Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

An Integrated Model for Ethical Decisions in Marketing Research

  • Published:
Journal of Business Ethics Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

While many models of ethical decision-making in marketing have been presented in the literature, no recent attempts have been made to explicitly account for ethical decision-making from a marketing research perspective. We present an ethical framework for marketing research, the various philosophies of ethics, and a few enduring marketing ethical decision-making models, thus laying the foundation for a descriptive model for ethics in marketing research. The authors then develop an integrated model of ethical decision-making that incorporates the perspectives of all parties involved in the process of making ethical marketing research decisions, the various philosophies, and external variables. The proposed model is compared with some of the models considered in the literature and illustrated with a marketing research application.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Akaah, I. P.: 1990, ‘Attitudes of Marketing Professionals Toward Ethics in Marketing Research: A Cross-National Comparison’, Journal of Ethics 9, 45–53.

    Google Scholar 

  • Alam, K. F.: 1993, ‘Ethics in New Zealand Organizations’, Journal of Business Ethics 12, 433–440.

    Google Scholar 

  • AMA: 1987, ‘AMA Adopts New Code of Ethics’, Marketing News(September 11), 1, 10.

    Google Scholar 

  • Armstrong, R. W.: 1992, ‘An Empirical Investigation of International Marketing Ethics: Problems Encountered by Australian Firms’, Journal of Business Ethics 11, 161–171.

    Google Scholar 

  • Buller, P. F., J. J. Kohls and K. S. Anderson: 1991, ‘The Challenge of Global Ethics’, Journal of Business Ethics 10, 767–775.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cavanagh, G. F., D. J. Moberg and M. Velasquez: 1981, ‘The Ethics of Organizational Politics’, Academy of Management Review 6(3), 363–374.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cohen, J., L. Pant and D. Sharp: 1993, ‘A Validation and Extention of a Multidimensional Ethics Scale’, Journal of Business Ethics 12, 13–26.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ferrell, O. C. and J. Fraedricch: 1991, Business Ethics: Ethical Decision Making and Cases(Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, Massachusetts).

  • Ferrell, O. C. and L. Gresham: 1985 (Summer), ‘A Contingency Framework for Understanding Ethical Decision Making in Marketing’, Journal of Marketing 49, 87–96.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ferrell, O. C., L. G. Gresham and J. Fraedrich: 1989 (Fall), ‘A Synthesis of Ethical Decision Models for Marketing’, Journal of Macromarketing 9, 55–64.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fritzsche, D. J.: 1991, ‘A Model of Decision-Making Incorporating Ethical Values’, Journal of Business Ethics 10, 841–852.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fraedrich, J., D. M. Thorne and O. C. Ferrell: 1994, ‘Assessing the Application of Cognitive Moral Development Theory to Business Ethics’, Journal of Business Ethics 13, 829–838.

    Google Scholar 

  • Garrett, T.: 1966, Business Ethics(Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey).

    Google Scholar 

  • Hansen, R. S.: 1992, ‘A Multidimensional Scale for Measuring Business Ethics: A Purification and Refinement’, Journal of Business Ethics 11, 523–534.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hosmer, L. T.: 1991, The Ethics of Management, 2nd edn. (Irwin, Homewood, Illinois).

    Google Scholar 

  • Hunt, S. D. and S. J. Vitell: 1986 (Spring), ‘A General Theory of Marketing Ethics’, Journal of Macromarketing 6, 5–16.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jensen, L. C. and S. A. Wygant: 1990, ‘The Developmental Self-Valuing Theory: A Practical Approach for Business Ethics’, Journal of Business Ethics 9, 215–225.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kennedy, E. L. and L. Lawton: 1993, ‘Ethics and Services Marketing’, Journal of Business Ethics 12, 785–795.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kohlberg, L.: 1969, ‘Stage and Sequence: The Cognitive Development Approach to Socialization’, in Goslin, D. (ed.), Handbook of Socialization Theory and Research(Rand McNally, Chicago, Illinois), pp. 347–480.

    Google Scholar 

  • Laczniak, Gene R. and Patrick E. Murphy: 1993, Ethical Marketing Decisions: The Higher Road(Allyn & Bacon, Needham Heights, MA).

    Google Scholar 

  • Laczniak, Gene R. and Patrick E. Murphy: 1991, ‘Fostering Ethical Marketing Decision’, Journal of Business Ethics 11, 259–271.

    Google Scholar 

  • Laczniak, G. R. and P. E. Murphy: 1985, ‘Introduction’, in G. R. Laczniak and P. E. Murphy (eds.), Marketing Ethics: Guidelines for Managers (Lexington Books, Lexington, Massachusetts).

    Google Scholar 

  • Laroche, M., K. L. McGown and J. Rainville: 1986 (Winter), ‘How Ethical Are Professional Marketing Researchers?’, Business Forum, 21–25.

  • Macdonald, J. E. and C. L. Beck-Dudley: 1994, ‘Are Deontology and Teleology Mutually Exclusive?’, Journal of Business Ethics 13, 615–623.

    Google Scholar 

  • Malhotra, Naresh. K.: 1996, Marketing Research: An Applied Orientation, 2nd edn. (Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, New Jersey).

    Google Scholar 

  • Malhotra, Naresh. K.: 1992, ‘Shifting Perspective on the Shifting Paradigm in Marketing Research’, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science 20(4), 379–387.

