Professional Values and Perceptions Underlying Ethical Judgments: A Survey of Marketing Professionals in Thailand

ABSTRACT

Theoretical and empirical works generally suggest that variations in ethical judgments exist between different cultures. This study analyzes the ethical decisions of Thai marketing professionals. In particular, it examines the relative influences of professional values and ethical perceptions on the ethical judgments of Thai marketers. The results based on a survey of members of the Thai Marketing Association indicate that there is a significant relationship between a Thai marketer's ethical perceptions and his/her ethical judgments. The results reveal a weak relationship between professional values and the ethical judgments of Thai marketers.     

The influence of organizational rank and role on marketing professionals' ethical judgments

The author examines empirically the extent to which marketing professionals of different organizational ranks (lower versus upper) and roles (executive versus research) differ in ethical judgments. For organizational rank, the results indicate that marketing professionals of lower organizational rank do not differ from those of upper organizational rank in ethical judgments. For organizational role, the results suggest that marketing professionals of executive role differ in an overall sense from marketing professionals of research role in ethical judgments. In general, marketing professionals of executive role reflect higher ethical judgments than those of research role. Ishmael P. Akaah is Professor of Marketing at Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan. Professor Akaah's articles have appeared in the Journal of Business Ethics, Journal of Health Care Marketing, Journal of Business Research, International Marketing Review, Journal of Global Marketing, Journal of Business Logistics, Journal of Direct Marketing, and Proceedings of the American Marketing Association, and elsewhere. His current research interests include consumer decision processes, marketing ethics, and international marketing strategy.     

Ethical ideologies: Efficient assessment and influence on ethical judgments of marketing practices

Individuals often differ with respect to their ethical judgments of marketing practices. Personal beliefs are presumably important sources of such differences. This article reports on the development and testing of an original, parsimonious measure of personal moral beliefs based on Forsyth's (1980) taxonomy of ethical ideologies. In contrast to Forsyth's longer, more general measure, the short scale presented here is designed specifically for application in marketing ethics research. Results of three studies suggest that Idealism and Ideological Relativism dimensions can be reliably distinguished and represented by the authors' 7‐item MEI (Marketing Ethical Ideology) scale. Moreover, ethical ideology is shown to influence evaluations of representative ethical problems in marketing. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

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 Influence of Love of Money and Religiosity on Ethical Decision-Making in Marketing

The impact of “love of money” on different aspects of consumers’ ethical beliefs has been investigated by previous research. In this study we investigate the potential impact of “love of money” on a manager’s ethical decision-making in marketing. Another objective of the current study is to investigate the potential impacts of extrinsic and intrinsic religiosity on ethical marketing decision-making. We also include ethical judgments as an element of ethical decision-making. We found “love of money”, both dimensions of religiosity, and ethical judgment to have significant impacts on ethical intentions in a marketing situation. In addition to providing an important contribution to the business ethics literature, the findings also have important managerial implications.     

Ethnic Marketing Ethics

Culture plays an important role in defining ethics standards because dissimilar cultures socialize their people differently, according to what is acceptable behaviour. The potential significance of ethnic groups for marketing justifies inquiry into the moral judgments, standards, and rules of conduct exercised in marketing decisions and situations arising from decisions whether or not to focus on individual ethnic groups within an economy. Identifying and targeting ethnic groups for marketing purposes are tasks fraught with many ethical difficulties. In a multicultural society consisting of a dominant group and many diverse, minority groups defined by ethnicity, these problems can be expected to increase substantially. Consequently, marketers may include minority ethnic consumers in their mainstream marketing programs. In itself, this has ethical consequences. Alternatively, if marketers seek to target individual minority ethnic groups within the same economy a further set of ethical consequences needs to be considered. This paper reviews the concepts of ethnicity and ethnic groups and their relevance for marketing strategy within an economy where there is a dominant group and also significant minority ethnic groups. The ethical consequences for minority communities arising from the use of non-ethnic, mainstream marketing programs are examined. An alternative approach, ethnic marketing, is also examined and its ethical consequences in terms of other groups within the one country appraised. The ethical dilemma and tradeoffs facing marketers within advanced, culturally diverse countries are then considered.     

Ethical Judgments: What Do We Know, Where Do We Go?

