Marketing ethics: Some dimensions of the challenge

We should seek an ethic internal to marketing arising from marketing's societal function, rather than imposing some add-on ethic. This suggests that marketing should enhance the information and the freedom the potential customer brings to the market transaction. Defining and achieving this information and freedom is difficult, but marketers suggest that the market itself drives out major violators, a suggestion less persuasive concerning increasingly complex goods and services. Marketing also is tempted to appeal to our baser, darker side. These problems are better addressed through self-regulation guided by a vision of advertising and business in the service of society, and by the marketer's own sense of integrity than through external regulation. Paul F. Camenisch is Professor and Chair of Religious Studies, DePaul University. His work currently concentrates in business, professional and medical ethics, in which he has published numerous articles and Grounding Professional Ethics in a Pluralistic Society (Haven Publications, New York, 1983).     

Executive values and the ethics of company politics: Some preliminary findings

A model of correlates of executives' views of organizational politics was presented. The model incorporated three sets of variables: executives' background, values and attitudes. Data collected from 302 managers were used to validate the model. The results showed that precursors of executive perceptions of the ethics and effect of company politics were different. Values were stronger than background variables in explaining executives' views of company politics.Dr. Shaker A. Zahra is Associate Professor of Strategic Management, George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia 22030. His research centers on the role of boards of directors in the strategic process, determinants of innovation in large corporations, and ethical issues associated with strategic choices. His research received several awards.     

Accounting ethics and education: A response

In this article we review the principal directions that an American Accounting Association committee has taken in the past three years to encourage the teaching of ethics in accounting programs and/or courses in higher education. We also (1) briefly comment on the place of accounting ethics in both higher education and continuing professional education and (2) provide some brief final comments.Dr. Stephen E. Loeb is Professor and Chairman of Accounting and the Ernst & Young Alumni Professor of Auditing at the University of Maryland at College Park. Dr. Loeb is co-editor of theJournal of Accounting and Public Policy.Dr. Joanne Rockness is an Associate Professor of Accounting at North Carolina State University. She has been a member of the American Accounting Association's Professionalism and Ethics Seminar Committee since 1988. Dr. Rockness has published in the areas of ethics and social responsibility in journals such as Accounting Organizations and Society,Journal of Business, Finance and Accounting, andIssues in Accounting Education.The authors are respectively Chair (1991–92) and Chair (1990–91) of the American Accounting Association's Professionalism and Ethics Seminar Committee. The authors appreciate the comments of William W. May on portions of the paper. The opinions expressed in this paper represent those of the authors and not necessarily those of the American Accounting Association's Professionalism and Ethics Seminar Committee.     

Marketing ethics: a comparison of American and Middle-Eastern marketers

This study compares the moral philosophies, ethical perceptions and corporate ethical values of American and Middle-Eastern marketers. Hypotheses are developed on the basis of their respective national and organizational cultures. Using a sample of marketing practitioners from both countries, empirical support is found for the hypothesis that Middle-Eastern marketers are more likely to be idealistic than their American counterparts. However, no significant differences are found on the relativistic dimension of moral philosophy. Also, American marketers are found to have higher ethical perception than Middle-Eastern marketers. Finally, contrary to our hypothesized direction, some support is found to indicate that Middle-Eastern marketers are more likely to have higher corporate ethical values than American marketers. Implications of the findings are discussed.     

Marketing ethics and the techniques of neutralization

The need for conceptual work in marketing ethics is addressed by examining the five techniques of neutralization as a means for partially explaining unethical behaviors by marketing practitioners. These techniques are often used by individuals to lessen the possible impact of norm-violating behaviors upon their self-concept and their social relationships. Borrowed from the social disorganization and deviance literature, the five techniques of neutralization are: (1) denial of responsibility, (2) denial of injury, (3) denial of victim, (4) condemning the condemners and (5) appeal to higher loyalties. Examples of marketing professionals using each of the five techniques are given, and a conceptual model linking the techniques of neutralization with unethical behavior is presented. Finally, relevant research questions are offered for consideration.Scott J. Vitell is Assistant Professor of Marketing at The University of Mississippi. His most important publications include A General Theory of Marketing Ethics (1986) (with Shelby D. Hunt) and Marketing's Contribution to Economic Development: A Look at the Last 30 Years (1985) (with Van R. Wood). Stephen J. Grove is Assistant Professor of Marketing at Clemson University. His articles have appeared in the Journal of Health Care Marketing, the International Journal of Sport Psychology, the Journal of Sport Behavior, the Bulletin of the Association for Business Communication, Simulation and Games, and several national and regional conference proceedings.     

