Consumer ethics: An empirical investigation of the ethical beliefs of Austrian consumers

Business and Marketing ethics have come to the forefront in recent years. While consumers have been surveyed regarding their perceptions of ethical business and marketing practices, research has been minimal with regard to their ethical beliefs and ideologies. In addition, no study has examined the ethical beliefs of Austrian consumers even though Austria maintains a unique status of political neutrality, nonalignment, stability, economic prosperity and geographical proximity to the East- and West-European countries. This research investigates the relationship between Machiavellianism, ethical ideology and ethical beliefs of Austrian consumers. The results indicate that Austrian consumers are mostly situationists who, while rejecting moral rules, judge the ethics of a behavior by the consequences and outcomes of the situation. Mohammed Y.A. Rawwas is an Assistant Professor of Marketing at the University of Northern Iowa. His research has appeared in the Journal of Business Ethics, Marketing Educational Review, Advances in International Marketing, European Journal of Marketing, Journal of Hospital Marketing, Health Marketing Quarterly, Medical Marketing and Media,among other journals and proceedings.     

Consumer ethics: An investigation of the ethical beliefs of elderly consumers

Business and especially marketing ethics have come to the forefront in recent years. While consumers have been surveyed regarding their perceptions of ethical business and marketing practices, research has been minimal with regard to their perceptions of ethical consumer practices. In addition, few studies have examined the ethical beliefs of elderly consumers even though they are an important and rapidly growing segment. This research investigates the relationship between Machiavellianism, ethical ideology and ethical beliefs for elderly consumers. The results indicate that elderly consumers, while generally being more ethical than younger consumers, are diverse in their eithical beliefs. Dr Scott J. Vitell is an Assistant Professor of Marketing at the University of Mississippi. His publications have appeared in the Journal of Macromarketing, the Journal of Business Ethics, the Journal of The Academy of Marketing Science, Research in Marketing, various national and regional proceedings, and elsewhere. Dr James R. Lumpkin is the Gene Brauns Professor of Marketing at the University of Southwestern Louisiana. He has been published in such journals as the American Journal of Small Business, Journal of Retailing, Journal of Management, Journal of Business Research, Journal of Advertising, Journal of Advertising Research, The Gerontologist, Psychological Reports, Industrial Marketing Management, and Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science and other scholarly journals. Mohammed Y. A. Rawwas is a doctoral student of Marketing at the University of Mississippi. His publications have appeared in Medical Marketing and Media and national proceedings.     

Sexualized aspects of consumer behavior: An empirical investigation of consumer lovemaps

Sexuality has not been investigated by marketers and consumer researchers in terms of the constructs and theories developed by sex researchers. This article takes a first step in applying their approaches by investigating in an empirical study the consumer lovemap, an aspect of the more general lovemap. It focuses, in particular, on two aspects of the consumer lovemap in relation to product use, namely, the Consumer Sexual Behavior Sequence, which is a model of sexual stages, and product sexualization. In addition, it assesses the individual difference effects of the trait of erotophobia-erotophilia and of one's own sex. The results indicate that the newly introduced approaches helped to explain consumers' perceptions of the use of various products. Both managerial and future research implications are drawn. © 1995 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

The role of moral intensity in moral judgments: An empirical investigation

Jones (1991) has proposed an issue-contingent model of ethical decision making by individuals in organizations. The distinguishing feature of the issue was identified as its moral intensity, which determines the moral imperative in the situation. In this study, we adapted three scenarios from the literature in order to examine the issue-contingent model. Findings, based on a student sample, suggest that (1) the perceived and actual dimensions of moral intensity often differed; (2) perceived moral intensity variables, in the aggregate, significantly affected an individual's moral judgments; and (3) some dimensions of moral intensity (namely, perceived social consensus and perceived magnitude of consequences) mattered more than others.Sara A. Morris is Assistant Professor of Management at Old Dominion University. Her current research examines corporate codes of ethics, attitudes about corporate social responsibility, and the relationship between corporate social and financial performance.Robert A. McDonald is a doctoral candidate in organizational studies at the State University of New York at Albany. His research interests include ethical decision making, characteristics of moral dilemmas, and leadership power and influence tactics.     

