Abstract
It is often assumed that legal limits provide ethical limits as well. In the sales area, reliance on the law to define or describe what is appropriate can allow an organization’s sales force to run ethically amuck. While numerous and varied factors contribute to determinations of the legality of certain actions, they don’t go far enough to define ethically appropriate behavior. Intent, knowledge level of the client/buyer, content of written and verbal communications, may influence a legal determination. That legal determination, however, leaves a lot of latitude for sales representatives to engage in ethically questionable behavior. There is a whole range of behaviors which may be legally acceptable, yet judged by others (clients, sales managers, peers) as unethical. Thus, the firm, when setting guidelines for ethical behavior must go well beyond the law to formulate policy.
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Calamari, John O. and Joseph MPerillo, (1977) Contracts, West Publishing Co., St. Paul Minn.
Price Brothers Co. v. Philadelphia gear Corp., 649 F.2nd 416 (1981).
West Ohio Digest, “Contracts,” sections 324–355.
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© 2015 The Academy of Marketing Science
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Yates, R.M.J., Turner, M.R., Light, T.B. (2015). Just How Far Can the Sales Rep Go? The Legal Latitude for Unethical Behavior. In: Levy, M., Grewal, D. (eds) Proceedings of the 1993 Academy of Marketing Science (AMS) Annual Conference. Developments in Marketing Science: Proceedings of the Academy of Marketing Science. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-13159-7_125
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-13159-7_125
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