Does East Meet West in Business Ethics: An Introduction to the Special Issue

This article introduces and summarizes selected papers from the first World Business Ethics Forum held in Hong Kong and Macau in November 2006, co-hosted by the Hong Kong Baptist University and by the University of Macau. Business Ethics in the East remain distinct from those in the West, but the distinctions are becoming less pronounced and the ethical traffic flows both ways. Gabriel D, Donleavy is Professor and Dean of the Faculty of Business Administration at the University of Macau teaching Business Ethics, Business Negotiation and Advanced Management. His work has been published in Critical Perspectives in Accounting, Corporate Governance, the Journal of Business Ethics, Advances in Applied Business Strategy, the Journal of Higher Education Policy and Management, Long Range Planning and the Asian Review of Accounting which he co-founded. Kit-Chun Joanna LAM is Professor in Department of Economics of the Hong Kong Baptist University. She is also Guest Professor in the Centre for Business Ethics of the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, China. She received her Ph.D. degree in economics from Harvard University. Her work has appeared in the Journal of Business Ethics, Journal of Labor Economics, Canadian Journal of Economics, Economica, Journal of Comparative Economics, and Labour Economics. Simon S.M. Ho is Dean and Professor at the School of Business and Director for Corporate Governance and Financial Policy, Hong Kong Baptist University. He founded the Asia-Pacific Corporate Governance Conference and the world’s first master programme in corporate governance & directorship in 2004. He published over 40 academic refereed articles in leading journals such as Journal of Accounting, Accounting & Finance, Journal of Accounting & Public Policy, and Journal of Corporate Finance.     

Ethical attitudes of mental health practitioners: Balancing therapeutic practices and treatments

This paper reports the responses of 251 mental health care practitioners to a mail survey examining their views concerning ethical conflicts and practices within their work environments. Besides identifying the sources and types of conflicts they experience, respondents were asked how ethical standards have changed over the last 10 years as well as the factors influencing these changes. Conclusions and implications are outlined and future research needs are described.Mohammed Y. A. Rawwas is an Assistant Professor of Marketing at the University of Northern Iowa. His research has appeared in theJournal of Business Ethics, Journal of Hospital Marketing, Health Marketing Quarterly, Medical Marketing & Media, among other journals and proceedings.David Strutton is the Acadiana Bottling Professor of Marketing at the University of Southwestern Lousiana. His research has appeared in theJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Journal of Advertising Research, Journal of Business Research, Journal of Macromarketing andJournal of Personal Selling & Sales Management, among other journals and proceedings.Lou E. Pelton is an Assistant Professor of Marketing at the University of North Texas. His research has appeared in theJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Journal of Business Research, Journal of Global Marketing, Journal of Macromarketing, andJournal of Personal Selling & Sales Management, among other journals and proceedings.     

Ethical decision making: An investigation of services marketing professionals

This study investigates the relative influences of professional values and selected demographic variables on the ethical perceptions of services marketing professionals. The relationship between ethical perceptions and ethical judgments of service marketers is also examined. The data were obtained from a mail survey of the American Marketing Association's professional members of service industries. The survey results indicate a positive relationship between a service professional's professional values and his/her perceptions of ethical problems. The results also suggest that ethical judgments of a service professional can be partially explained by his/her perceptions of ethical problems. Implications of the research findings were discussed. Anusorn Singhapakdi is Associate Professor of Marketing at Old Dominion University. His research has been primarily in the areas of marketing/business ethics. He published in various journals such as Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Journal of Business Ethics, Journal of Macromarketing, Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management, and Journal of Public Policy & Marketing. He has presented papers at various professional conferences including the American Marketing Association and the Academy of Marketing Science.C. P. Rao is Eminent Scholar and William B. Spong Chair in Marketing and International Business at Old Dominion University. He has also served on the Marketing faculty at the University of Arkansas and at the Indian Institute of management. He participated in the ICAME program at Stanford University. Dr. Rao was awarded the C.P.M. (Certified Purchasing Manager) by the National Association of Purchasing Manager. Dr. Rao is a frequent contributor to many leading journals and has received the Distinguished Faculty Research Award in the College of Business Administration at the University of Arkansas three times. Scott J. Vitell is Associate Professor and Phil B. Hardin Chair of Marketing at the University of Mississippi. His work has appeared in the Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Journal of Business Ethics, Journal of Business Research, Journal of Macromarketing, Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management, and Research in Marketing as well as various other journals and proceedings.     

