Jamal Al-Khatib

Consumer ethics: a cross‐cultural investigation

In recent years, business ethics has drawn increased interest from business and marketing practitioners as well as from academicians. Despite the repeated call in the literature for cross‐cultural research in this age of globalization, virtually no studies have examined the ethical beliefs and ideologies of foreign consumers and compared them to those of US consumers. Investigates the ethical beliefs, preferred ethical ideology and degree of Machiavellianism of US versus Egyptian consumers. Concludes that while US consumers appear generally less likely to accept various questionable consumer practices than Egyptian consumers, they are more likely to reject moral absolutes.

The Role of Moral Intensity and Personal Moral Philosophies in the Ethical Decision Making of Marketers: A Cross-Cultural Comparison of China and the United States

This study uses cross-cultural samples from the United States and China to replicate previous empirical findings regarding the relationship among moral philosophies, moral intensity, and ethical decision making. The authors use a two-step structural equations modeling approach to analyze the measurement and structural models. The findings partially replicate those from previous studies and provide evidence that the measurement model is somewhat invariant across the two groups studied but the structural model is not. In addition, there is evidence that the relationship between personal moral philosophies (mainly relativism) and moral intensity varies across the two cultures. That is, whereas relativism is a significant predictor of moral intensity for the Chinese sample, it is not for the U.S. sample. However, idealism is a significant predictor of perceived moral intensity for both samples of marketing practitioners. Finally, perceived moral intensity is a significant, direct predictor of ethical judgments, and ethical judgments are a significant, direct predictor of behavioral intentions in both instances.

An Assessment of the Service Quality Provided to Foreign Students at U.S. Business Schools

Abstract College and university educators have begun to think of themselves as service providers and students as service customers. As such, administrators are beginning to question what influences students perceptions of service quality. This study focused on international students in U.S. business schools and examined factors that influence their service quality perceptions. Results from a national sample of 282 foreign students attending 25 different educational institutions suggest that U.S. business school service quality is rated quite highly by foreign students. Notably, several key service quality dimensions were particularly critical to students overall perceptions of service quality. Implications and recommendations for business educators are provided.

Environmental Impact on Marketing Channels Relationships

Abstract The research question for this study is how does the environment affect the internal working and outcomes of marketing channel relationships in a developing country using Saudi Arabia as a case study? Viewing the environment as a stock of resources diverts attention to environmental munificence and the channel members responses to pressure generated for the lack or availability of such critical resources. Applying the resource dependence perspective to the political economy framework, this study argues that in the Saudi Arabian food channel system that is characterized by unbalanced distribution of power skewed in favor of the supplier, the retailer access to a relatively munificent output market will mitigate the suppliers power advantage that otherwise would be used to bureaucratize the channel, endanger the quality of the exchange relationship, and consequently the efficiency of the channel. The authors use a structural equation model to analyze data from the food channel in Saudi Arabia utilizing a survey method and a personal interview technique. The results indicate that environmental munificence affect the internal working and outcomes of marketing.