Ethical beliefs and behavior among managers: A cross-cultural perspective

This study examines the ethical beliefs and behavior of a sample of Israeli managers (n=97) and comparable data from the United States. Israeli managers rated themselves both highly ethical and more ethical than their peers. These results are similar to those found for the U.S., and indicate that the best predictor of respondents' ethical behavior is their beliefs and perceptions concerning their peers' behavior. In addition, this study examines the managers' predisposition to promote social responsibility by joining social networks of managers and other business people, established for that purpose. Seventy-eight percent are of the opinion that networks for the promotion of social responsibility in business are needed and 57% are ready to join them.Dove Izraeli is Associate Professor of Marketing Management and Social Responsibility at the Faculty of Management, Tel-Aviv University. He published nine books and numerous articles. He was a Visiting Professor at U. C. Berkeley and N. Y. U., and chaired the International Conference on Marketing for Developing Countries. His research interests include marketing channels, sales management macromarketing and business ethics.     

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

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

Personal 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.     

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.     

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.     

Attitudes towards corporate social responsibility and perceived importance of social responsibility information characteristics in a decision context

This study addressed the questions of perceived importance of social responsibility information (SRI) characteristics in a decision context, as well as the attitudes of institutional investors toward social responsibility involvement. The results showed that SRI presently disclosed in company annual reports did not have any significant impact on institutional investors' decisions. However, if SRI were presented in quantified, financial form, and were focused on product improvement and fair business practices, such information would be perceived as more important for investment decisions. Attitudes toward corporate social responsibility also suggested that institutional investors were not totally opposed to company involvement in social activities. Hai Yap Teoh is associate professor in the Department of Accountancy, The University of Wollongong, New South Wales, Australia. He has published extensively in local and international journals including Accounting, Organizations and Society and The International Journal of Accounting Education and Research. His major areas of research interest include corporate social responsibility and reporting.Godwin Shiu is teaching fellow in the Department of Accountancy, The University of Wollongong, New South Wales, Australia. He is also doing a master's degree in accountancy.     

Corporate social responsibility and worker skills: An examination of corporate responses to work place illiteracy

Using perceptions of human resource managers of top management's attitude toward corporate social responsibility, a survey of private sector firms (n=407) revealed that over half of those that employed basic-skill deficient employees took legal or economic views of corporate social responsibility toward these workers. These attitudes were confirmed by organizational policies. Employers with social obligation tendencies were less likely to undertake proactive programs such as basic skill training, deskilling, or related supervisory training. Corporate philosophies were almost independent of organizational variables. One exception was manufacturing firms that were more likely to take a legal-economic view of illiterate employees; however, the relationship was weak. Little evidence was found that skill shortages or union pressures are resulting in corporate proactive programs. Implications for research and practice are discussed.Dr. Claire J. Anderson is Associate Professor at the College of Business Administration, Old Dominion University, Norfolk, Virginia. Her research interests include human resources management and organizational behavior as well as business ethics. She has published articles in a number of academic and professional publications.Data for this article were drawn from a study jointly sponsored by Commerce Clearing House and the Society for Human Resource Management.     

Professional Ethical Standards,Corporate Social Responsibility,and the Perceived Role of Ethics and Social Responsibility

This study explored several proposed relationships among professional ethical standards, corporate social responsibility, and the perceived role of ethics and social responsibility. Data were collected from 313 business managers registered with a large professional research association with a mailed self-report questionnaire. Mediated regression analysis indicated that perceptions of corporate social responsibility partially mediated the positive relationship between perceived professional ethical standards and the believed importance of ethics and social responsibility. Perceptions of corporate social responsibility also fully mediated the negative relationship between perceived professional ethical standards and the subordination of ethics and social responsibility. The results suggested that professions should develop ethical standards to encourage social responsibility, since these actions are associated with enhanced employee ethical attitudes. Sean Valentine (D.B.A., Louisiana Tech University) is an Associate Professor of Management in the College of Business at the University of Wyoming. His research interests include ethical decision making, organizational culture, and job attitudes. His research has appeared in journals such as Human Relations, Behavioral Research in Accounting, Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management, and Journal of Business Research. Gary Fleischman (Ph.D., Texas Tech University) is an Associate Professor of Accounting and the McGee Hearne and Paiz Faculty Scholar in Accounting at the University of Wyoming. His teaching expertise is in accounting and entrepreneurship, and his research interests are in business ethics and behavioral business research. He has published in journals such as Behavioral Research in Accounting, The International Journal of Accounting, and Journal of Business Ethics.     

