Corporate Social Responsibility: A Comparative Analysis of Perceptions of Practicing Accountants and Accounting Students

The results of a survey of 272 practicing accountants and 374 accounting students enrolled in six universities are analyzed. Differences and similarities between the two groups with regard to their attitudes toward corporate social responsibility are examined. The results indicate that the students exhibit greater concern about the ethical and discretionary components of corporate responsibility and a weaker orientation toward economic performance. No significant differences between the two groups were observed with respect to the legal dimension of corporate social responsibility. Some explanations as well as limited generalizations and implications are developed. 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. 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, Business Review, the International Journal of Commerce and Management 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.     

The Effectiveness of Business Codes: A Critical Examination of Existing Studies and the Development of an Integrated Research Model

Business codes are a widely used management instrument. Research into the effectiveness of business codes has, however, produced conflicting results. The main reasons for the divergent findings are: varying definitions of key terms; deficiencies in the empirical data and methodologies used; and a lack of theory. In this paper, we propose an integrated research model and suggest directions for future research. Muel Kaptein is Professor of Business Ethics and Integrity Management at the Department of Business-Society Management at RSM Erasmus University. His research interests include the management of ethics, the measurement of ethics and the ethics of management. He has published papers in the Journal of Business Ethics, Business & Society, Organization Studies, Academy of Management Review, Business & Society Review, Corporate Governance, Policing, Public Integrity, and European Management Journal. He is the author of the books Ethics Management (Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1998),The Balanced Company (Oxford University Press, 2002), and The Six Principles of Managing with Integrity (Spiro Press, 2005). Muel is also director at KPMG Integrity, where he assisted more than 40 companies in developing their business code. Mark S. Schwartz is Assistant Professor of Goverance, Law and Ethics at the Atkinson School of Administrative Studies at York University (Toronto). His research interests include corporate ethics programs, ethical leadership, and corporate social responsibility. He has published papers in the Journal of Business Ethics, Business & Society, Business Ethics Quarterly, Professional Ethics, and the Journal of Management History, and is a co-author of the textbook Business Ethics: Readings and Cases in Corporate Morality (McGraw Hill). He is also a Research Fellow of the Center of Business Ethics (Bentley College) and the Business Ethics Center of Jerusalem (Jerusalem College of Technology).     

The ethics of empowerment

Driven by competitive pressure, organizations are empowering employees to use their judgment, creativity, and ideas in pursuit of enhanced organizational performance and both employee and shareholder satisfaction. This empowerment offers both benefits and potential harm. This article explores the benefits and harm associated with role, reward, process and governance empowerment and makes recommendations for minimizing the harm while maximizing the benefits.Jeffrey Gandz is a Professor and the Director of the MBA Program, at the Western Business School, teaching courses in Organizational Behavior, Human Resource Management, and Industrial Relations in both degree and executive programs. His current research is focused on the achievement of organizational effectiveness through the matching of organizational strategies, cultures, and individual values. Frederick Bird is a Professor of Comparative Ethics at Concordia University in Montréal, where he directs the Ph.D. in Religion and teaches in the Religion and Management Departments and in the Executive MBA. He is the co-authors with Jeffrey Gandz of Good Management: Business Ethics in Action (Prentice-Hall) and the author of Good Conversations: A Practical Role for Ethics in Business (Boston College) and numerous articles. He is currently directing a research project with Manny Velasquez and Jeffrey Gandz studying how corporation manage moral issues.     

The challenge of global ethics

The authors argue that the time is ripe for national and corporate leaders to move consciously towards the development of global ethics. This papers presents a model of global ethics, a rationale for the development of global ethics, and the implications of the model for research and practice.Paul F. Buller is an Associate Professor of management in the School of Business Administration at Gonzaga University where he teaches courses in strategic management. Dr. Buller holds a PhD degree in Business Administration from the University of Washington, and has published a number of articles appearing in academic and practitioner journals.John Kohls is an Associate Professor of Management at Gonzaga University. He teaches classes in Business Ethics, Business, Government and Society, and Organizational Behavior. He has written numerous articles in these areas and conducts Management Development workshops including Ethics, Organizational Culture, and Leadership.Kenneth S. Anderson is an Associate Professor of management at the School of Business Administration, Gonzaga University. His research interests include ethics, burnout, and linkages between strategy and human resource management.     

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.     

The course in business ethics: Can it work?

