Abstract
Most consumer morality studies focus on consumer immorality, i.e. different types and degrees of consumer dishonesty or deviance. This paper follows this tradition, by looking at insurance customer dishonesty. For looking at insurance customer dishonesty in a wider perspective, the paper drafts a sociology of insurance customer morality, including outlines of micro-level, meso-level and macro-level moral sociologies of insurance fraud, as well as a discussion of moral heterogeneity and a critical understanding of deviance. As a next step a few empirical rsearch questions are formulated and illustrated with data from a Norwegian-German pilot study.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
T. Baker (2000) ArticleTitleInsuring Morality Economy and Society 29 559–577 Occurrence Handle10.1080/03085140050174787
R. Bernardi E. L. Delorey C. C. LaCross R. A. Waite (2003) ArticleTitleEvidence of Social Desirability Response Bias in Ethics Research: An International Study Journal of Applied Business Research 19 41–51
M. Birenbaum I. Montag (1989) ArticleTitleStyle and Substance in Social Desirability Scales European Journal of Personality 3 47–59
J. Brinkmann (1994) Sosiologiske grunnbegreper (Basic sociological concepts) Adnotam Oslo
J. Brinkmann (2003) Etikk for næringslivet (Ethics for business life) unipub Oslo
J. Brinkmann (2004) ArticleTitleLooking at Consumer Behavior in a Moral Perspective Journal of Business Ethics 51 129–141 Occurrence Handle10.1023/B:BUSI.0000033607.45346.d2
J. Brinkmann (2005) ArticleTitle‘Moral Temptation Handling: –the Case of Insurance Customer (Dis)Honesty’ Journal of Business Ethics 61 183–197 Occurrence Handle10.1007/s10551-005-0278-1
N. Christie (2004) A Suitable Amount of Crime Routledge London
J. Chung G. S. Monroe (2003) ArticleTitleExploring Social␣Desirability Bias Journal of Business Ethics 44 291–302 Occurrence Handle10.1023/A:1023648703356
Coalition ... against Insurance Fraud, 1997, Four Faces: Why Some Americans do – and do not – Tolerate Insurance Fraud, Washington DC (downloadable: summary: http://insurancefraud.org/four-faces.htm, paper: http://insurancefraud.org/downloads/Four%20 Faces.pdf).
R. J. Fisher J. E. Katz (2000) ArticleTitleSocial Desirability Bias and the Validity of Self-Reported Values Psychology and Marketing 17 105–120 Occurrence Handle10.1002/(SICI)1520-6793(200002)17:2<105::AID-MAR3>3.0.CO;2-9
K. Fukukawa (2002) ArticleTitleDeveloping a Framework for Ethically Questionable Behavior in Consumption Journal of Business Ethics 41 99–119 Occurrence Handle10.1023/A:1021354323586
A. Giddens (2001) Sociology EditionNumber4 Polity Press Cambridge
J. Goul Andersen (1998) Borgerne og Lovene Aarhus Universitetsforlag Aarhus
Kaufmann, F. X. et al., 1986, Ethos und Religion bei Führungskräften, München.
M. F. King G. C. Bruner (2000) ArticleTitleSocial Desirability Bias: A Neglected Aspect of Validity-Testing Psychology and Marketing 17 79–103 Occurrence Handle10.1002/(SICI)1520-6793(200002)17:2<79::AID-MAR2>3.0.CO;2-0
Klein, J. G. et al.: 2002, Why we Boycott: Consumer Motivations for Boycott Participation and Marketer Responses, Working paper, London Business School, Centre for Marketing.
N. Luhmann (1972) Rechtssoziologie, 2 vols Rowohlt Reinbek
Merton, R. K.: 1968, Social Theory and Social Structure, New York.
J. A. Muncy S. J. Vitell (1992) ArticleTitleConsumer Ethics: An Investigation of the Ethical Beliefs of the Final Consumer Journal of Business Research 24 297–311 Occurrence Handle10.1016/0148-2963(92)90036-B
M.-K. Nyaw I. Ng (1994) ArticleTitleA Comparative Analysis of Ethical Beliefs Journal of Business Ethics 13 543–555 Occurrence Handle10.1007/BF00881299
Paulhus, D. L.: 1991, Measures of personality and Social Psychological Attitudes. Academic Press, Inc.
M. J. Polonsky et al. (2001) ArticleTitleConsumer Ethics in the European Union: A comparison of Northern and Southern Views Journal of Business Ethics 31 117 Occurrence Handle10.1023/A:1010780526643
P. Pruzan O. Thyssen (1990) ArticleTitleConflict and Consensus – Ethics as a Shared Value Horizon for Strategic Planning Human Systems Management 9 135–151
D. M. Randall M. F. Fernandes (1991) ArticleTitleThe Social Desirability Response Bias in Ethics Research Journal of Business Ethics 10 805–817 Occurrence Handle10.1007/BF00383696
W. M. Reynolds (1982) ArticleTitleDevelopment of Reliable and Valid Short Forms of the Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale Journal of Clinical Psychology 38 119–125
S. Sen C. B. Bhattacharya (2001) ArticleTitleDoes doing Good always Lead to Doing Better? Consumer Reactions to Corporate Social Responsibility Journal of Marketing Research 38 225–243 Occurrence Handle10.1509/jmkr.38.2.225.18838
S. Sudman N. N. Bradburn (1983) Asking Questions Jossey-Bas San Francisco
P. Kenhove Particlevan (2001) ArticleTitleAn Empirical Investigation of the Relationships Between Ethical Beliefs, Ethical Ideology, Political Preference and Need for Closure Journal of Business Ethics 32 347 Occurrence Handle10.1023/A:1010720908680
S. J. Vitell (2003) ArticleTitleConsumer Ethics Research: Review, Synthesis and Suggestions for the Future Journal of Business Ethics 43 33–47 Occurrence Handle10.1023/A:1022907014295
S. J. Vitell J. R. Lumpkin M. Y. A. Rawwas (1991) ArticleTitleConsumers Ethics: An Investigation of the Ethical Beliefs of Elderly Consumers Journal of Business Ethics 10 365–375 Occurrence Handle10.1007/BF00383238
W. J. Zerbe D. L. Paulhus (1987) ArticleTitleSocially Desirable Responding in Organizational Behavior: A Reconception Academy of Management Review 12 250–264 Occurrence Handle10.2307/258533
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Johannes Brinkmann has a Ph.D. in sociology and is a professor of business ethics at the Norwegian School of Management in Oslo. Most of his recent articles have appeared in the Journal of Business Ethics, Teaching Business Ethics and Business Ethics A European Review. He has also published a number of books, two of them related to business ethics (in Norwegian, 1993 and 2001).
Patrick Lentz is a doctoral candidate at the Department of Marketing, Dortmund University.
Paper presented at the 11th Annual International Business Ethics Conference in Chicago, October 21–23, 2004
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Brinkmann, J., Lentz, P. Understanding Insurance Customer Dishonesty: Outline of a Moral-Sociological Approach. J Bus Ethics 66, 177–195 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-005-5575-1
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-005-5575-1