The Significance of Gender in Predicting the Cognitive Moral Development of Business Practitioners Using the Sociomoral Reflection Objective Measure

This study constitutes a contribution to the discussion about moral reasoning in business. Kohlberg’s (1971, in Cognitive Development and Epistemology (Academic Press, New York), 1976, in Moral Development and Behavior: Theory and Research and Social Issues (Holt, Rienhart and Winston, New York)) cognitive moral development (CMD) theory is one explanation of moral reasoning. One unresolved debate on the topic of CMD is the charge that Kohlbergian-type CMD theory is gender biased. This research puts forth the proposal that the issue may be elucidated by exposing an ambiguity in “gender” (Borna and White: 2003, Journal of Business Ethics 47, 89–99; Gentile: 1993, Psychological Science 4(2), 120–122; Unger: 1979, American Psychologist 34(11), 1085–1094). We use the Sociomoral Reflective Objective Measure (SROM) to measure CMD and the Bem Sex Role Inventory (BSRI) to measure gender as a psychosocial concept, rather than as a biological classification. The results of our study indicate that high femininity, measured as a psychosocial attribute, is associated with significantly lower Kohlbergian-type CMD scores among business practitioners. Sex moderates the effect of gender on CMD, but only indirectly. Our research also reveals that education plays a significant moderating role in the relationship between gender and moral reasoning. In addition, age has a significant direct effect on CMD scores of business practitioners. Beverly Kracher is an Associate Professor of Business Ethics & Society in the College of Business Administration at Creighton University. Her research areas include moral reasoning in business, e-commerece ethics & online trust, business ethics pedagogy, and business & the environment. Her research appears in Journal of Business Ethics, Business Ethics Quarterly, Business & Society, International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, Teaching Business Ethics, Interdisciplinary Environmental Review and more. Robert P. Marble is an Associate Professor of Decision Sciences in the College of Business Administration at Creighton University. His research is in the areas of information systems implementation, artificial intelligence, and statistical modeling of business processes. He has published in such journals as the European Journal of Information Systems and Information & Management.     

Does Trust Matter? The Relationship Between Equity Sensitivity and Perceived Organizational Justice

The present research study was designed to extend our knowledge about issues of relevance for business ethics by examining the role of equity sensitivity and perceived organizational trust on employees perceptions of procedural and interactional justice. A model was developed and tested, and results revealed that organizational trust and respect mediated the relationship between an employees equity sensitivity and perceptions of procedural, interactional, and social accounts fairness. A discussion of issues related to perceptions of trust and fairness is presented, as well as recommendations for leaders and future scholarship.Jill Kickul, Ph.D., is the Elizabeth J. McCandless Professor in Entrepreneurship at the Simmons School of Management. She teaches courses on Entrepreneurship the New Venture Management, Contemporary Entrepreneurial Opportunities, and Strategic Analysis for Competing Globally. She has taught entrepreneurship internationally for the Helsinki School of Economics and for the International Bank of Asia (Hong Kong MBA Program). Her research interests include entrepreneurial intentions and behavior, strategic and innovation processes in start-up ventures, and women in entrepreneurship. Her articles have appeared in publications such as Journal of Management, Frontiers of Entrepreneurship Research, Journal of Small Business Management, and International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Innovation.Lisa Gundry, Ph.D., is Professor of Management in the Charles H. L. Kellstadt Graduate School of Business at DePaul University where she teaches courses in Creativity in Business and Entrepreneurship Strategy. She has authored three books on entrepreneurship and innovation, and written numerous journal articles for publications including Journal of Business Venturing, Journal of Small Business Management, Journal of Management, Human Relations, Organizational Dynamics, Journal of Developmental Entrepreneurship and Family Business Review. Her research interests focus on entrepreneurship strategy and growth, and creative and innovative processes in organizations. She is Director of the Leo V. Ryan Center for Creativity and Innovation at DePaul University.Margaret Posig, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor in the Charles H. Kellstadt Graduate School of Business at DePaul University, where she teaches courses in Leadership and Change Management. Her research interests are in the areas of organizational leadership and change management, workplace stress, and women in leadership. Her publications appear in the Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, Women in Management Review, Journal of Managerial Issues, and Journal of Business and Entrepreneurship, among others. Dr. Posig is an Industrial/Organizational psychologist, with a Ph.D. from DePaul University, and directs the Leadership and Change Management concentration. Her consulting focuses on management development and workplace stress management.     