An examination of ninety-nine syllabi for undergraduate courses in business ethics, collected by the Center for Business Ethics at Bentley College, reveals that half the courses are offered to freshmen and sophomores. Because of the fact that these students will have minimal knowledge of the functional areas of business firms, and because these courses rely heavily on case analysis, it is likely that the students in these courses are not able to deal effectively with the material in the course. Therefore, any expectation that the business ethics course will raise the students' ethical sensitivity when considering business problems or decisions is unrealistic.Dr. Pamental teaches Business, Government and Society and Business Ethics in Literature at Rhode Island College, and is a Research Fellow of the Center for Business Ethics at Bentley College. He has written extensively on the subject of business ethics and its relationship to business programs.     

The corporate social responsiveness orientation of board members: Are there differences between inside and outside directors?

Differences and similarities between inside and outside board members with regard to their attitudes toward corporate social responsibility are examined. The results indicate that outside directors exhibit greater concern about the discretionary component of corporate responsibility and a weaker orientation toward economic performance. No significant differences between the two groups were observed with respect to the legal and ethical dimensions of corporate social responsibility. Some explanations as well as limited generalizations and implications are developed.Nabil Ibrahim is the Grover Maxwell Professor of Business Administration at Augusta College, Augusta, Georgia. He teaches courses in Strategic Management and Organizational Behavior. Dr. Ibrahim's articles have appeared in theJournal of Business Ethics, theJournal of Applied Business Research, andHealth Care Management Review as well as various other journals and proceedings.John Angelidis is Assistant Professor of Management at St. John's University, New York, NY. He teaches courses in Strategic Management and International Business. Dr. Angelidis has published articles in theMid-Atlantic Journal of Business, theJournal of Applied Business Research, andBusiness Review, as well as in various other journals and proceedings.     

The Role of Law in Models of Ethical Behavior

In attempting to improve ethical decision-making in business organizations, researchers have developed models of ethical decision-making processes. Most of these models do not include a role for law in ethical decision-making, or if law is mentioned, it is set as a boundary constraint, exogenous to the decision process. However, many decision models in business ethics are based on cognitive moral development theory, in which the law is thought to be the external referent of individuals at the level of cognitive development that most people have achieved. Other theoretical bases of ethical decision models, social learning, and experientialism, also imply a role for law that is rarely made explicit. Law is a more important aspect of ethical decision-process models than it appears to be in the models. This paper will derive explicit roles for the law from the cognition, experientialism, and social learning theories that are used to build ethical decision-making models for business behavior. Sandra Christensen is Professor of Management at Eastern Washington University, where she teaches courses in Business & Society, International Business, and Leadership & Ethics. She has published in Business and Society, Business Ethics Quarterly, the Journal of Business Ethics, and the Academy of Management Review.     

Working Together: Critical Perspectives on Six Cross-Sector Partnerships in Southern Africa

Early strategy scholars have pointed to the importance of reflecting on moral issues within the scope of strategic management. Although strategy content and context have been discussed in relation to ethical reflection, the third aspect, strategy process, has found only little or no attention with regard to ethics. We argue that by emphasizing the process perspective one can understand the related character of strategic management and ethical reflection. We discuss this relatedness along formal, functional, and procedural similarities. Whereas formal aspects refer to the conditions under which both processes occur, functional aspects look at the role that strategy process and ethical reflection fulfill. Procedural aspects account for similarities in the nature of both processes insofar as the activities that are conducted within each process phase share common characteristics. We claim that ethical reflection can be thought of as an integrative part of strategic management – either explicitly or implicitly. Michael Behnam received his PhD from the University of Frankfurt, Germany. He is an Associate Professor of Management at the Sawyer Business School, Suffolk University, Boston, USA. Prior to this he was the Head of the Department of International Management at the European Business School, Germany. His research has been published in Journal of Business Ethics, Journal of International Business and Economy as well as in German top-tier outlets. He authored or co-authored numerous book chapters as well as three books, most recently the 7th edition of a textbook on Strategic Management. His research areas are Strategic Management, International Management and Business Ethics. Andreas Rasche received his PhD from European Business School, Germany and is currently Assistant Professor for Business Ethics at Helmut-Schmidt-University, University of the Federal Armed Forces in Hamburg, Germany. He has published articles in the Journal of Business Ethics, Business Ethics Quarterly and authored numerous book chapters on international accountability standards. He has gained working experience at the United Nations in Washington D.C. and New York and works closely with the United Nations Global Compact Office. His research interests and publications focus on the process of standardization in the field of CSR and the adoption of standards by corporations. More information is available under: http://www.arasche.com     