Benchmarking Tendencies in Managerial Mindsets: Prioritizing Stockholders and Stakeholders in Peru, South Africa, and the United States

Managers in Peru, South Africa, and the United States were classified into four groups along Singhapakdi et al. (J Bus Ethics 15:1131–1140, 1996) Perceived Role of Ethics and Social Responsibility (PRESOR) scale. In Peru and the United States, individuals in the ethics and social responsibility first category reported greater satisfaction with organizational performance than did those in the profits first category. Moral capitalists—individuals who report high emphases on both social responsibility and profits—reported the highest satisfaction with performance in the United States. Managers in the United States are more likely than their counterparts in Peru and South Africa to reject the mutual exclusivity of prioritizing social responsibility and profits simultaneously. Directions for future research are outlined.     

Relationships among Perceived Organizational Core Values, Corporate Social Responsibility, Ethics, and Organizational Performance Outcomes: An Empirical Study of Information Technology Professionals

This study is an extension of our recent ethics research in direct marketing (2003) and information technology (2007). In this study, we investigated the relationships among core organizational values, organizational ethics, corporate social responsibility, and organizational performance outcome. Our analysis of online survey responses from a sample of IT professionals in the United States indicated that managers from organizations with organic core values reported a higher level of social responsibility relative to managers in organizations with mechanistic values; that managers in both mechanistic and organic organizations which were perceived as more socially responsible were also perceived as more ethical; and that perceived ethical attitudes and social responsibility were significantly associated with organizational performance outcome measures. Our article discusses research premises, conceptual framework, hypotheses, research methodology, data analysis, recommendations for further research, and conclusions.     

The Chief Executive Officer and corporate social performance: An interdisciplinary examination

This paper attempts to cross the disciplinary boundaries of strategic management and social issues management to demonstrate the relationship between managerial characteristics and corporate social performance (CSP). Drawing on studies in strategic leadership research we develop and test hypotheses about linkages between top management attributes and different levels of CSP. Our results add credence to the argument that organizations are a reflection of their top managers, and encourage further systematic research of the influence of key executives in developing and implementing socially responsible policies and programs.Dr Anisya S. Thomas is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Management and International Business at Florida International University. She received her Ph.D in Strategic Management. She has published in a variety of journals includingStrategic Management Journal, the Journal of Management and theJournal of Strategic Change. Dr Thomas's research interests include social responsibility, strategic leadership and international management.Dr Roy Simerly is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Management at East Carolina University. His research focuses on network organizations and corporate social responsibility. Dr. Simerly is an active member of the Academy of Management and has published in journals such as theJournal of Business Strategy.     

Will the ethics of business change? A survey of future executives

This article reports the results of a study of attitudes of future business executives towards issues of social responsibility and business ethics. The 455 respondents, who were MBA students during 1985 at one dozen schools from various regions in the United States, were asked to respond to a series of open-ended and closed-ended questions. From the responses to the questions the authors were able to conclude that future executives display considerable sensitivity, though to varying degrees, towards ethical issues in business. Women, in particular, tend to evince strong feelings regarding such issues. Thomas M. Jones is Associate Professor of Organization and Environment at the School of Business Administration, University of Washington. He is the author of several articles which have been published in journals such as Academy of Management Review and California Management Review. Frederick H. Gautschi, III, is Associate Professor of Engineering Management at Old Dominion University. His articles have been published in Research in Corporate Social Performance and Policy and Industrial and Labor Relations Review.     