Enabling Guanxi Management in China: A Hierarchical Stakeholder Model of Effective Guanxi

Guanxi (literally interpersonal connections) is in essence a network of resource coalition-based stakeholders sharing resources for survival, and it plays a key role in achieving business success in China. However, the salience of guanxi stakeholders varies: not all guanxi relationships are necessary, and among the necessary guanxi participants, not all are equally important. A hierarchical stakeholder model of guanxi is developed drawing upon Mitchell et al.’s (1997) stakeholder salience theory and Anderson’s (1982) constituency theory. As an application of instrumental stakeholder theory, the model dimensionalizes the notion of stakeholder salience, and distinguishes between and among internal and external guanxi, core, major, and peripheral guanxi, and primary and secondary guanxi stakeholders. Guanxi management principles are developed based on a hierarchy of guanxi priorities and management specializations. The goal of this application of instrumental stakeholder theory is to construct, for Western business firms in China, a means to reliably identify guanxi partners by employing the principles of effective guanxi. These principles are described in the form of testable propositions that advance social scientific research in this area of international business ethics. Chenting Su is Associate Professor of Marketing at City University of Hong Kong. He is also Adjunct Professor at Wuhan University, P.R. China. He previously taught at the University of Victoria, Canada, He writes for Journal of Marketing Research, International Journal of Research in Marketing, Journal of Travel Research, Journal of Business Ethics, Psychology & Marketing, International Journal of Market Research, Service Marketing Quarterly, Research in Marketing, and others. He presently serves as Executive Director of China Marketing Association, P.R. China. Ronald K. Mitchell is Professor of Entrepreneurship and J. A. Bagley Regents Chair in Management in the Rawls College of Business at Texas Tech University. He publishes in the areas of new value creation and stakeholder theory. From 1999–2002 he held a joint appointment in strategy and public policy in the Guanghua School of Management at Peking University, Beijing, PRC. He has won numerous awards for research and program building; presently serves in the leadership of the AOM Entrepreneurship Division; and is Co-Editor for the Entrepreneurship Theory & Practice three-volume Special Issue on Entrepreneurial Cognition. Joe Sirgy is Professor of Marketing and Virginia Real Estate Research Fellow at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech). He has published extensively in the area of business ethics and quality-of-life (QOL) research in relation to theory, philosophy, measurement, business, and public policy. He co-founded the International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies (ISQOLS) in 1995 and is currently serving as its Executive Director. He received the Distinguished Fellow Award from both the Academy of Marketing Science and ISQOLS. In 2003, ISQOLS recognized him as the Distinguished QOL Researcher for research excellence and a record of lifetime achievement in QOL research. He also is the current JMM section editor on QOL issues and a co-editor of Applied Research in Quality of Life.     

An Ethical Decision-Making Framework for Competitor Intelligence Gathering

Competitor intelligence gathering involves the aggregation of competitive information to facilitate strategic development and a competitive advantage. Unfortunately, companies are sometimes willing to carry out questionable gathering practices to collect such information. An ethical decision making framework for competitor intelligence gathering is presented in this paper that outlines the impact of several strengthening and weakening factors on individual ethical reasoning. Dialogue is provided about the management of intelligence gathering from various viewpoints, and the implications of these managerial suggestions are discussed. Terri Rittenburg is an Associate Professor of Marketing at the University of Wyoming; she is a member of the Editorial Policy Board for the Journal of Macromarketing. Her research has appeared in journals such as Psychology and Marketing,Journal of Business Ethics, and Journal of Macromarketing. Sean Valentine is an Associate Professor of Management at the University of Wyoming. His research has appeared in journals such as Human Relations, Journal of Businees Research, Journal of Business Ethics, and Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management. James Faircloth is an Associate Professor of Marketing at the University of North Dakota.He has previously published in the Journal of Marketing Theory and Practice and Psychological Reports.     