A different look at texts

The course in business ethics is required by an increasing number of business programs. Accordingly, it seems appropriate to evaluate the text materials used from the perspective of the business student.Relative to early criticisms, recent texts represent considerable improvements in their use of case materials and in the manner by which they involve the student in decision-making situations. However, there are two distortions present in all of the texts examined. First, they concentrate too heavily on cases of a policy, or general management, nature. The result is an inadequate coverage of the functional areas of the firm in which graduates begin their employment. Second, they concentrate too heavily on manufacturing firms, and thus do not introduce students to the ethical problems found where they are most likely to work, in service firms.It is to be hoped that these imbalances can be easily corrected, thus providing students with a more realistic picture of where in the firm, and in which types of firms, ethical issues are likely to arise. Professor Pamental teaches Marketing and Management courses, including Business, Government & Society, at Rhode Island College. He is also a Research Fellow at the Center for Business Ethics at Bentley College. His dissertation has been published by the University Press of America. The book is titled, Ethics in the Business Curriculum: A Preliminary Survey of Undergraduate Business Programs.     

Personal characteristics in college students' evaluations of business ethics and corporate social responsibility

A survey of 138 college students reveals an undergraduate major has a greater influence on corporate social responsibility than business ethics. Business students are no less ethical than nonbusiness students. Females are more ethical and socially responsible than males. Age is negatively related to one's Machiavellian orientation and positively related to negative attitudes about corporate efforts at social responsibility. The results suggest a greater need to focus busines ethics instruction based on student characteristics. Peter Arlow is Professor of Management at Youngstown State University, Youngstown, Ohio, U.S.A., where he teaches M.B.A. and undergraduate management courses. He has previously published in the Academy of Management Review, Business Horizons, International Journal of Management, Long-Range Planning, Journal of Business Ethics, Akron Business and Economic Review, and other Journals.     

A critique of service learning projects in management education: Pedagogical foundations,barriers, and guidelines

This critique of nine service learning projects within schools of business is designed to encourage other educational institutions to add service learning requirements into business ethics and leadership courses. It champions the role of the faculty member teaching these courses while at the same time offering constructive analysis on pedagogy, a review of curriculum issues, identification of barriers to service learning, and guidelines for teaching service learning ventures. Challenges to all faculty involved in business ethics courses are made to better manage their courses and careers from a broader context outside of university settings.Thomas A. Kolenko is an associate professor of management at Kennesaw State College in Marietta, Georgia.Gayle Porter is a member of the Management Faculty at Rutgers, School of Business in Camden, N.J., where she teaches Social Responsibility of Business, Organizational Change and Development, and Organizational Behavior.Walter J. Wheatley is an associate professor of management/MIS at the University of West Florida.Marvelle Colby, is the Chairperson of the Business Management Division at Marymount Manhattan College in New York.     

The moral authority of transnational corporate codes

Ethical guidelines for multinational corporations are included in several international accords adopted during the past four decades. These guidelines attempt to influence the practices of multinational enterprises in such areas as employment relations, consumer protection, environmental pollution, political participation, and basic human rights. Their moral authority rests upon the competing principles of national sovereignty, social equity, market integrity, and human rights. Both deontological principles and experience-based value systems undergird and justify the primacy of human rights as the fundamental moral authority of these transnational and transcultural compacts. Although difficulties and obstacles abound in gaining operational acceptance of such codes of conduct, it is possible to argue that their guidelines betoken the emergence of a transcultural corporate ethic. William C. Frederick is Professor of Business Administration, Graduate School of Business, University of Pittsburgh. He is President (1990) of the Society for Business Ethics, former chair of the Social Issues in Management division of The Academy of Management, and was the Charles Dirksen Professor of Business Ethics at Santa Clara University in 1980–81. He is coauthor of Business and Society: Corporate Strategy, Public Policy, Ethics (McGraw-Hill, 1988).     