Perceived correlates of illegal behavior in organizations

A survey was conducted of the perceived correlates of illegal abuses in the electronics industry. Human resource directors of thirty-one firms responded to a questionnaire which assessed their perceptions of the degree to which illegal behavior was caused by (1) deficiencies in the moral character of employees (2) the clarity of expectations and standards describing illegal behavior and (3) the presence of reinforcements and punishments contingent on these behaviors. All three variables were related to the frequency of abuses in three areas of organizational crime (e.g. administrative, labor, environment) and three areas of personal crime (theft, falsifying records kickbacks) as reported by the directors and/or indicated by archival records. The implications of these findings are discussed in terms of how organizations may reduce illegal activity. Mitchell, Terence R., Edward E. Carlson Professor of Business Administration and Professor of Psychology, University of Washington. Professor Mitchell's interests are decision making, leadership, and social responsibility. He has recently published articles on these topics in Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, The Academy of Management Review, The Journal of the Academy of Management, and the Journal of Applied Psychology. He is co-author (with J. Larson) of People in Organizations, and a joint author of Birnbaum, Scott and Mitchell, Organization Theory: A Structural and Behavioral Analysis. Mitchell is a fellow of the American Psychological Association, and the American Academy of Management. He is also a member of the Society for Organizational Behavior. Daniels, Denise is a graduate student in organizational behavior and human resources management. Denise's interests are motivation, self-efficacy, and groups. She has recently published in the Journal of Applied Psychology and has presented papers at the Academy of Management national meeting. Hopper, Heidi is a graduate student in organizational behavior and human resources management. Heidi's interests are accountability, attributions, and motivation. She has recently published in the Journal of Applied Psychology and has presented papers at the Academy of Management national meeting. Jane George-Falvy is a Ph.D. Candidate in Organizational Behavior. She received a B.A. degree in psychology. Her primary research interests include the areas of learning and motivation. She has recently co-authored articles which have appeared in the Journal of Applied Psychology, the Academy of Management Best Paper Proceedings, and Group and Organization Management. Her dissertation explores the moderating effects of task complexity and learning stage on the relationship between participation in goal setting and task performance. Gerald R. Ferris is Professor of Labor and Industrial Relations, of Business Administration, and of Psychology, and Caterpillar Foundation University Scholar at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He also is the Director of the Center for Human Resource Management at the University of Illinois. He received a Ph.D. in Business Administration from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and subsequently served on the Department of Management faculty at Texas A&M University. Ferris is the author of numerous articles published in such journals as the Journal of Applied Psychology, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Personnel Psychology, Academy of Management Journal, and Academy of Management Review, and he serves as editor of the annual series, Research in Personnel and Human Resources Management.     

Information privacy and performance appraisal: An examination of employee perceptions and reactions

Role-failure acts (Waters and Bird, 1989) have been described as a form of morally questionable activity involving a failure to perform the managerial role. The present study examined employee perceptions and reactions with regard to one form of role-failure act, failure to maintain adequate privacy of performance appraisal information. The study assessed employees' attitudes toward various performance appraisal facets as an invasion of privacy and determined the relationships between these privacy-related attitudes and employees' satisfaction with components of their appraisal system, the system as a whole, and their jobs. Responses that organizations might take to counteract appraisal privacy concerns were also discussed. Kevin W. Mossholder is Lowder Professor of Management at Auburn University, Auburn, AL. His research interests include performance appraisal, dispositional/situational issues, and organizational behavior processes. He has published articles in Journal of Applied Psychology, Academy of Management Journal, Academy of Management Review, and Journal of Management, among others. William F. Giles, is Professor of Management at Auburn University. His research interests include performance appraisal, career development, ethical behavior, and employee benefits. His articles have appeared in Journal of Applied Psychology, Academy of Management Journal, and Personnel Psychology among others.Mark A. Wesolowski is a doctoral candidate at Auburn University. He is currently an instructor of human resource management at Miami University of Ohio. His research interests include human resource selection issues, performance appraisal, management development, and supervisor/subordinate work relationships.     