Positive Group Context,Work Attitudes,and Organizational Misbehavior: The Case of Withholding Job Effort

Considering the organization’s ethical context as a framework to investigate workplace phenomena, this field study of military reserve personnel examines the relationships among perceptions of psychosocial group variables, such as cohesiveness, helping behavior and peer leadership, employee job attitudes, and the likelihood of individuals’ withholding on-the-job effort, a form of organizational misbehavior. Hypotheses were tested with a sample of 290 individuals using structural equation modeling, and support for negative relationships between perceptions of positive group context and withholding effort by individual employees was found. In addition, individual effort-performance expectancy and individual job satisfaction were negatively related to withholding effort. The findings provide evidence that individual perceptions of positive group context play a key role in the presence of misbehavior at work. The results indicate that positive group context might be an important element of ethical climate that should be managed to temper occurrence of such adverse work behavior. Roland E. Kidwell (PhD, Louisiana State University) is an associate professor in the Management and Marketing Department in the College of Business at the University of Wyoming. His major research and teaching interests focus on new ventures and economic development, family business, social entrepreneurship, business ethics, and workplace deviance. His research has been published in academic journals such as the Academy of Management Review, Journal of Management, Journal of Business Venturing, International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal, Journal of Accounting and Public Policy and Journal of Business Ethics. He is co-editor of the book, Managing Organizational Deviance (Sage, 2005). Sean R. Valentine (DBA, Louisiana Tech University) is Professor of Management in the Department of Management, College of Business and Public Administration at the University of North Dakota. His research and teaching interests include business ethics, human resource management, and organizational culture. His work has appeared in journals such as Human Relations, Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management, Journal of Business Research, Behavioral Research in Accounting and Journal of Business Ethics.     

Public interest reports as a medium for corporate disclosure: The case of General Motors

We examined the public interest reports of General Motors from 1971 to 1990 and presented the contents thereof herein. The principal areas disclosed by GM during those years that are discussed in this paper were minorities, women, and employment issues, energy and the environment, international operations, automotive safety, and philanthropic activity. The purpose of this study was to examine the public interest report as a vehicle through which a firm might disclose information in the public interest. We concluded that there were at least three principal forces driving GM's disclosures. They included public attention focused on, potential costs associated with, and the relative subjectivity of an issue.In reading their public interest reports, it became clear that GM is socially responsive in matters of public interest. Whether they are socially responsible is a judgment not within the scope of this study. However, we do not preclude the possibility that the report may serve as a vehicle which would build a certain momentum in public responsibility, and thus partially drive decisions made by management in social issues. David Malone is an Associate Professor of Accounting at the University of Idaho. Dr. Malone's research interests are primarily in corporate social responsibility and public interest accounting. His research has been accepted for publication in journals which include Business & Professional Ethics Journal, Journal of Accounting, Auditing & Finance, Kent/Bently Journal of Accounting and Computers, Journal of Computer Information Systems, Oil and Gas Tax Quarterly, Petroleum Accounting and Financial Management Journal, and Journal of Education for Business. Robin W. Roberts is the union Pacific/Charles B. Handy Professor of Accounting at Iowa State University. Dr. Roberts' research include public sector and public interest accounting and auditing. His research has been accepted for publication in such journals as Accounting, Organizations, & Society, Advances in Accounting, Business & Professional Ethics Journal, Journal of Accounting Research, and Research in Governmental and Nonprofit Accounting.     

Ethics and the student computer lab

This article discusses the role of ethics as it relates to a student computer lab in a college setting. The use of the computer as a necessity for education provides the background for a sample case study involving a breach of ethical conduct. The technical and administrative solutions to the sample case are described. Proposed solutions to prevent future breaches of ethical conduct are presented along with justification for the proposed solutions. Atefeh Sadri McCampbell is an Associate Professor in the Department of Management at Florida Institute of Technology/National Capital Region. She has published articles in journals such as, Production & Inventory Management Journal, International Journal of Purchasing & Materials Management, Ethics & Critical Thinking Journal, Journal of Customer Service in Marketing & Management, and Business Journal For Entrepreneurs. In addition, she has presented articles at numerous conferences.Fred Liedlich is an Associate Professor of Data Processing at Harford Community College.     

Unethical practices in competitive analysis: Patterns,causes and effects

Scholars and executives have expressed concern over the growing frequency of unethical practices in companies' conduct of competitive analysis — the process by which a firm gathers, analyzes, and interprets data about its rivals. This article reports the results of an exploratory study of 137 senior executives' perceptions of unethical competitive analysis practices, their causes, and their potential effect on industries, companies and individuals. The article discusses the implications of the results for developing guidelines to safeguard against ethical violations in competitive analysis.Dr. Shaker A. Zahra is Professor of Strategic Management at Georgia State University. He is author or coauthor of two books and over 130 journal articles, proceedings and professional papers. His research has appeared inStrategic Management Journal, Decision Sciences, Journal of Management, Journal of Management Studies, Long Range Planning, Journal of Business Venturing, Academy of Management Executive, Journal of Business Ethics, Entrepreneurship: Theory and Practice, among others. Professor Zahra serves on the editorial review board of seven journals.     