Ethics programs and their dimensions

All organizations have ethics programs which consist of both explicit and implicit parts. This paper defines corporate ethics programs and identifies a number of their components. Corporate ethics programs' structural and behavioral dimensions are proposed which may allow further examination of such program components and their impacts. Finally, fifteen propositions are suggested which describe the influence of founder values, competitive pressures, leadership, and organizational problems on corporate ethics programs and the manageability of such programs.Steven N. Brenner is currently Sponsored Professor of Business Ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility at Portland State University, Portland, Oregon. He served from 1983 through 1987 as Associate Dean for Graduate Programs in its School of Business Administration. Dr. Brenner has written articles forHarvard Business Review, The Academy of Management national MeetingsProceedings, The JAI PressResearch on Corporate Social Performance and Policy, and other publications. He has served as the Chairman and Program Chairman for the Social Issues in Management Division of the Academy of Management and is Chairman of the International Association of Business and Society's 1992 meeting to be held in Leuven, Belgium. He teaches courses in corporate social responsibility, business ethics, managing in a regulated world, business/government relations, business policy and organizational politics. During 1989–90 he was on a sabbatical leave doing research on corporate social responsibility and acting as Chair of the Academy of Management's Ethics Task Force which wrote the Academy's Code of Ethical Conduct.This work was supported in part by a grant from the Chiles Foundation, Portland, Oregon.     

The Communication of Corporate Social Responsibility: United States and European Union Multinational Corporations

This study explores corporate social responsibility (CSR) by conducting a cross-cultural analysis of communication of CSR activities in a total of 16 U.S. and European corporations. Drawing on previous research contrasting two major approaches to CSR initiatives, it was proposed that U.S. companies would tend to communicate about and justify CSR using economic or bottom-line terms and arguments whereas European companies would rely more heavily on language or theories of citizenship, corporate accountability, or moral commitment. Results supported this expectation of difference, with some modification. Specifically, results indicated that EU companies do not value sustainability to the exclusion of financial elements, but instead project sustainability commitments in addition to financial commitments. Further, U.S.-based companies focused more heavily on financial justifications whereas EU-based companies incorporated both financial and sustainability elements in justifying their CSR activities. In addition, wide variance was found in both the prevalence and use of specific CSR-related terminology. Cross-cultural distinctions in this use create implications with regard to measurability and evidence of both strategic and bottom-line impact. Directions for further research are discussed. Laura P. Hartman is a Professor of Business Ethics and Legal Studies in the Management Department in the College of Commerce at DePaul University, as Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs of the University and as Research Director of DePaul’s Institute for Business and Professional Ethics. She is also an invited professor at INSEAD (France), HEC (France), the University of Melbourne, the Université Paul Cezanne Aix Marseille III and the Grenoble Graduate School of Business. She has been published in, among other journals, Business Ethics Quarterly, Business & Society Review, Business Ethics: A European Review, and the Journal of Business Ethics. Robert S. Rubin is an Assistant Professor in the Management Department at DePaul University’s Kellstadt Graduate School of Business. He received his PhD in organizational psychology from Saint Louis University. His current research interests include transformational leadership, leader cynicism, social and emotional individual differences, and management education and development. K. Kathy Dhanda is an Associate Professor at the Department of Management at DePaul University. Her areas of research include sustainable supply chains, environmental networks, marketable permit modeling, sustainable management, and public policy.     

The Great Forgotten Issue: Vindicating Ethics in the European Qualifications Framework (EQF)

Various international authorities have insisted on the importance of ethical learning in higher education for would-be professionals, including students of Business Administration. As the process of creating the European Higher Education Area gathers pace, first steps have been taken to explicitly incorporate ethics in the common European Qualifications Framework (EQF). However, the authors of this study show how in the course of the EQF development process, the consideration given to ethical qualifications has been curtailed and subjected to serious limitations. In this article, the authors review the historical development and the main elements of the EQF. Then, they analyze the gradual elimination of ethics within the EQF. Finally, they highlight the implications of this gradual elimination and propose avenues for further research. Manuel Guillén is Senior Lecturer in Management, at the University of Valencia (Spain). Prof. Guillén earned his PhD in Management with a specialization in ethics and strategic management integration. He has been a Visiting Scholar at the University of St. Thomas, Minnesota (USA), at the University of Notre Dame, Indiana, USA, and guest Visiting Student at IESE Business School doctoral program, in Barcelona. He has presented some of his research at the top conferences in the field and has published in business ethics and management journals. Since 1997 he has taught Business Ethics courses in different business schools, institutions, and companies. Joan Fontrodona is an Associate Professor of Business Ethics and Academic Director of the Center for Business in Society at IESE Business School. He is member of the Academic Board of EABIS, Chairman of EBEN-Spain, and Member of the Executive Committee of ASEPAM, the Spanish Local Network of the Global Compact. He has published several books and papers on business ethics, corporate social responsibility, philosophy, and management. Alfredo Rodríguez-Sedano holds a PhD in Philosophy and a PhD in Business Administration. He is Professor of Sociology at the Education Department of the University of Navarre (Spain). He is also Visiting Professor at the Catholic University of the West (El Salvador). He has been Visiting Professor at the University of Andes (Chile) and Regular Professor at the Catholic University of Sacred Conception (Chile). He has published 16 books, 12 book chapters, and 15 articles on different subjects in the fields of management, philosophy, and education.     