An integrative model for understanding and managing ethical behavior in business organizations

Managing ethical behavior is a one of the most pervasive and complex problems facing business organizations today. Employees' decisions to behave ethically or unethically are influenced by a myriad of individual and situational factors. Background, personality, decision history, managerial philosophy, and reinforcement are but a few of the factors which have been identified by researchers as determinants of employees' behavior when faced with ethical dilemmas. The literature related to ethical behavior is reviewed in this article, and a model for understanding ethical behavior in business organizations is proposed. It is concluded that managing ethics in business organizations requires that managers engage in a concentrated effort which involves espousing ethics, behaving ethically, developing screening mechanisms, providing ethical training, creating ethics units and reinforcing ethical behavior. W. Edward Stead, Ph.D., is Professor of Management at East Tennessee State University, Johnson City, TN. His research interests include ethical behavior, cancer in the workplace, social strategy implementation, the ethical implications of cost-benefit analysis, and managing professional employees. His articles have appeared in Psychological Reports, Personnel Journal, Business and Society Review, and the Journal of Accountancy among others, and he has published cases in leading business policy and social responsibility texts. Dan L. Worrell, Ph.D., is Professor of Management and Department Chairperson at Appalachian State University, Boone, NC. He has published articles in such Journals as Academy of Management Journal, Journal of Management, Business Horizons, and Psychological Reports among others. His research interests include managerial succession, ethical behavior and social responsibility. Jean Garner Stead, Ph.D., is Associate Professor of Management at East Tennessee State University, Johnson City, TN. Her research interests include ethical behavior, cancer in the work place, social strategy implementation, and the ethical implications of cost-benefit analysis. Her articles have appeared in Psychological Reports, Personnel Journal, Business and Society Review and the International Journal of Management among others, and she has published cases in leading business policy and social responsibility texts.     

The Nature and Management of Ethical Corporate Identity: A Commentary on Corporate Identity,Corporate Social Responsibility and Ethics

In this paper we open up the topic of ethical corporate identity: what we believe to be a new, as well as highly salient, field of inquiry for scholarship in ethics and corporate social responsibility. Taking as our starting point Balmer’s (in Balmer and Greyser, 2002) AC²ID test model of corporate identity – a pragmatic tool of identity management – we explore the specificities of an ethical form of corporate identity. We draw key insights from conceptualizations of corporate social responsibility and stakeholder theory. We argue ethical identity potentially takes us beyond the personification of the corporation. Instead, ethical identity is seen to be formed relationally, between parties, within a community of business and social exchange. Extending the AC²ID test model, we suggest the management of ethical identity requires a more socially, dialogically embedded kind of corporate practice and greater levels of critical reflexivity. John M. T. Balmer is Professor of Corporate Brand/Identity Management at Bradford University School of Management. His research focuses on a range of corporate-level marketing issues and has a particular interest in the management of corporate brands and identities. His work has been published in leading journals such as California Management Review and Long Range Planning. With Stephen Greyser he co-authored Revealing the Corporation (Routledge, 2003). Kyoko Fukukawa is a lecturer in marketing at Bradford University School of Management and holds a Ph.D. from University of Nottingham, UK. Her research interests include ethical decision-making in consumption and business practices; corporate social responsibility (CSR) of MNCs concerning their policies and strategic communication; and CSR and corporate branding. Her publications appear in Journal of Business Ethics, Journal of Corporate Citizenship and others. Edmund R. Gray is Professor and Chair in the Department of Management at Loyola Marymount University. He is author or co-author of five textbooks and numerous scholarly articles. He holds a Ph.D. from UCLA. His research interests centre around issues of corporate identity, corporate social responsibility and environmental sustainability. Currently, he is conducting research on entrepreneurial firms with environmental/social goals that are an integral part of their mission.     

Expressions of corporate social responsibility in U.K. firms

This study examines corporate publications of U.K. firms to investigate the nature of corporate social responsibility disclosure. Using a stakeholder approach to corporate social responsibility, our results suggest a hierarchical model of disclosure: from general rhetoric to specific endeavors to implementation and monitoring. Industry differences in attention to specific stakeholder groups are noted. These differences suggest the need to understand the effects on social responsibility disclosure of factors in a firm's immediate operating environment, such as the extent of government regulation and level of competitiveness in the industry. Diana C. Robertson is an Assistant Professor of Organisational Behaviour and Business Ethics at the London Business School. She was previously Assistant Professor of Legal Studies at The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. In 1990, she was awarded the University of Pennsylvania Provost's Award for Distinguished Teaching, and in 1992 she received a Wharton School Undergraduate Teaching Award. Her research interests include the impact of corporate policy, particularly codes of ethics, and compensation and control systems on employees' ethical behaviour, and the diffusion of ethical practices among corporations. She has published articles in the Sloan Management Review, Journal of Business Ethics, Organization Science, and Business Ethics Quarterly.Professional Nigel Nicholson is Chairman of the Organisational Behaviour Group and Director of the Centre for Organisation Research at London Business School. Previously, he led investigations into Individual and Organisational Change at Sheffield University's Social & Applied Psychology Unit, and has also held visiting appointments at American, Canadian and German universities. He has published eight books and over 65 articles on a wide range of topics, and been honoured with an award from the Academy of Management for his contribution to theory.     