Public relations: The empirical research on practitioner ethics

An examination of the empirical literature on public relations ethics indicates serious doubts and concerns about the ethics of the public relations practice. Practitioners tend to perceive the ethics of their top management as higher than their own ethics, suggesting that top management (of which practitioners are a part) should be in the forefront of improving organizational and practitioner ethics.This article also discusses public relations practitioners' suggestions on how ethics in public relations can be improved. Sample members of the Public Relations Society of America most frequently suggest having ethics education, taking disciplinary action against violators of codes of ethics, and emphasizing professionalism of practitioners as strategies for improving practitioner ethics. This article also concludes that, because ethics education leads the list of suggestions, professional-development seminars and college-level courses might explore in further detail those ethics issues most common in the practice and might examine in group settings how the ethics of such issues are perceived by practitioners.Cornelius B. Pratt is Associate Professor of Communication Studies at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, where he teaches international communication and public relations. His current research interests are mass media ethics in Third World development and ethics in public relations. He is an accredited member of the Public Relations Society of America.     

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.     

Offshoring and occupational wages: Some empirical evidence

Offshoring has changed the pattern of international competition; labor in specific occupations rather than whole firms and sectors are now facing competition. Accordingly, wages in offshorable occupations are affected in new ways. In this article, we investigate the effects of offshoring on relative occupational wages in 13 countries for 1990–2003. Our findings show that offshoring competiveness is associated with higher relative wages in offshorable occupations, and that export growth of IT-related services leads to higher relative wages in offshorable occupations, whereas import growth of such services reduces them.     

Innovative ethics officers as drivers of effective ethics programs: An empirical study in the Netherlands

Ethical misconduct and violations seriously harm individuals and organizations and lead to massive fines or the dismissal of employees and CEOs. Many firms have implemented ethics programs to prevent unethical behavior but these are often ineffective and take a traditional approach. Ethics officers are often responsible for running and developing ethics programs, in collaboration with other departments. They can, therefore, play a key role in improving ethics program effectiveness. We postulate that ethics officers need to adopt a more innovative approach in order to achieve ethical behavior among employees and managers, and that such an innovative approach requires certain personality traits. This study investigates how ethics officers’ personality traits and innovative work behaviors relate to the effectiveness of ethics programs and normative ethical behavior through an online questionnaire conducted among 110 ethics officers in large Dutch organizations. Structural equations modeling showed that innovative work behavior mediated the relationship between ethics officers’ openness to experience and ethics program effectiveness which, in turn, is related to more normative ethical behavior. Future research must examine the (partial) mediation effects, including other characteristics of ethics officers in relation to ethics program effectiveness and ethical behaviors at work, and replicate the study multi‐nationally.     

Aristotelian virtue and business ethics education

In recent years there has been an increased interest in the application of Aristotelian virtue to business ethics. The objective of this paper is to describe the moral and intellectual virtues defined by Aristotle and the types of pedagogy that might be used to integrate virtue ethics into the business curriculum. Virtues are acquired human qualities, the excellences of character, which enable a person to achieve the good life. In business, the virtues facilitate successful cooperation and enable the community to achieve its collective goals. The cultivation of virtue in students requires imparting knowledge about virtue and training students to be virtuous. A variety of instructional techniques are discussed including using case studies, collaborative and cooperative learning, role-playing, and video presentations. Business educators should emphasize to students that virtue considerations apply both to possible actions they may take and to themselves as moral agents. Since faculty may be viewed as role models, it is especially important that they set proper standards of behavior for students to emulate. Steven M. Mintz is the Dean of the School of Business and Public Administration at California State University, San Bernardino. His accounting ethics casebook, Cases in Accounting Ethics and Professionalism, is in its third edition and is published by McGraw-Hill.     