Effect of Ethical Climate on Turnover Intention: Linking Attitudinal- and Stress Theory

Attitudinal- and stress theory are used to investigate the effect of ethical climate on job outcomes. Responses from 208 service employees who work for a country health department were used to test a structural model that examines the process through which ethical climate (EC) affects turnover intention (TI). This study shows that the EC–TI relationship is fully mediated by role stress (RC), interpersonal conflict (IC), emotional exhaustion (EE), trust in supervisor (TS), and job satisfaction (JS). Results show that EC reduces (RS) and increases TS. Lower stress levels result in lower EE, higher JS, and lower TI. Also, supervisor trust (TS) reduces IC and EE. The structural model predicts 53.9% of the variance of TI. Jay Prakash Mulki is an Assistant Professor at Northeastern University. He has extensively published in the sales management area. His articles have been published in the Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management, Journal of Business Research, and Psychology and Marketing. Jorge Fernando Jaramillo is an Assistant Professor of Marketing at the University of Texas at Arlington. His research interests include marketing strategy and sales force management. Dr. Jaramillo’s research has appeared in multiple journals including the Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management, International Journal of Research in Marketing, Journal of Business Research, and the Journal of Marketing Education. William B. Locander is the founding Director of the Davis Leadership Center at Jacksonville University. He is a former President of the American Marketing Association and has served as an examiner of the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award. He is also a member of the Editorial Board of the Journal of Marketing Theory and Practice. Dr. Locander has published in several business journals including the Journal of Marketing, Journal of Marketing Research, Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Business Research, and the Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management.     

Machiavellianism revisited

The field of management has had difficulty embracing the concept of Machiavellianism despite the myriad of studies produced by other fields of social science. It appears that Machiavellianism as a unitary personality construct has limited efficacy in the complex world of organizations. The authors suggest a multidimensional approach to understanding the impact of an individual's threat to organizational functioning. Viewing the construct as discontinuous with two manifestations, predatory and benign, suggestions are made as to the location within organizations where such individuals may be found. A research approach is also suggested. George Nelson, Assistant Professor of Management at Prarie View A and M University in Texas, has published articles in the Journal of Small Business Management, Entrepreneurship: Theory and Practice, and Business Insights. He has presented papers at SWFAD, International Marketing and Management, and ORSA/TIMS conferences. His research interests include the interface of business and politics, female entrepreneurs, and applied organizational theory. Diana Gilbertson, Associate Professor of Management at California State University in Fresno, conducts research in nonprofit strategic management, leadership, and women in business. She has presented papers at numerous conferences and has published in the Labor Law Journal.     

The effectiveness of corporate communicative responses to accusations of unethical behavior

When corporations are accused of unethical behaviour by external actors, executives from those organizations are usually compelled to offer communicative responses to defend their corporate image. To demonstrate the effect that corporate executives' communicative responses have on third parties' perception of corporate image, we present the Corporate Communicative Response Model in this paper. Of the five potential communicative responses contained in this model (no response, denial, excuse, justification, and concession), results from our empirical test demonstrate that a concession is the most effective and robust communicative option.Jeffrey L. Bradford is an Assistant Professor in the Marketing Department at Bowling Green State University. His primary research interests are in the areas of marketing ethics and public policy. His previous research has been published inJournal of Business Ethics, andJournal of Business Strategies.Dennis E. Garrett is an Associate Professor in the Marketing Department at Marquette University. His primary research interests are in the areas of marketing ethics and consumer complaints. His previous research has been published inJournal of Marketing, Journal of Marketing Research, Journal of Business Ethics, Communication Monographs, andBusiness and Society Review. He is also a co-author ofMarketing Theory: Evolution and Evaluation (1988, John Wiley & Sons).     