The other 338: Why a majority of our schools of business administration do not offer a course in business ethics

A recent survey indicated that the majority of schools of business administration do not offer courses in business ethics and/or the social responsibilities of business firms. The author examines the reasons for the omission of these courses, and concludes that faculty in the major disciplines and techniques of management do not recognize the complexity of ethical problems or the importance of ethical decisions in the overall management of large business organizations. La Rue Hosmer is Professor of Policy and Control at the Graduate School of Business Administration of the University of Michigan. He has A.B., M.B.A., and D.B.A. degrees from Harvard University, and was the founder and president of a company that manufactured heavy equipment for sawmills and papermills. He has been teaching Business Policy, Small Business Management and Entrepreneurship at The University of Michigan since 1972, with visiting appointments during that period at Stanford and Yale. His research interests are in managerial ethics, corporate responsibility and strategic implementation. He is the co-author of The Entrepreneurial Function (Prentice-Hall, 1977) and the author of Strategic Management: Text and Cases on Business Policy (Prentice-Hall, 1982), Formation Planning (McGraw-Hill, 1984), and Managerial Ethics (in press).     

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.     

Blind man's bluff: The ethics of quantity surcharges

Empirical evidence, including a recent field study in Northwest Indiana, indicates that supermarkets and other retail merchants frequently incorporate quantity surcharges in their product pricing strategy. Retailers impose surcharges by charging higher unit prices for products packaged in a larger quantity than smaller quantity of the same goods and brand. The purpose of this article is to examine the business ethics of such pricing strategy in light of empirical findings, existing government regulations, factors that motivate quantity surcharges and prevailing consumer perceptions.Omprakash K. Gupta is an Associate Professor of Management in the Division of Business & Economics at Indiana University Northwest. His research interests are in Operations Management, Management Science, Mathematical Modeling of Business Systems and Business Ethics. He has published several articles in national and international journals. He has also reviewed papers for many journals and edited special issues.Anna S. Rominger is an attorney, a mediator, and an Assistant Professor of Business Administration in the Division of Business & Economics at Indiana University Northwest. Her research interests are negotiation, alternative dispute resolutions, labor management relations, business ethics and professional liability. She has published articles in several of these areas.     

Assessing the application of cognitive moral development theory to business ethics

Cognitive moral development (CMD) theory has been accepted as a construct to help explain business ethics, social responsibility and other organizational phenomena. This article critically assesses CMD as a construct in business ethics by presenting the history and criticisms of CMD. The value of CMD is evaluated and problems with using CMD as one predictor of ethical decisions are addressed. Researchers are made aware of the major criticisms of CMD theory including disguised value judgments, invariance of stages, and gender bias in the initial scale development. Implications for business ethics research are discussed and opportunities for future research delineated.John Fraedrich is an Assistant Professor of Marketing at Southern Illinois University of Carbondale. His areas of interest include ethical decision making and international marketing. He has published inJournal of Macromarketing, Journal of Business Ethics, Journal of Academy of Marketing Science, Journal of Business Research, Journal of Marketing Management, International Journal of Value Based Management, andJournal of International Consumer Marketing. Dr. Fraedrich is co-author of a textbookBusiness Ethics: Ethical Decision Making and Cases, Second Edition.Debbie M. Thorne is an Assistant Professor of Marketing at the University of Tampa. Her areas of interest include business ethics, social network analysis, and cultural issues in organizations. She received a Ph.D. in 1993 and has published in theJournal of Teaching in International Business and numerous conference proceedings.O. C. Ferrell is Interim Dean and Distinguished Professor of Marketing and Business Ethics in the Fogelman College of Business and Economics at Memphis State University. Dr. Ferrell was chairman of the American Marketing Association Ethics Committee that developed the current AMA Code of Ethics. He has published articles on business ethics in theJournal of Marketing, Journal of Marketing Research, Journal of Business Research, Journal of Macromarketing, Human Relations, Journal of Business Ethics, as well as others. He has co-authored ten textbooks includingBusiness Ethics: Ethical Decision Making and Cases, Second Edition, and a tradebook,In Pursuit of Ethics.