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Business ethics and job-related constructs: A cross-cultural comparison of automotive salespeople

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Abstract

Although a number of articles have addressed ethical perceptions and behaviors, few studies have examined ethics across cultures. This research focuses on measuring the job satisfaction, customer orientation, ethics, and ethical training of automotive salespersons in the U.S. and Taiwan. The relationships of these variables to salesperson performance were also investigated. Ethics training was found to be negatively related to perceived levels of ethicalness and performance. High performance U.S. salespeople reported high ethical behavior, while the opposite was true in Taiwan. Customer orientation in both countries was influenced by ethics training. Managers should evaluate current ethics training programs to insure correct ethical behavior is taught and rewarded.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Management and Marketing, Cameron School of Business Administration, The University of North Carolina at Wilmington, 28403, Wilmington, NC, USA

    Earl D. Honeycutt, Judy A. Siguaw & Tammy G. Hunt

Authors
  1. Earl D. Honeycutt
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  2. Judy A. Siguaw
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  3. Tammy G. Hunt
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Additional information

Earl D. Honeycutt, Jr. is Associate Professor of Marketing at Old Dominion University. He has published inBusiness Horizons, Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management, Industrial Marketing Management, Industrial Management, Journal of Strategic Marketing, and numerous other national and international publications.

Judy A. Siguaw is Assistant Professor of Marketing at UNC-Wilmington. Her articles have appeared inJournal of Marketing Research, Journal of Strategic Marketing, Industrial Management, Marketing Education Review, and numerous international and national proceedings.

Tammy G. Hunt is Associate Professor of Management at UNC-Wilmington. Her articles have been published inSimulation & Gaming, Journal of Business Education, Journal of Voluntary Action Research, and numerous national and regional proceedings.

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Honeycutt, E.D., Siguaw, J.A. & Hunt, T.G. Business ethics and job-related constructs: A cross-cultural comparison of automotive salespeople. J Bus Ethics 14, 235–248 (1995). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00881438

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