Ethics and Religion: An Empirical Test of a Multidimensional Model

Although it seems that ethics and religion should be related, past research suggests mixed conclusions on the relationship. We argue that such mixed results are mostly due to methodological and conceptual limitations. We develop hypotheses linking Cornwall et al.’s (1986, Review of Religious Research, 27(3): 266–244) religious components to individuals’ willingness to justify ethically suspect behaviors. Using data on 63,087 individuals from 44 countries, we find support for three hypotheses: the cognitive, one affective, and the behavioral component of religion are negatively related to ethics. Surprisingly, one aspect of the cognitive component (i.e., belief in religion) shows no relationship. Implications for research and practice are discussed. K. Praveen Parboteeah (Ph.D. Washington State University) is an Associate Professor of International Management in the Department of Management, University of Wisconsin - Whitewater. Parboteeah’s research interests include international management, ethics, religion and technology and innovation management. He has published articles in numerous academic journals including Academy of Management Journal, Organization Science, Decision Sciences, Small Group Research, Journal of Business Ethics, Journal of World Business, Management International Review, International Journal of Human Resource Management, R&D Management and Journal of Engineering and Technology Management Martin Hoegl (Ph.D. University of Karlsruhe, Germany) is Professor at WHU – Otto Beisheim School of Management, where he holds the Chair of Leadership and Human Resource Management. Before joining WHU, he served on the faculties of Washington State University and Bocconi University (Milan, Italy). His research interests include leadership and collaboration in organizations, management of R&D personnel, knowledge creation in innovation processes, and the management of geographically dispersed collaboration. He has published in leading international journals, including the Academy of Management Journal, Organization Science, the Journal of Management, Decision Sciences, and others. John B. Cullen is Professor of Management at Washington State University. He has also served on the faculties of the University of Nebraska, the University of Rhode Island, Waseda and Keio Universities in Japan (as a Fulbright lecturer), and the Catholic University of Lille in France. Professor Cullen is the past president of the Western Academy of Management. Professor Cullen is the author or co-author of four books and over 60 journal articles. His publications have appeared in journals such as Administrative Science Quarterly, Academy of Management Journal, Journal of International Business Studies, Journal of Management, Organizational Studies, Management International Review, Journal of Vocational Behavior, American Journal of Sociology, Organizational Dynamics, and the Journal of World Business. He currently serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Leadership and Organizational Studies and has served on the editorial boards of the Academy of Management Journal and Advances in International Comparative Management Journal.     

The Relationship between Religiousness and Corporate Social Responsibility Orientation: Are there Differences Between Business Managers and Students?

The purpose of this paper is to determine whether there is a relationship between a person’s degree of religiousness and corporate social responsibility orientation. A total of 411 managers and 506 students from seven universities were surveyed. The statistical analysis showed that religiousness does influence students’ orientation toward the economic, ethical, and philanthropic responsibilities of business. It does not, however, have a significant impact upon the managers’ attitudes. When the “low religiousness” students and managers were compared, differences were found with respect to the economic, ethical, and philanthropic components of corporate social responsibility. Similar results were obtained when the “high religiousness” students and managers were compared. The implications of these findings are discussed. Nabil Ibrahim is the Grover Maxwell Professor of Business Administration at Augusta State University, Augusta, Georgia. He teaches courses in Strategic Management and Applied Statistics. Dr. Ibrahim’s articles have appeared in the Journal of Business Ethics, Health Care Management Review, the Journal of Applied Business Research, as well as many other journals and proceedings. Donald P. Howard is an Associate Professor of Management at Augusta State University, Augusta, Georgia. He teaches courses in Strategic Management and Entrepreneurship. His articles have appeared in a number of journals such as the Journal of Business Ethics, Journal of Applied Case Research, and Health Care Management Review, as well as many proceedings. John Angelidis is Professor and Chair, Department of Management, St. John’s University, New York, NY. He teaches courses in Strategic Management and International Business. Dr. Angelidis has published articles in the Journal of Business Ethics, Review of Business, Journal of Commerce and Management, as well as many other journals and proceedings.     

Personal and professional values underlying the ethical judgments of marketers

This study explores the relative influences of two levels of value orientations, personal values and professional values, underlying the ethical judgments of marketing practitioners. The data were obtained from a mail survey of the American Marketing Association's professional members. The results generally indicate that a marketer's ethical judgments can be partially explained by his/her personal and professional values.Anusorn Singhapakdi is Assistant Professor of Marketing at Old Dominion University. His papers focusing on various topics in marketing ethics and corporate/consumer social responsibility have been published in theJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Journal of Business Ethics, Journal of Macromarketing, Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management, Journal of Public Policy & Marketing, as well as other journals and proceedings.Scott J. Vitell is Associate Professor and holder of the Michael S. Starnes Lectureship in Marketing and Business Ethics at the University of Mississippi. His work has appeared in theJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Journal of Business Ethics, Journal of Macromarketing, Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management, andResearch in Marketing as well as various other journals and proceedings.     