The Promise of a Managerial Values Approach to Corporate Philanthropy

This article presents an alternative rationale for corporate philanthropy based on managerial values of benevolence and integrity. On the one hand, top managers with benevolence and integrity values are more likely to spread their intrinsic concern for others into the wider society in the form of corporate philanthropy. On the other hand, top managers high in benevolence and integrity are likely to contribute to improved managerial credibility and trusting firm-stakeholder relationships, thereby improving corporate financial performance. Therefore, the article makes the argument that both corporate philanthropy and corporate financial performance can better be interpreted as resulting from managers’ benevolence and integrity values. Jaepil Choi is an Assistant Professor at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. His research is focused on organizational justice perceptions, leadership, work-family interface issues, and corporate social performance. He has published in Academy of Management Journal, Journal of International Business Studies, Journal of Organizational Behavior, Leadership Quarterly, Administration & Society, and Management and Organization Review. Heli Wang is currently an Assistant Professor in strategic management at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. Her areas of interests are in the resource-based view of the firm, stakeholder incentives, risk management and social performance. She has previously published in Academy of Management Review, Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, Journal of Applied Psychology, and Long Range Planning.     

Corporate governance predictors of adoption of anti-takeover amendments: An empirical analysis

This study of 481 corporations provides an assessment of the relationship between several corporate governance variables (board composition, type of board leadership, officer and director stock holdings, institutional stock holdings, number of majority owners, existence of severance agreements) and adoption of anti-takeover amendments. The results of analysis suggest that the two groups (adopters/non-adopters) differ significantly in regards to these variables.Paula L. Rechner is an Assistant Professor at the University of Houston. She received her Ph.D., her research interests include corporate governance and executive succession/compensation. Her articles have appeared inAcademy of Management Journal, Strategic Management Journal, Academy of Management Executive, andOrganizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, among others.Chamu Sundaramurthy, an Assistant Professor of Management at the University of Kentucky, is interested in corporate governance. Her dissertation examines board governance within the context of antitakeover corporate charter amendments adopted between 1984–1988. Her other research interests include executive succession and corporate social responsibility.Dan R. Dalton is the Dow Professor of Management and Director of Graduate Programs, Graduate School of Business, Indiana University. Formerly with General Telephone & Electronics (GT&E) for thirteen years, he received his Ph.D. from the University of California. Widely published in business and psychology, his articles have appeared in theAcademy of Management Journal, Academy of Management Review, Administrative Science Quarterly, Journal of Applied Psychology, Journal of Business Ethics, Strategic Management Journal, Journal of Business Strategy, Behavioral Science, andHuman Relations, as well as many others.     

An examination of the ethical beliefs of managers using selected scenarios in a cross-cultural environment

Academic literature addressing the topic of business ethics has paid little attention to cross-cultural studies of business ethics. Uncertainty exists concerning the effect of culture on ethical beliefs. The purpose of this research is to compare the ethical beliefs of managers operating in South Africa and Australia. Responses of 52 managers to a series of ethical scenarios were sought. Results indicate that despite differences in socio-cultural and political factors there are no statistically significant differences between the two groups regarding their own ethical beliefs. Results thus support the view that culture has little or no impact on ethical beliefs.Russell Abratt (DBA Pretoria) is Professor of Marketing at the University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa. His research interests include business ethics and promotional strategy. His work has been published in various sources includingJournal of Business Ethics, European Journal of Marketing, International Journal of Advertising andIndustrial Marketing Management.Deon Nel (DCom Pretoria) is Professor of Marketing at the University of Pretoria, South Africa. His research interests include business ethics and group decision making in organisations. His work has been published in various sources includingJournal of Business Ethics, European Journal of Marketing, Management Research News.Nicola Higgs is a graduate student at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa.