The Impact of Ethics Code Familiarity on Manager Behavior

Codes of ethics exist in many, if not the majority, of all large U.S. companies today. But how the impact of these written codes affect managerial attitudes and behavior is still not clearly documented or explained. This study takes a step in that direction by proposing that attention should shift from the codes themselves as the sources of ethical behavior to the persons whose behavior is the focus of these codes. In particular, this study investigates the role of code familiarity as a factor impacting the influence of an ethics code on manager behavior. Data collected from 286 executives from companies in the direct selling industry are used to test hypotheses (1) that the perceived usefulness of ethics codes is positively related to the degree of familiarity with the code, and (2) that ethical climate as assessed by managers is positively related to the code's perceived usefulness. Both hypotheses are supported, and their implications and further research directions are discussed.     

品牌熟悉度和赞助方式对消费者响应的影响

文章通过研究了赞助事件中品牌熟悉度与赞助方式对消费者品牌态度与购买意愿的影响,得出以下结论：首先,与不赞助相比,品牌单独赞助时,消费者对低熟悉度赞助品牌的态度和购买意愿会显著提高,但对高熟悉度赞助品牌的态度和购买意愿则没有显著变化。其次,与单独赞助相比,当两个品牌共同赞助某一事件时,消费者对低熟悉度品牌的态度和购买意愿会显著降低;而对高熟悉度品牌的态度和购买意愿则没有显著影响。最后,文章为企业营销人员制定赞助策略提出一些有益的营销启示。     

An Exploratory Comparison of Ethical Perceptions of Mexican and U.S. Marketers

This is a study of the effects of a number of background variables on ethical perceptions of Mexican and U.S. marketers. This research investigates how a marketer’s personal religiousness, relativism, and the ethical values influence in perceptions of the degree of ethical problems in hypothetical marketing scenarios. It also examines differences between Mexican and U.S. marketers on these variables. The results show significant differences in perception between the countries, and we discuss the implications of these differences for cross-cultural business activities. The authors wish to thank Rebecca McLaughlin for her help with data collection in Mexico     

A Cross-Cultural Investigation of the Ethical Values of Consumers: The Potential Effect of War and Civil Disruption

Past research has examined the ethical judgments of consumers in the U.S., but few studies have investigated such attitudes in foreign-market settings. The current study compares ethical attitudes of consumers in two countries (Ireland and Lebanon) which share a cultural similarity of ongoing war and terrorism. The findings reveal that both cultures exhibit low sensitivity to ethical issues. Furthermore, the findings show that the Irish consumers are less sensitive to consumer ethical practices, less idealistic, more relativistic, and more Machiavellian than Lebanese consumers. The authors recommend that other researchers need to further investigate this perplexing issue because ethics is a research topic which often discourages survey respondents to be candid.     

A note on the role of cause type in cause-related marketing

This note examines an unexplored area of cause-related marketing: the influence of the cause category on consumer perceptions. The experiment shows that the four cause categories which represent the domain of charitable causes can have a differential effect on attitudes and purchase intention. The health cause category and human services cause category have a greater effect on attitude toward the cause than the animal or environmental cause categories when brand familiarity and cause importance were high. Only the human services category has a greater effect on attitude toward the alliance when brand familiarity and cause importance were high as well as when both were low. For attitude toward the brand and purchase intentions, there were no differences among the cause categories.     

Managerial and Public Attitudes Toward Ethics in Marketing Research

This research updates and significantly extends Akaah and Riordon’s (J Market Res 26:112–120, 1989) evaluation of ethical perceptions of marketing research misconduct among marketing research professionals. In addition to examining changes in perceptions toward key marketing research practices over time, we assess professionals’ judgments on the ethicality, importance, and occurrence of a variety of new marketing research ethics situations in both online and offline contexts. In a second study, we assess ethical judgments of the public at large using a representative sample of US consumers—key stakeholders ignored in prior research on unethical marketing research practices. Generally speaking, disapproval of unethical research conduct has grown across the board in the last 20?years for both managers and marketing researchers. The same misconduct elicits a stronger disapproval in the online environment compared to the offline environment. Compared to marketing researchers, managers tend to think that unethical research conduct occurs more frequently. Those who conduct marketing research or use its findings (i.e., marketing researchers and managers) are less tolerant of unethical research conduct than the general public.     

