John Tsalikis

Business ethics: A literature review with a focus on marketing ethics

In recent years, the business ethics literature has exploded in both volume and importance. Because of the sheer volume and diversity of this literature, a review article was deemed necessary to provide focus and clarity to the area. The present paper reviews the literature on business ethics with a special focus in marketing ethics. The literature is divided into normative and empirical sections, with more emphasis given to the latter. Even though the majority of the articles deal with the American reality, most of the knowledge gained is easily transferable to other nations.

A comparison of Nigerian to American views of bribery and extortion in international commerce

This study investigates the differences in the way bribery and extortion is perceived by two different cultures — American and Nigerian. Two hundred and forty American business students and one hundred and eighty Nigerian business students were presented with three scenarios describing a businessman offering a bribe to a government official and three scenarios describing a businessman being forced to pay a bribe to an official in order to do business. The Reidenbach-Robin instrument was used to measure the ethical reactions of the two samples to these scenarios. Results indicate that ethical reactions to bribery and extortion vary by (a) the nationality of the person offering the bribe, and (b) the country where the bribe is offered. In addition, Nigerians perceived some of the scenarios as being less unethical than did Americans.

Bribery and extortion in international business: Ethical perceptions of Greeks compared to Americans

This study investigates the differences in he way bribery and extortion is perceived by two different cultures — American and Greek. Two hundred and forty American business students and two hundred and four Greek business students were presented with three scenarios describing a businessman offering a bribe to a government official and three scenarios describing a businessman being forced to pay a bribe to an official in order to do business. The Reidenbach-Robin instrument was used to measure the ethical reactions of the two samples to these scenarios. Results indicate that ethical reactions to bribery and extortion vary by (a) the nationality of the person offering the bribe, and (b) the country where the bribe is offered. In addition, Greeks perceived some of the scenarios as being less unethical than did Americans.

The Role of Accent on the Credibility and Effectiveness of the International Business Person: The Case of Guatemala

Assesses the effect of an international business person′s accent on Guatemalan subjects′ perception of the business person′s effectiveness, credibility, competence, friendliness, as well as the Guatemalan subject′s intentions to buy. Graduate students at a Guatemalan university listened to tape recordings of three presenters speaking Guatemalan Spanish and three presenters speaking Spanish with a foreign accent. The findings suggest that, for the Guatemalan audience, a sales pitch in Guatemalan Spanish evoked more favourable judgements on all measured dimensions than the same sales pitch in foreign accented Spanish. Females, however, evaluated the Guatemalan Spanish presenters more positively and evaluated the foreign accented presenters more negatively than their male counterparts.

Relativism in ethical research: A proposed model and mode of inquiry

While some of the great thinkers (Socrates, Kant) have argued for an absolutist view of ethical behavior, over the past 250 years the relativist view has become ascendant. Following the contingency framework of Ferrell and Gresham (1985) and the issue contingent model of Jones (1991), a model for ethical research is proposed. The key components include the moral agent/transgressor, the issue type and its intensity, and the nature of the victim. In addition, a statistical methodology, namely conjoint analysis, is introduced to investigate the trade-offs inherent in relativistic inquiry. In two ethical scenarios, in each of which three factors were varied, conjoint analysis provided important insight. The individual transgressor factor of “gender” had minimal impact on observer responses to two scenarios of questionable ethicality. In contrast, both the dollar magnitude of the transgression and the organizational status of the transgressor (salesperson/manager/owner) did affect observer responses.

Time Is Central

Investigates service satisfaction through a survey of bank customers who had engaged in one of five financial transactions: applying for an automatic teller machine card; redemption of a certificate of deposit account; application for a loan; opening a new bank account; opening/closing a safe deposit box. Seven elements of customer service satisfaction were selected for study: consumption time, waiting time, courtesy, attentiveness, professionalism, accuracy, and ability. Based on discriminant analyses, five of these seven elements showed significant relationships in at least one of the five services. Consumption time dominated all other considerations in explaining satisfaction, possibly because of customers′ time poverty.

An inquiry into the ethical perceptions of sub‐cultural groups in the US: Hispanics versus Anglos

The present study compares the ethical perceptions of three sub‐cultural groups living in the USA – Anglos, strongly identified Hispanics, and weakly identified Hispanics. It compares the responses of these three groups to two ethical scenarios using conjoint analysis, in addition to the traditional comparison of central tendencies. A comparison of means does not show any significant differences among the three groups and the overall pattern of relative importances is similar for all three sub‐cultural groups. However, conjoint analysis did detect some difference between Anglos and Hispanics. Less assimilated Hispanics were found to be somewhat more concerned about the magnitude of dollar loss as opposed to the Anglo focus on probability of loss in their ethical perceptions; two utilitarian, albeit somewhat different orientations.

A New Perspective on Cross-Cultural Ethical Evaluations: The Use of Conjoint Analysis

The present paper compares the ethical perceptions of Americans and Greeks using conjoint analysis. The two samples were presented with 2 scenarios manipulating three factors: gender of the transgressor, organizational status of the transgressor, and the magnitude of the transgression. For each scenario, conventional mean comparisons and conjoint analyses were performed on five ethical measurements. The matrix of means and the relative importances of the American sample were compared with that of the Greek sample. The results showed that Greeks paid more attention to the dollar amount involved and less attention on the organizational status of the transgressor than Americans did. The gender of the transgressor was the least important factor for both samples. The use of relative importance measures derived from conjoint analysis is shown to provide a new dimension in cross-cultural comparisons.

Emerging Customers, Market Knowledge Competence, and Investor Transition: The Experience of MNCs in China

ABSTRACT This research examines the impact of market knowledge competence (MKC) on investor transition with a focus on Chinese emerging customers. Investor transition refers to the role change of multinational corporations that initially select China as a sourcing location and later decide to market products in the host country. Based on the theory of referential information, we hypothesize that each of the three dimensions of MKC influences the level of investor transition. An empirical study among a sample of multinational corporations in China confirms the anticipated relationships. The findings also reveal that two contextual factors, perceived value inclination and cognitive reframing mindset, facilitate the processes of MKC.

Priming Effects on Cross-Cultural Business Ethical Perceptions

This research study examines the effect of cross-cultural priming on business ethical perceptions. Priming is based on the idea that our perceptions, actions, and emotions are affected by unconscious environmental cues. Subjects were primed by being exposed to a series of pictures depicting either a northern European culture or a native Latin American culture. Consequently, the subjects answered a series of ethical scenarios. The results indicate that, for some scenarios, respondents primed with the Latin America culture were more tolerant of unethical business practices than the subjects primed with the northern European culture.