Situational ethics: An empirical study of differentiators of student attitudes

This paper reports the results of a questionnaire administered to 1178 undergraduate students and discusses how they responded to ten situations which asked them to assess their personal evaluation of the ethical acceptability, how society would similarly assess the situation and how business persons would respond. Multiple versions of the instrument were developed to investigate if the sex of the person involved in the situation would influence the respondents' perception of the ethical action involved. No differences were identified. Further, the image of business persons as less ethical than society in general seems to have evaporated. Charles W. McNichols is Professor of Management at Clemson University where he teaches courses emphasizing management applications of computer technology. He was previously Professor of Operations Research at the Air Force Institute of Technology. He has published three books dealing with business and professional applications of microcomputers, and articles in the Academy of Management Journal, Journal of Applied Psychology,the IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management,and other management publications. Thomas W. Zimmer is Professor of Management at Clemson University. He has authored books on business, business policy supervision and small business management, as well as over 50 articles which have appeared in Nation's Business, Management Review, Human Resources Management,and many others. Dr. Zimmerer has been honored in his academic career by membership both in Beta Gamma Sigma and Phi Kappa Phi, as well as twice being voted by the students as the outstanding teacher in his college. In 1975 he was elected to Outstanding Educators in American. Dr. Zimmerer was formerly with Florida Atlantic University and the McDonald-Douglas Corporation.     

Pygmalion effect: An issue for business education and ethics

This study reports the results of a survey designed to assess the impact of business education on the ethical beliefs of business students. The study examines the beliefs of graduate and undergraduate students about ethical behavior in educational settings. The investigation indicates that the behavior which students learn or perceive is required to succeed in business schools may run counter to the ethical sanctions of society and the business community. Michael S. Lane is Assistant Professor of Management at West Virginia University. He is the coauthor of An Integrated Approach to Curriculum Design/Redesign, Journal of Education for Business (1986), and Corporate Goals and Managerial Motivation, Mid-South Business Journal (1985).Dietrich Schaupp is Professor of Management at West Virginia University.Barbara Parsons is Assistant Professor of Commerce at Fairmont State College.     

Green consumer market segmentation: empirical findings from Portugal

Concern with environmental degradation has led to a new segment of consumers: the green or ecological consumers. Marketers must pay special attention to the needs of this segment. The growing concern with the environment, increased competition and greater selectiveness and demands of consumers represent an immediate challenge for green marketing. This paper aims to identify distinct market segments based on several environmental variables. It also investigates individuals' behaviours and perceptions about green consumerism. The used methodology was the collection of primary information through a direct survey. The study covered 887 Portuguese consumers, aged over 18. The results show that certain environmental and demographic variables are significant in differentiating between the ‘greener’ consumer group and the other segments. Portuguese consumers, despite their support for policies designed to improve the environment, do not always translate their concerns into environmentally friendly actions. Possible implications of these results for firms' marketing strategies are also discussed.     

Embodied ethics: Some common concerns of religion and business

De George's understanding of theology is limited to one of five commonly recognized models of theology, the orthodox model. This model is vulnerable to De George's criticisms. When religious ethics operates out of the revisionist model of theology, however, his criticisms lose their sting. Revisionist religious ethics, moreover, can make a fruitful contribution to business ethics. Such a religious ethic acknowledges the embodiment dimension of business activities, it complements philosophical analysis with the practice of moral discernment, and it recognizes irony as an active component in decision-making.John T. Leahy is an Associate Professor of Religious Studies at DePaul University.     

Marketing skills: Critical issues in marketing education and training

A central issue marketing educators and trainers need to address concerns the appropriateness of their courses and whether they develop the skills that prospective employers value. This paper reports on an attempt to document those skills and to examine the extent to which they are unique to the field of marketing. Four strands of research are reported on: a literature search based on the Social Science Citation Index; a review of advertisements for marketing personnel; a content analysis of a publication containing commentaries from graduates on their experiences in marketing posts; and a survey of employers.

In carrying out this research, it became clear that there was a dearth of well articulated and considered thought on the issue of marketing skills. Behind a rhetoric that depicts employers as knowing and discriminating, the emergent reality was of a group which had no clear idea of the particular skills which they needed in marketing personnel. Perhaps even more worrying is the extent to which employers cannot distinguish between the performance of marketing and non‐marketing trained entrants to their companies either at the stage of recruitment or when they are in post.

Academics and employers are involved in an exchange but the success of that exchange is in some doubt. In conclusion we seek a more active dialogue between the two parties to ensure improvement in the relationship which can only lead to more efficient and effective education and training.     

Choosing among diffusion models: Some empirical evidence

Is there a ‘best’ diffusion model? How many and which parameters will adequately represent the long-run diffusion process? Two studies using first purchase data for nineteen durable goods are used to systematically compare twenty-four alternative diffusion models: a meta-analytic study, which pools across categories, and an economic approach, which determines the best fitting model for each category individually. A number of guidelines are produced, which stand to improve the choice of diffusion models in forecasting, theory testing, and normative studies.     

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.