The Social Norms of Tax Compliance: Evidence from Australia,Singapore, and the United States

Tax compliance is a concern to governments around the world. Prior research (Alm, J. and I. Sanchez: 1995, KYKLOS 48, 3–19) has attributed unexplained inter-country differences in compliance rates to differences in social norms. Economics researchers studying tax compliance in the United States (U.S.) (see for example J. Andreoni et al.: 1998, Journal of Economic Literature 36, 818–860) have called for more attention to social (as opposed to economic) influences on tax compliance. In this study, we extend this prior research by explicitly examining the role of social norms [Cialdini, R. and M. Trost: 1998, The Handbook of Social Psychology (Oxford University Press, New York)] on tax compliance in three different countries. We test our research hypotheses using a hypothetical compliance scenario, which was administered in Australia, Singapore, and the U.S. There were differences in compliance rates and social norms among the three countries. Factor analysis of the social norm questions identified three distinct social norm constructs. Two of these factors were significant in explaining tax compliance behavior. The first and most influential factor was taxpayers’ own personal moral beliefs, along with the beliefs of those close to them (e.g., friends and important others). The second significant factor represented societal views of proper behavior. We conclude that social norms help to explain tax compliance intentions and why tax compliance rates are higher than would be predicted by strictly economic models. Donna D. Bobek is an Associate Professor in the Kenneth G. Dixon School of Accounting at the University of Central Florida. Her research focuses on taxpayer and tax professional judgment and decision-making, with an emphasis on ethical decision-making. Donna has published in a number of academic journals including Accounting, Organizations & Society, Behavioral Research in Accounting, the Journal of the American Taxation Association, Advances in Taxation and Advances in Behavioral Accounting Research. John T. Sweeney is the Ted Saldin Distinguished Professor of Accounting and the Chair of the Department of Accounting at Washington State University. His research interests include accounting ethics and organizational justice. He has published in a number of accounting research journals, including Accounting, Organizations, & Society, The Accounting Review, Behavioral Research in Accounting, the Journal of Accounting & Public Policy, the Journal of Business Ethics, and Research on Accounting Ethics. Robin W. Roberts is the Al and Nancy Burnett Eminent Scholar and Director of the Kenneth G. Dixon School of Accounting at the University of Central Florida. His recent research focuses on ethics and regulation in the accounting profession and on corporate social responsibility. Robin has published in a number of academic journals including Accounting and the Public Interest, Accounting, Organizations & Society, Advances in Accounting, Auditing: A Journal of Practice & Theory, Critical Perspectives on Accounting, Journal of Accounting and Public Policy, Journal of Accounting Research, Journal of Business Ethics, Public Budgeting, Accounting & Financial Management, and Research in Governmental and Nonprofit Accounting.     

Business ethics and job-related constructs: A cross-cultural comparison of automotive salespeople

Although a number of articles have addressed ethical perceptions and behaviors, few studies have examined ethics across cultures. This research focuses on measuring the job satisfaction, customer orientation, ethics, and ethical training of automotive salespersons in the U.S. and Taiwan. The relationships of these variables to salesperson performance were also investigated. Ethics training was found to be negatively related to perceived levels of ethicalness and performance. High performance U.S. salespeople reported high ethical behavior, while the opposite was true in Taiwan. Customer orientation in both countries was influenced by ethics training. Managers should evaluate current ethics training programs to insure correct ethical behavior is taught and rewarded.Earl D. Honeycutt, Jr. is Associate Professor of Marketing at Old Dominion University. He has published inBusiness Horizons, Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management, Industrial Marketing Management, Industrial Management, Journal of Strategic Marketing, and numerous other national and international publications.Judy A. Siguaw is Assistant Professor of Marketing at UNC-Wilmington. Her articles have appeared inJournal of Marketing Research, Journal of Strategic Marketing, Industrial Management, Marketing Education Review, and numerous international and national proceedings.Tammy G. Hunt is Associate Professor of Management at UNC-Wilmington. Her articles have been published inSimulation & Gaming, Journal of Business Education, Journal of Voluntary Action Research, and numerous national and regional proceedings.