‘The Impact of Corporate Ethical Values and Enforcement of Ethical Codes on the Perceived Importance of Ethics in Business: A Comparison of U.S. and Spanish Managers’

This two country study examines the effect of corporate ethical values and enforcement of a code of ethics on perceptions of the role of ethics in the overall success of the firm. Additionally, the impact of organizational commitment and of individual variables such as ethical idealism and relativism was examined. The rationale for examining the perceived importance of the role of ethics in this manner is to determine the extent to which the organization itself can influence employee perceptions regarding ethics and social responsibility. Results indicate that all of the variables tested, except relativism, impacted upon one’s perceptions of the importance of ethics and social responsibility. Perceptions of the importance of ethics and social responsibility also varied depending upon country of residence with the U.S. sample having somewhat higher perceptions concerning the importance of ethics and social responsibility than their counterparts in Spain. Furthermore, when comparing the two samples, the U.S. sample had significantly higher corporate ethical values, greater enforcement of ethical codes, less organizational commitment and both lower idealism and relativism.     

A Cross-Cultural Study of the Ethical Orientations of Senior-Level Business Students

This study is a cross cultural investigation into the ethical orientations of business students in Canada, Mexico, and the United States. Data were collected using a variation of an instrument developed by Dubinsky and Levi (1985) which measures the ethical orientation of respondents in a presumed retail environment. The instrument was subjected to test of reliability and validity and found to be very robust. No significant differences were found in the ethical disposition of Canadian and U.S. business students. However, a significant difference was found between the Canadian and U.S. students and those of Mexico. Implications are drawn for ethics education/training and areas are identified for future research.     

Ethical beliefs and behavior among managers: A cross-cultural perspective

This study examines the ethical beliefs and behavior of a sample of Israeli managers (n=97) and comparable data from the United States. Israeli managers rated themselves both highly ethical and more ethical than their peers. These results are similar to those found for the U.S., and indicate that the best predictor of respondents' ethical behavior is their beliefs and perceptions concerning their peers' behavior. In addition, this study examines the managers' predisposition to promote social responsibility by joining social networks of managers and other business people, established for that purpose. Seventy-eight percent are of the opinion that networks for the promotion of social responsibility in business are needed and 57% are ready to join them.Dove Izraeli is Associate Professor of Marketing Management and Social Responsibility at the Faculty of Management, Tel-Aviv University. He published nine books and numerous articles. He was a Visiting Professor at U. C. Berkeley and N. Y. U., and chaired the International Conference on Marketing for Developing Countries. His research interests include marketing channels, sales management macromarketing and business ethics.     

The Effect of National Culture on Whistle-Blowing Perceptions

Society continues to be concerned about the impact of ethics on decision making. While many researchers have focused on this issue, the increased globalization of today's business suggests that more emphasis should be given to the potential impact of culture on ethical decisions. The current study is based, in part, on the work of Hofstede (1980, 1991) who identified multiple dimensions on which countries differ in terms of culture. As such, it gives consideration to the impact of national culture on ethical decision making. The study focuses on ethical decisions made by U.S. and Taiwanese accounting students and examines cross-cultural differences in business-related ethical perceptions. Results indicated significant differences between the ethical perspectives and judgments of U.S. and Taiwanese accounting students in a whistle-blowing scenario, particularly with respect to Hofstede's individualism dimension. These findings enhance our understanding of cross-cultural ethical differences. The implications of these results are discussed and suggested areas for future research are proposed.     