Investigations into ethical judgments generally seem fuzzy as to the relevant research domain. We first attempted to clarify the construct and determine domain parameters. This attempt required addressing difficulties associated with pinpointing relevant literature, most notably the varied nomenclature used to refer to ethical judgments (individual evaluations of actions’ ethicality). Given this variation in construct nomenclature and the difficulties it presented in identifying pertinent focal studies, we elected to focus on research that cited papers featuring prominent and often-used measures of ethical judgments (primarily, but not exclusively, the Multidimensional Ethics Scale). Our review of these studies indicated a preponderance of inferences and conclusions unwarranted by empirical evidence (likely attributable at least partly to inconsistent nomenclature). Moreover, ethical judgments related consistently to few respondent characteristics or any other variables, emergent relationships may not always be especially meaningful, and much research seems inclined to repetition of already verified findings. Although we concluded that knowledge about ethical judgments seems not to have advanced appreciably after decades of investigation, we suggested a possible path forward that focuses on the content of what is actually being judged as reflected in the myriad of vignettes used in the literature to elicit judgments.     

Predictors, consequence, and measurement of ethical judgments: Review and meta-analysis

As a central construct in theories of ethical decision making, ethical judgments have been the subject of more than one hundred empirical studies. Despite its size, the ethical judgments literature seems to lack clarity in three areas. First, empirical results are sometimes inconsistent or contradictory across studies. Second, a broad array of diverse measures of ethical judgments raises concerns about research validity. Third, differences in sample composition may affect comparability of study results. To help resolve these issues, this study conducts a review and meta-analysis of the ethical judgments literature. The results offer insights in all three areas. They help resolve some of the inconsistencies in the relationships between ethical judgments and certain theoretical antecedents; they support the use of diverse measures of ethical judgments; and they offer caution in the use of student samples in ethical judgments research.     

Ethical Ideology and the Ethical Judgments of Marketing Professionals

The present study extends the study of individuals' ethical ideology withinthe context of marketing ethics issues. A national sample of marketing professionals participated. Respondents' ethical ideologies were classified as absolutists, situationists, exceptionists, or subjectivists using the Ethical Position Questionnaire (Forsyth, 1980). Respondents then answered questions about three ethically ambiguous situations common to marketing and sales. The results indicated that marketers' ethical judgments about the situations differed based on their ethical ideology, with absolutists rating the actions as most unethical. The findings are consistent with those of two earlier studies that utilized samples of business students (Barnett et al., 1994, 1995). The results suggest that personal moral philosophy is an important influence on ethical decision making that should be considered in empirical studies of business ethics. The results also support the utility of the Ethical Position Questionnaire (Forsyth, 1980) as a means for researchers and practitioners to assess individuals' ethical ideology.     

An Empirical Examination of Marketing Professionals' Ethical Behavior in Differing Situations

The ethical behavior of a national sample of marketing professionals was examined by analyzing their responses to four different types of ethical dilemmas presented in vignette form. The ethical situations operationalize the concepts of coercion and control, deceit and falsehood, conflict of interest, and self integrity, within the context of the marketing mix elements – place, promotion, price, and product. Responses were examined to determine whether behavior varied by type of ethical situation, and whether demographic factors affected their responses. The results indicate that marketing professionals vary their ethical decisions depending on which marketing mix decision they face. Among demographic variables, age, gender, and education level had significant but mixed influence on respondents' ethical decisions across the different situations.     

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 impact of a shift in organizational role on ethical perceptions: A comparative study

This study investigates ethical decision-making by considering the differences in ethical judgments between undergraduate business and MBA students on selected ethical issues facing employees and managers of today's businesses. The study further investigates differences in ethical judgments between undergraduates and MBAs in terms of a perceived position as an employee or as a manager. The findings indicate that undergraduate students tend to be more ethical than MBA students and that both groups tend to be more ethical when they perceive themselves as managers rather than employees. The authors discuss the implications for both business practitioners and educators.Shohreh A. Kaynama is Associate Professor of Marketing in the School of Business and Economics at Towson State University in Baltimore, Maryland. She earned a Ph.D. in Marketing and the Decision Sciences. Dr. Kaynama has published extensively in numerous National and International proceedings. Her area of research is strategic marketing, consumer behavior, applications of computers and decision sciences in marketing and global marketing. Louise W. Smith is Professor of Marketing in the School of Business and Economics at Towson State University in Baltimore, Maryland. Dr. Smith's main professional interest is consumer behavior. Dr. Smith's articles have appeared in the Journal of Public Policy & Marketing, Journal of Health Care Marketing, Journal of Marketing Education, Journal of Services Marketing, and Journal of Consumer Marketing among others. Algin B. King is Professor of Marketing in the School of Business and Economics at Towson State University in Baltimore, Maryland. He has served on the Faculties of seven universities, publishing numerous articles in National Professional Meetings Proceedings and scholarly journals including Journal of Euro-Marketing, Atlantic Economic Journal. In addition he has served as a business consultant to numerous business firms.     

