cycle synchronization

We provide new evidence on the effects of fiscal policy and government size on pairwise business cycle synchronization in EMU. A novel time-varying framework is employed to estimate business cycle synchronization and subsequently a panel approach is used to establish the role of fiscal variables in determining the pairwise synchronization observations across time. The findings suggest similarities in the size of the public sector, yet divergence in fiscal policy stance, matter for the determination of business cycle synchronization. Hence, increased fiscal federalism in EMU will contribute to increased business cycle synchronization. Our results remain robust to different specifications and sub-periods.     

Sustainable environmental practices and financial performance: Evidence from listed small and medium‐sized enterprise in the United Kingdom

In this article, we investigate the financial implication of sustainable environmental practices on UK small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs)–traded firms. Existing literature indicates that there is a direct relationship between sustainable environmental practices and financial performance. However, studies looking at this relationship have focused mainly on large firms with little attention paid to SMEs. Further, those looking at environmental and financial performance relationships have often used a single measure of performance in their studies. This study bridges these research gaps by focusing on listed SMEs in the United Kingdom using multiple measures of sustainable environmental policy indices on a panel of 201 SMEs on the Alternative Investment Market from 2011 to 2016. Evidence from our panel data analysis suggests significant and a nonlinear (concave) relationship between sustainable environmental practices and firms' financial performance. Specifically, energy efficiency practices, greenhouse gases, material, and resource efficiency revealed an inverted U‐shaped relationship with financial performance. The results will offer guidance to management in terms of allocating resources to sustainable environmental practices investment.     

Determinants of hotels’ environmental performance: Evidence from the hotel industry in Accra,Ghana

This study explores the factors that account for the environmental performance of hotels in the special context of a developing country, Ghana. It also examined the socio-demographic characteristics of managers and organizational characteristics that determine the environmental performance of Ghanaian hotels. A stratified random sampling method was employed to survey 200 hotel managers from different categories of hotels in Accra. Ninety-four per cent were independent, and Ghanaian-owned. Sixty-seven per cent had fewer than 20 rooms; only 45 had more than 100 rooms. Only 11.6% were affiliated to foreign multinational companies in any way. Six key factors that accounted for the environmental performance were extracted from a factor analysis. They included, in order of most practised, the environmental education and training for staff, measures to support for the host community, conservation project support, compliance with environmental regulations, waste management, and voluntary programmes. A hierarchical multiple regression analysis indicated that larger size and better class of hotels, as well as those with membership of the national hotel trade association, had better environmental performance as did hotels with better paid managers. Affiliation to foreign multinational chains did not predict better performance. A series of suggestions are made to improve the environmental performance of Ghana's hotels.     

Organizational culture and ethical research behavior

The author examines, in the context of Wallach’s (1983) conceptualization, the influence of bureaucratic, supportive, and innovative cultural dimensions on marketing research professionals’ reported ethical research behavior. The results indicate that marketing research professionals in organizations of bureaucratic-innovative-supportive culture reflect the highest reported research ethics behavior, followed by those in organizations of innovative-supportive and bureaucratic-only cultures, respectively. He received his M.B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. degrees from The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. Professor Akaah’s articles have appeared in theJournal of Marketing Research, Journal of Advertising Research, Journal of Macromarketing, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Journal of Business Ethics, Journal of Health Care Marketing, Journal of Business Research, International Marketing Review, Journal of Global Marketing, Journal of Business Logistics, Journal of Direct Marketing, Journal of International Consumer Marketing, Proceedings of the American Marketing Association, and elsewhere. His current research interests include consumer decision processes, marketing ethics, and international marketing strategy.     

Commitment to Environmental Management in Hotels in Accra

The sporadic development of hotel facilities in a developing West African city like Accra in Ghana, coupled with their consumption of natural resources and generation of waste has implications for environmental sustainability. This article therefore seeks to ascertain hotel managers’ attitude towards environmental management and to examine their commitment to environmental management through the implementation of environmental policies and programs. The study took the form of a survey of managers of 200 hotels, ranging from budget to four-star rated, employing the stratified random sampling procedure. Though a greater number of hotel managers had a positive attitude towards environmental management, it was the upscale and larger hotels that were more committed to environmental management especially in terms of having; a designated officer responsible for environmental management, written environmental policy statement, environmental action plan, a history of implementing environmental programs and ecolabelling or environment related certification. The article proposes interhotel collaboration in environmental management so that smaller hotels could profit from the experiences and resources of larger hotels.     

Different Shades of Green: Environmental Management in Hotels in Accra

This paper assesses the environmental management practices of different categories of hotels in Accra, Ghana. Managers of 200 hotels were surveyed, employing the stratified random sampling method. Results of the study indicate significant differences in the extent of environmental management of the hotels suggesting that the better the quality of a hotel, the better the environmental management performance. Suggestions are made towards improvement in waste management and voluntary environmental programmes in small and medium hotels that did not perform well in those areas of environmental management Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.