Rebounding from Corruption: Perceptions of Ethics Program Effectiveness in a Public Sector Organization

We examine the perceived importance of three organizational preconditions (awareness of formal ethics codes, decision-making techniques, and availability of resources) theorized to be critical for ethics program effectiveness. In addition, we examine the importance of ethical leadership and congruence between formal ethics codes and informal ethical norms in influencing employee perceptions. Participants (n=418) from a large southern California government agency completed a survey on the perceived effectiveness of the organization’s ethics program. Results suggest that employee perceptions of organizational preconditions, ethical leadership and informal ethical norms were related to perceptions of ethics program effectiveness. Based on these findings, organizations should evaluate the presence (or absence) of essential preconditions and take steps to ensure that leaders model espoused organizational values to foster perceptions of effective ethics programs.Kathie L. Pelletier is a doctoral student in the School of Behavioral and Organizational Sciences at Claremont Graduate University, 123 East Eighth Street, Claremont, CA 91711; e-mail: kathie.pelletier@cgu.edu. Her research interests include organizational ethics, ethical leadership, and women’s issues in the workplace. Michelle C. Bligh is an assistant professor of Organizational Behavior in the School of Behavioral and Organizational Sciences at Claremont Graduate University, 123 East Eighth Street, Claremont, CA 91711; e-mail: michelle. bligh@cgu.edu. Her research interests include charismatic leadership, political and executive leadership, and organizational culture.     

Veganism: Theory of planned behaviour,ethical concerns and the moderating role of catalytic experiences

The growing movement of veganism culture is drawing increasing scientific attention but falls short of an empirical investigation to examine antecedents and catalytic experiences for maintaining vegan diets. An integrated theoretical framework is proposed using the Theory of Planned Behaviour Model (TPB) and includes ethical concerns to investigate the interrelationships. Comparisons are also made by adopting the strength of high and low ethical catalytic experiences of each consumer group to identify moderating results. The proposed conceptual model was tested using Structural Equation Modelling from the responses of 478 vegan consumers. Results indicate that the TPB factors exert positive effects on the buying intention and ethical concerns mediate the relationship between attitudes and intention, as well as between PBC and intention, however, social norms did not impact ethical concerns.While consumers experiencing high catalytic experience had no significance, low catalytic experience consumers showed an inverse significant moderating relationship on PBC and maintaining vegan diets. Whereas the relationship for ethical concerns influencing the intention to buy vegan foods was significant and positive for the high catalytic experienced consumer, but not significant for the low catalytic experienced consumer. The moderating results for social norms were not significant on ethical concerns for the high catalytic experienced consumer but were negatively significant for the low catalytic experienced consumers indicating that the effect of peer pressure increase, results in a decline for ethical considerations.These findings offer strong theoretical and practical implications by contributing to the understanding of consumers’ behavioural intention to undertake vegan diets and extending our knowledge for formulating retail strategies to effectively tailor their offerings for this consumer segment.     

Business Students' Perception of Ethics and Moral Judgment: A Cross-Cultural Study

Business relations rely on shared perceptions of what is acceptable/expected norms of behavior. Immense expansion in transnational business made rudimentary consensus on acceptable business practices across cultural boundaries particularly important. Nonetheless, as more and more nations with different cultural and historical experiences interact in the global economy, the potential for misunderstandings based on different expectations is magnified. Such misunderstandings emerge in a growing literature on "improper" business practices – articulated from a narrow cultural perspective. This paper reports an ongoing research on the cultural and contextual aspects of business ethics. The objective is to investigate how the perception/attitudes of business students towards the ethical dimension of doing business varies in different countries; Whether there are socio-cultural factors that influence the perception of ethicality in business practices. Research findings among business students in six countries: China, Egypt, Finland, Korea, Russia, and the U.S.A. are reported. While all groups had basic agreement on what constitutes ethical business practices, differences are found in the respondents' tolerance to damage resulting from "unethical" behavior. Without underestimating the role of national culture, variations in research results also point to the importance of current socio-political developments in the relevant countries. Implications for business teaching and management development are discussed.     