Ethical judgments and intentions: a multinational study of marketing professionals

A multinational study of marketing professionals was conducted in the US, England, Spain and Turkey. Respondents from these countries were compared on various ethics-related constructs such as idealism, relativism, moral intensity and corporate ethical values. Analyses of variance indicated that moral intensity had a signi ?cant impact on both ethical judgments and behavioral intentions. However, corporate ethical values, an idealistic ethical perspective and a relativistic ethical perspective only partially impacted ethical judgments and intentions. Country differences showed that the US was highest in terms of corporate ethical values while being the lowest in terms of relativism and signi?cantly lower than Spain and Turkey in terms of idealism. Turkey was the highest in terms of both idealism and relativism yet lowest in terms of corporate ethical values. Country differences in terms of moral intensity tended to be situation-speci?c. One managerial implication, for ?rms in all four countries, is that a clear set of corporate policies concerning ethics can positively in?uence the behavioral intentions of employees. It is important that employees do not misinterpret the desires of top management where ethical issues are involved.     

The Effect of Organizational Culture and Ethical Orientation on Accountants' Ethical Judgments

This paper examines the relationship between organizational ethical culture in two large international CPA firms, auditors' personal values and the ethical orientation that those values dictate, and judgments in ethical dilemmas typical of those that accountants face. Using an experimental task consisting of multiple judgments designed to vary in "moral intensity" (Jones, 1991), and unique as well as tried-and-true approaches to variable measurements, this study examined the judgments of more than three hundred participants in our study. ANCOVA and path analysis results indicate that: (1) Ethical judgments in situations of high moral intensity are affected by personal values and by environmental variables, such as the professional code of conduct (direct and indirect effects) and previous ethics instruction (direct effect only). (2) Corporate ethical culture, and a relatively strong firm rules-orientation, affect auditors' idealism but not relativism, and therefore indirectly affect ethical judgments. Jones' (1991) moral intensity argument is supported: differences in the characteristics of specific judgment tasks apparently result in different decision processes.     

The roles of personality and general ethical judgments in intention to not repay credit card expenses

There are no ‘card slaves’ but only cardholders who cannot meet their obligations. Recently, the issue that people are plagued by huge credit card debt has become more serious in Taiwan. This study proposed a model linking personality traits (locus of control (LOC) and risk-taking propensity), general ethical judgments regarding credit card use, and behavioral intention to not repay credit card expenses. External LOC and risk-taking propensity can predict intention to not repay through ethical judgments. Furthermore, external LOC can directly affect the intention. The model has been empirically justified by using the data collected from 448 credit cardholders in Taiwan (at least 20 years old). Those with ethical judgments of actively benefiting from illegal activities or passively benefiting at the expense of others tend to have an intention to not repay. By understanding the causes of not repaying credit card expenses, financial service providers should be able to effectively reduce card bad debts. In particular, relationship marketing strategies are helpful to mitigate cardholders’ intention to passively not repay.     

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.     

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     

Marketing

In carrying out their jobs marketers face many ethical dilemmas. Several examples of such dilemmas and how managers may reduce unethical marketing behavior are discussed. Managers must expose unethical marketing practices and encourage ethical behavior. This can be done by establishing organizational goals, providing supportive corporate environments, and drafting codes of conduct or codes of ethics. Each of these factors is discussed in separate sections of h e article. Top managers can uphold marketing ethics by creating programs to mobilize the organization toward realizing its ethical goals. Top managers can support ethical marketing behavior by setting realistic marketing goals and rewarding ethical marketers. Finally, corporate marketing