    Google Scholar 

  • Malhotra, Naresh K. and Gina Miller: 1996, ‘Ethical Issues in Marketing Managed Health Care’, Journal of Health Care Marketing 16(1), 60–65.

    Google Scholar 

  • Martin, T. R.: 1985, ‘Ethics in Marketing: Problems and Prospects’, in G. R. Laczniak and P. E. Murphy (eds.), Marketing Ethics: Guidelines for Managers(Lexington Books, Lexington, Massachusetts).

    Google Scholar 

  • Mayo, M. A. and L. J. Marks: 1990, ‘An Empirical Investigation of a General Theory of Marketing Ethics’, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science 18(2), 163–171.

    Google Scholar 

  • McDaniel, C., and R. Gates: 1993, Contemporary Marketing Research(West Publishing Company, St. Paul, Minnesota).

    Google Scholar 

  • Murphy, P. E. and G. R. Laczniak: 1981, ‘Marketing Ethics: A Review with Implications for Managers, Educators and Researchers’, in B. Ennis and K. Roering (eds.), Review of Marketing 1981(American Marketing Association, Chicago, Illinois), pp. 251–266.

    Google Scholar 

  • O'Boyle, E. J. and L. E. Dawson, Jr.: 1992, ‘The American Marketing Association Code of Ethics: Instructions for Marketers’, Journal of Business Ethics 11, 921–932.

    Google Scholar 

  • Professional Marketing Research Society: 1984, Rules of Conduct and Good Practice(Professional Marketing Research Society, Toronto, Canada).

    Google Scholar 

  • Rawles, J.: 1971, A Theory of Justice(Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts).

    Google Scholar 

  • Reidenbach, R. E. and D. P. Robin: 1988, ‘Some Initial Steps toward Improving the Measurement and Ethical Evaluations of Marketing Activities’, Journal of Business Ethics 7, 871–879.

    Google Scholar 

  • Reidenbach, R. E. and D. P. Robin: 1990, "Toward the Development of a Multidimensional Scale for Improving Evaluations of Business Ethics', Journal of Business Ethics 9, 639–653.

    Google Scholar 

  • Shaw, W. H. and V. Barry: 1992, Moral Issues in Business(Wadsworth, Inc., Belmont, California).

    Google Scholar 

  • Smith, N. C. and J. A. Quelch: 1993, ‘Ethical Issues in Researching and Targeting Consumers’, in N. C. Smith and J. A. Quelch (eds.), Ethics in Marketing(Irwin, Homewood, Illinois).

    Google Scholar 

  • Smith, N. C.: 1993, ‘Ethics and the Marketing Manager’, in N. C. Smith and J. A. Quelch (eds.), Ethics in Marketing(Irwin, Homewood, Illinois).

    Google Scholar 

  • Stead, W. E., D. L. Worrell and J. G. Stead: 1990, ‘An Integrative Model for Understanding and Managing Ethical Behavior in Business Organizations’, Journal of Business Ethics 9, 233–242.

    Google Scholar 

  • Strong, K. C. and G. D. Meyer: 1992, ‘An Integrative Descriptive Model of Ethical Decision Making’, Journal of Business Ethics 11, 89–94.

    Google Scholar 

  • Trevino, L. K.: 1986 ( July), ‘Ethical Decision Making in Organizations: A Person-Situation Interactionist Model’, Academy of Management Review 11(3), 601–617.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tsalikis, J. and D. J. Fritzsche: 1989, ‘Business Ethics: A Literature Review with a Focus on Marketing Ethics’, Journal of Business Ethics 8, 695–743.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tull, D. S. and D. I. Hawkins: 1985, ‘Ethical Issues in Marketing Research’, in G. R. Laczniak and P. E. Murphy (eds.), Marketing Ethics: Guidelines for Managers(Lexington Books, Lexington, Massachusetts).

    Google Scholar 

  • Vitell, S. J. and J. Muncy: 1992, ‘Consumer Ethics: An Empirical Investigation of Factors Influencing Ethical Judgments of the Final Consumer’, Journal of Business Ethics 11, 585–597.

    Google Scholar 

  • Vitell, S. J. and S. D. Hunt: 1990, ‘The General Theory of Marketing Ethics: A Partial Test of the Model’, in Sheth, Jagdish N. (ed.), Research in Marketing, vol. 10 (JAI Press, Greenwich, Connecticut), pp. 237–265.

    Google Scholar 

  • Vitell, S. J., S. L. Nwachukwu and J. H. Barnes: 1993,’ The Effects of Culture on Ethical Decision-Making: An Application of Hofstede's Typology’, Journal of Business Ethics 12, 753–760.

    Google Scholar 

  • Weiss, J. W.: 1994, Business Ethics: A Managerial, Stakholder Approach(Wadsworth Publishing Company, Belmont, California).

    Google Scholar 

  • Whalen, J., R. E. Pitts and J. K. Wong: 1991, ‘Exploring the Strcuture of Ethical Attributions as a Component of the Consumer Decision Model: The Vicarious Versus Personal Perspective’, Journal of Business Ethics 10, 285–293.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wines, W. A. and N. K. Napier: 1992, ‘Toward an Understanding of Cross-Cutlural Ethics: A Tentative Model’, Journal of Business Ethics 11, 831–841.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Authors
  1. Naresh K. Malhotra
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Gina L. Miller
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Malhotra, N.K., Miller, G.L. An Integrated Model for Ethical Decisions in Marketing Research. Journal of Business Ethics 17, 263–280 (1998). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1005711311426

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1005711311426

Search

Navigation