Perceptions of ethical work climate and person-organization fit among retail employees in Japan and the US: A cross-cultural scale validation

International retailers can only be successful if they understand similarities and differences between cultures. This study compares retail employees' perceptions of ethical work climate and person-organization fit in the U.S. with those of the same employee type in Japan. The results can help retailers understand employee perceptions of their relationship with the firm. An important aspect of this research involves testing the cross-cultural validity of the ethical work climate (EWC) and person-organization fit (POF) scales. Findings suggest that these scales are valid in both different national contexts and can also be used to compare differences between the cultures. Significant differences were noted in the EWC and POF between retail employees in Japan and the U.S. The relationship between EWC and POF varies significantly for employees in Japan and the U.S.     

Business Ethics in a Transition Economy: Will the Next Russian Generation be any Better?

This study investigated students’ perceptions of ethical organizational climates, attitudes towards ethical issues, and the perceived relationship between ethical behavior and success in business organizations. Comparisons were made between the attitudes of these future managers with previously published studies of Russian managers’ attitudes. A survey of 100 business students in three Moscow universities showed that their attitudes toward ethical behavior were more negative than those of Russian managers. No significant differences were found in the perceptions or attitudes of students who had attended an ethics course and those that did not. The implications for both managers and researchers were reported.     

Customer perception and response to ethical norms in legal services marketing

The study here examines the relationship between ethical marketing norms, relationship quality (RQ), and commitment in the context of legal services. Through a survey of customers of legal services providers in Malaysia, data were collected. Results from a standard analysis of data show that the four dimensions of ethical marketing norms contribute significantly and explain a significant amount of variance in RQ and commitment. The results further show that three dimensions of ethical norms namely price and distribution norm, information and contract norm, and general honesty and integrity norm are significantly associated with relationship quality and commitment. Product and promotion norm has no significant relationship with relationship quality and commitment. RQ plays a mediating role in the relationship between marketing norms and commitment. The study reveals that the same three dimensions of marketing norms predict both RQ and commitment, and are useful for effective legal services marketing. These findings lead to research, managerial, contextual and policy implications that conclude the paper.     

Corporate ethics statements: Current status and future prospects

This paper reports on a study of large U.S. based corporations concerning the status of formal ethics statements. Almost all responding firms (91%) have promulgated a formal code of ethics while one-half have published values statements and about one-third have a corporate credo. Analysis of these statements concentrated on to whom they are communicated; whether codes of ethics contain information pertinent to the industry, include sanctions for violations and provide specific guidance regarding gifts. Conclusions and implications for managers and researchers are drawn.Patrick E. Murphy is Professor and Chairman of the Department of Marketing at the University of Notre Dame. He is coauthor (with G. R. Laczniak) ofEthical Marketing Decisions: The Higher Road, Allyn & Bacon, 1993. His research interests focus on ethical and public policy issues facing marketing and business. He serves on the editorial review boards of several marketing and ethics journals.     

Tracking a Growth Industry: The Development of Marketing Research Services in Canada

The marketing research industry in Canada has grown rapidly during the past twenty years or so, both in the number of users of research and the number of practitioners offering professional marketing research services, and in the type of research being done. The changing nature of the Canadian market-place, coupled with a growing appreciation of the cultural diversity of the country and of the fact that Canadian consumers are not exactly like Americans, has contributed to m increasing acceptance of marketing research in Canadian business. In addition, the use of research techniques in public sector and not- for-profit organisations has become generally accepted in recent years. The techniques used in Canadian marketing research have also undergone considerable change, as researchers are now making much greater use of recently-available technology, computer-based simulations, and automated data capture at the check-outs of retail stores. Possibly the greatest change has been in the increased use of qualitative techniques, reflecting marketers' increased concern for the deeply-held opinions and attitudes of consumers.