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Retail store managers' and students' perceptions of ethical retail practices: A comparative and longitudinal analysis (1976–1986)

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Abstract

Considerable attention is currently being directed to ethics in business, government and academia in both the professional and popular media. Most of these studies propound that ethics have eroded over time, resulting in their current low state. However, few, if any, of these articles provide comparative or longitudinal data to support their arguments. In this investigation, both comparative and longitudinal data were collected between 1976 and 1986 from retail store managers and retail students concerning their “current” perceptions of ethical retail practices. The results indicate a significant increase in the ethics of retail store managers, and a significant decrease in the ethics of retail students.

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Donald G. Norris is an Assistant Professor of Marketing at Miami University. His research has been published in the Journal of Advertising Research, the Journal of Retailing and the Proceedings of the Association of Consumer Research and the American Marketing Association.

John B. Gifford is a Professor of Marketing at Miami University and the Associate Dean for the School of Business Administration. He has published a number of articles in the field of retailing, and currently serves as Vice President of the American Collegiate Retailing Association.

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Norris, D.G., Gifford, J.B. Retail store managers' and students' perceptions of ethical retail practices: A comparative and longitudinal analysis (1976–1986). J Bus Ethics 7, 515–524 (1988). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00382598

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