Abstract
This study investigated the attitudinal responses of 403 undergraduate students with respect to nine hypothetical marketing moral dilemmas. Participants varied by gender, major, and age.
It was found that undergraduate women responded more ethically on the hypothetical marketing moral dilemmas, as hypothesized. Secondly, chosen major did not make a difference on cognitive, affective, or behavioral responses. Further, the overall means for each scenario were in the morally correct direction in every case. Also, all intercorrelations for each story were significant. Finally, whenever there was a nonchance finding for age, the oldest participants answered more morally than the youngest subjects.
Implications of these findings for the undergraduate curriculum and for organizational management were discussed.
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Carl Malinowski is an Associate Professor of Marketing at Pace University in Westchester, New York. He received his Ph.D. in social/personality psychology. His publications have appeared in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology and in Marketing News. His primary research interests are in the are of marketing ethics.
Karen A. Berger is an Associate Professor of Marketing at Pace University. She received her Ph.D. in marketing. Her publications have appeared in the Journal of Marketing of Higher Education, Advances in Consumer Research, and the Proceedings of the Southern Marketing Association. Her primary research interests are in marketing education and consumer behavior.
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Malinowski, C., Berger, K.A. Undergraduate student attitudes about hypothetical marketing dilemmas. J Bus Ethics 15, 525–535 (1996). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00381928
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00381928