The relationship between ethics and job satisfaction: An empirical investigation

The relationship between ethics and job satisfaction for MIS professionals is examined empirically. Five dimensions of job satisfaction are examined: (1) satisfaction with pay, (2) satisfaction with promotions, (3) satisfaction with co-workers, (4) satisfaction with supervisors and (5) satisfaction with the work itself. These dimensions of satisfaction are compared to top management's ethical stance, one's overall sense of social responsibility and an ethical optimism scale (i.e., the degree of optimism that one has concerning the positive relationship between ethics and success in his/her company).Results indicate that MIS professionals are more satisfied with the various dimensions of their jobs when top management stresses ethical behavior and when they are optimistic about the relationship between ethics and success within their firms. The one exception to this is pay satisfaction which is unrelated to these constructs. One's sense of social responsibility is also relatively unrelated to job satisfaction. Scott J. Vitell is an Assistant Professor of Marketing at the University of Mississippi. His publications have appeared in the Journal of Macromarketing, the Journal of Business Ethics, Research in Marketing, various national and international proceedings, and elsewhere. Donald L. Davis is Associate Professor and Director of Management Information Systems Programs in the School of Business Administration at the University of Mississippi. He has published in OMEGA, Journal of Operations Management, Human Systems Management and other journals. His current research interests are in user-system interfaces in DSS, expert systems and neural nets.     

Consumer complaint handling in an advanced developing economy: An empirical investigation

The purpose of this article is to examine consumer protection, complaint, and statisfaction/dissatisfaction behaviors in developing countries with special reference to an advanced developing country — Turkey. The study was designed to describe consumer complaint handling issues in urban Turkey. It tries to explain consumer behavior differences along five consumer product categories as to the frequency and manner of consumer complaining behavior and suggests insights into the effectiveness of consumer complaint handling policies in Turkey. It is maintained that the study results are also applicable to other developing countries which are at a similar level of socio-economic and technological development.Erdener Kaynak, Ph.D. is currently a Professor of Marketing at the School of Business Administration of The Pennsylvania State University at Harrisburg, Middletown, Pennsylvania. Dr. Kaynak has served as a business consultant and training adviser to a number of Turkish, Canadian, Dutch, American, Peruvian, Yugoslavian, and international organizations. A prolific author, he has published over one hundred articles in refereed scholarly and professional journals as well as being the author or co-author of thirteen books. Dr. Kaynak is also Executive Editor ofInternational Business Press (IBP), an imprint of the Haworth Press Inc. of New York, London, and Sydney. In this capacity, in addition to being responsible for the international business book series, he edits several international marketing journals.Orsay Kucukemiroglu is presently an Assistant Professor of Business Administration at the Pennsylvania State University, York Campus, York, Pennsylvania. He holds a B.S. degree in Economics, an M.A. in Statistics, and an M.Sc. in Business Administartion and Operations Research. He also holds a CPA designation in the Communwealth of Pennsylvania. Mr. Kucukemiroglu has published articles in such journals asDecision Sciences, International Journal of Bank Marketing, Journal of Professional Services Marketing as well as presenting papers before various learned societies in North America and in Europe.Yavuz Odabasi is Professor of Marketing and Director of the Vocational Training School of Anadolu University in Eskisehir, Turkey. A graduate of Turkish and U.S. universities, Dr. Odabasi was a faculty member at Erciyes University before joining his current university. He has published articles in such journals asService Industries Journal, International Journal of Bank Marketing as well as publishing in Turkish academic and professional journals.     

An empirical investigation of international marketing ethics: Problems encountered by Australian firms

This study identifies and categorises ethical problems in terms of frequency of occurrence and importance to a sample of Australian international business managers. The study determined that the most frequently cited ethical problem is gifts/favours/entertainment and that this problem may be related to the culture where the international business is being conducted. The most important ethical problem is large-scale bribery. When the frequency of occurrence and importance means are compared in a scatter plot, cultural differences, pricing practices and questionable commissions were catagorised in the high frequency/high importance quadrant. The Australian general managers stated that managerial action will be taken to control unethical behavior among their international marketing managers. It was conjectured that managers were not as firm in their attitudes concerning the necessity to compromise one's ethics to succeed in international business.Dr. Robert Armstrong is a Senior Lecturer in Marketing at Murdoch University. He has concentrated his research activities toward international and service marketing. He has published several papers in both subject areas. Currently, he is studying: International Marketing Ethics in the Asia-Pacific region. The long-range study seeks to make cross-cultural comparisons of Southeast Asian and Australian business executives perceptions of the international marketing environments. He is also doing research for an international marketing text for Australia and Southeast Asia.I would like to thank Jane Seman for her assistance in the collection of data and references for this study. I would also like to thank the reviewer(s) for insightful recommendations and suggestions on the draft of the article.     

Consumer ethics: moral ideologies and ethical beliefs of a micro-culture in the US

This study explores the ethical ideologies and ethical beliefs of African American consumers using the Forsyth ethical position questionnaire (EPQ) and the Muncy–Vitell consumer ethics questionnaire (MVQ). The two dimensions of the EPQ (i.e. idealism and relativism), and gender were the independent variables and the four dimensions of the MVQ (i.e. illegal, active, passive and no harm) were the dependent variables. A sample of 283 students from a historically black university was used to explore the relationship between the independent and dependent variables. Findings suggested that consumers who scored higher on the idealism scale and lower on the relativism scale were more likely to reject questionable activities. On average, females expressed more willingness to reject questionable activities than males.     

The importance of ethics to job performance: An empirical investigation of managers' perceptions

This study probed a crucial assumption underlying much of the ethics theory and research: do managers perceive ethical behavior to be an important personal job requirement? A large sample of managers from a cross-section of industries and job functions indicated that, compared to other job duties, certain ethical behaviors were moderate to somewhat major parts of their jobs. Some noteworthy differences by industry, organization size, tenure and job function were also found. These findings underscore the importance of ethics for business education. They also have implications for manager selection, training, and development by organizations.     

An empirical and ethical analysis of factors motivating managers' merger decisions

This paper examines the role of managerial self-interest in the merger market. It looks at factors influencing managers' merger decisions by analyzing managerial expense preference factors on cross-sectional data employing non-parametric statistical methods. The same factors are examined for acquiring, acquired, and merging firms, and control groups used in each case. The results support the authors' contention that managerial discretion is a significant motivating factor for mergers. The changes in expense preference factors indicate management decisions which provide conditions allowing management to indulge in management preferred expenditures, while reducing risk to their career. The authors then provide a moral/philosophic framework of ethical analysis for examining manager's merger decisions, using teleological and deontological theories. They conclude that merger decisions motivated or influenced by self-interest are unethical and, in the process, provide managers facing a merger decision with a framework for making an ethical decision.Dr. Francis Achampong is a Professor of Business Law and Insurance at Norfolk State University, in Norfolk, Virginia. He is licensed to practice law in New York and Virginia. He has published in journals such as theJournal of Risk and Insurance, theInternational and Comparative Law Quarterly, Dickinson Law Review, and theAkron Law Review.Dr. Wold Zemedkun is an Associate Professor of Finance at Norfolk State University, In Norfolk, Virginia. He has published in journals such as theJournal of Business Strategies, theAkron Business and Economic Review,, theJournal of Financial Education, and theAtlantic Economic Journal.     

The impact of ethical climate types on facets of job satisfaction: An empirical investigation

This study examines the impact of ethical climate types (professionalism, caring, rules, instrumental, efficiency, and independence) on various facets of job satisfaction (pay, promotions, co-workers, supervisors, and work itself) in a large non-profit organization. Professionalism was the most reported and efficiency was the least reported ethical climate type in the organization. Among various facets of job satisfaction, respondents were most satisfied with their work and least satisfied with their pay. None of the climate types significantly influenced satisfaction with pay. A professional climate significantly influenced satisfaction with promotions, supervisors, and work. It also significantly influenced overall job satisfaction. Those respondents who believed that their organization had caring climate were more satisfied with their supervisors. An instrumental climate had a significant negative influence on overall job satisfaction and satisfaction with promotions, co-workers, and supervisors. Rules, efficiency, and independence climate types did not significantly affect any facets of job satisfaction. Satish Deshpande is an Associate Professor of Management at Haworth College of Business, Western Michigan University. He teaches human resource management courses. His current research interests include business ethics, managerial decision-making, and applied psychology in human resource issues. His publications include articles in the Academy of Management Journal, Compensation and Benefits Review, Human Relations, Journal of Small Business Management, and Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes.     

An empirical study of ethical predispositions

Using a two-part instrument consisting of eight vignettes and twenty character traits, the study sampled 141 employees of a mid-west financial firm regarding their predispositions to prefer utilitarian or formalist forms of ethical reasoning. In contrast with earlier studies, we found that these respondents did not prefer utilitarian reasoning. Several other hypotheses were tested involving the relationship between (1) people's preferences for certain types of solutions to issues and (2) the forms of reasoning they use to arrive at those solutions; the nature of the relationship between utilitarian and formalist categories; and the possibility of measuring ethical predispositions using different methods. F. Neil Brady is Professor of Public Management and Associate Director for the Center for the Study of Values in Organizations in the Marriott School of Management at Brigham Young University. He is the author of Ethical Managing: Rules and Resultsand has published numerous articles on business ethics, ethical theory, and moral reasoning.Gloria E. Wheeler is Associate Professor of Public Management and Associate Director of the Institute of Public Management at Brigham Young University. Her primary areas are research methodology and human resource management. She has extensive survey research experience in many substantive fields and has published articles in journals covering such diverse areas as taxation, teaching, marketing, and human behavior in organizations.     

Ethical climate and the link between success and ethical behavior: An empirical investigation of a non-profit organization

This study examines the ethical climate and ethical practices of successful managers (n=206 managers) of a large non-profit organization. The influence of different dimensions of ethical climate on perceived ethical practices of successful managers were also investigated. Results show that a majority of the respondents perceive successful managers as ethical. Compared to previous research, managers in our sample were less optimistic about the relationship between success and ethical behavior. Those who believed that their organization had a caring climate perceived a strong positive link between success and ethical behavior. Those who believed that their organization had an instrumental climate perceived a strong negative link between success and ethical behavior. Satish Deshpande is an Associate Professor of Management at Haworth College of Business, Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, Michigan, USA. He teaches human resource management courses. His current research interests include business ethics, managerial decision-making, and applied psychology in human resource issues. His publications include articles in the Academy of Management Journal, Compensation and Benefits Review, Human Relations, Journal of Small Business Management, and Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes.     

Ethical judgments on selected accounting issues: An empirical study

This study investigates the judgments made by accounting majors when confronted with selected ethical dilemmas that pertain to accounting practice. Drawing upon literature in philosophy and moral psychology, it then examines these judgments for potential gender differences. Five case studies, each involving a specific ethical dilemma that a practicing accountant might face, were administered to 151 acounting majors (males = 67; females = 84), in four sections of intermediate accounting II at a large, state university. The results suggest that although the vast majority of participants wouldnot engage in unethical behavior, a reasonable opportunity exists to improve the participants' ethical awareness. The results do not, however, support the existence of gender differences in ethical judgments. Keith G. Stanga is Distinguished Professor of Accounting at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. His most recent publications include a book, Intermediate Accounting(3rd edition, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1989, 1486 pp.), and articles published in the Journal of Accountancy, Accounting and Business Research, Accounting Horizons,and Advances in Accounting.Professor Stanga's teaching and research interests are in financial accounting. His most recent research topics have included the relevance of segment cash flow reporting, the Financial Accounting Standards Board's conceptual framework, and the last-in, first-out method of inventory costing. Richard A. Turpen is an Assistant Professor at The University of Tennessee, Knoxville. His primary teaching interest is in financial accounting, while his research focuses mainly on competitive issues in the market for audit services. Professor Turpen has published most recently in Auditing: A Journal of Practice & Theory.     

Service pricing: An empirical investigation

The purpose of the present study is to explore the pricing objectives that service companies pursue along with the pricing information that they collect in order to price their services. Analyzing data from 170 companies operating in six different service sectors, the study concluded that the companies in our sample tend to follow a hierarchy of pricing objectives with a particular emphasis being placed on the companies’ customers. Furthermore, they tend to collect more than one type of information giving particular emphasis on the existing competitors’ prices. The study also revealed that the pricing objectives and the pricing information vary across the different service sectors and tend to interrelate.     

Consumer ethics: The possible effects of terrorism and civil unrest on the ethical values of consumers

Research investigating the consumer's ethical beliefs, ideologies and orientation has been limited. Additionally, despite the repeated call in the literature for cross cultural research, virtually no studies have examined the ethical beliefs and ideologies of consumers from cultures other than those in North America. This study partially fills this gap in the literature by investigating the ethical beliefs, preferred ethical ideology, and degree of Machiavellianism of consumers from Egypt and Lebanon. The results indicate that consumers in Lebanon, which has been torn by civil unrest and terrorism, tend to be more Machiavellian, less idealistic, and more relativistic than their Egyptian counterparts. Additionally, the Lebanese consumers tend to be more accepting of questionable consumer practices.Mohammed Y. A. Rawwas is 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, and national proceedings of the American Marketing Association.Scott J. Vitell is Associate Professor of Marketing and holder of the Michael S. Starnes Lecturship in Marketing and Business Ethics at the University of Mississippi. His work has previously appeared in theJournal of Macromarketing, theJournal of Business Ethics, Research in Marketing, theBusiness and Professional Ethics Journal and theJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science as well as various other journals and proceedings.Jamal Al-Khatib is Assistant Professor of Marketing at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire. His research has appeared in theJournal of Consumer Marketing, International Marketing Review andResearch in the International Business Disciplines as well as various national and regional proceedings.     

Personal religiousness and ethical judgements: An empirical analysis

It has been acknowledged on numerous occasions that personal religiousness is a potential source of ethical norms, and consequently, an influence in ethical evaluations. An extensive literature review provides little in the way of empirical investigation of this recognized affect. This investigation conceptualizes religiousness as a motivation for ethical action, and discovers significant differences in ethical judgements among respondents categorized by personal religious motivation. Suggestions as to the source of these differences, and the implications which they offer to managers are discussed and supported from the literature.James W. Clark is the Director of the Center for Retailing and assistant professor of marketing at James Madison University. His work has been published in The Journal of Advertising, and the proceedings of The Cutting Edge III and IV, the Southern Marketing Association, The Academy of Marketing Science, and The Decision Sciences Institute. Lyndon E. Dawson, Jr. is professor of marketing at Louisiana Tech University. His work has been published in the Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, the Journal of Retailing, Psychology and Marketing, and Psychological Reports among others.     

企业战略形成过程的类型及受组织因素影响的实证研究

Using data collected from 126 firms, this article attempts to classify different patterns of strategy formation process and identify organizational factors influencing the processes. Based on a clustering analysis method, we identify four patterns of strategy formation processes varying in main characteristics, such as command, adaptive, vision, and external constraints, etc. We also find that a firm’s ownership type and its development stage have significant effects on strategy formation processes.      

Consumer ethical beliefs and personality traits: An exploratory analysis

The present study examines the relationships between consumers' ethical beliefs and personality traits. Based on a survey of 295 undergraduate business students, the authors found that individuals with high needs for autonomy, innovation, and aggression, as well as individuals with a high propensity for taking risks tend to have “less ethical” beliefs concerning possible consumer actions. Individuals with a high need for social desirability and individuals with a strong problem solving coping style tend to have “more ethical” beliefs concerning possible consumer actions. The needs for achievement, affiliation, complexity and an emotion solving coping style were not significantly correlated with consumer ethical beliefs.     

Consumer ethics: An assessment of individual behavior in the market place

A national sample of 362 respondents assessed the ethical predisposition of the American marketplace by calculating a consumer ethics index. The results indicate that the population is quite intolerant of perceived ethical abuses. The situations where consumers are ambivalent tend to be those where the seller suffers little or no economic harm from the consumer's action. Younger, more educated, and higher income consumers appear more accepting of these transgressions. The results provided the basis for developing a four-group taxonomy of consumers which retailers should find insightful in assessing potential consumer actions in a variety of situations. Sam Fullerton is a professor of marketing at Eastern Michigan University. In addition to his academic career, he has worked as a product manager and is the Vice President of the Sports Research Institute, Ltd. Besides coauthoring a text on marketing research, his work has appeared in numerous journals; among them are Current Issues and Research in Advertising, Health Marketing Quarterly, and Strategic Management Journal.Kathleen B. Kerch participated in an international marketing seminar series in Tokyo, Singapore, and Hong Kong. She is currently employed as a marketing representative for Audio-Video Distributors in Wixom, MI. H. Robert Dodge is a professor and head of the Department of Marketing and Law at Eastern Michigan University. He has published books in the areas of personal selling, marketing research, and business-to-business marketing. Additionally, his work has appeared in a number of journals including Strategic Management Journal, The Journal of Small Business, and Current Issues and Research in Advertising. He is actively involved in consulting including his position as President of the Sports Research Institute, Ltd.