Nicholas McClaren

Ethics in Personal Selling and Sales Management: A Review of the Literature Focusing on Empirical Findings and Conceptual Foundations

Research into the ethics of personal selling and sales management has continued to increase in volume and importance. Because there is now a diversity of opinions and findings in this literature, an assessment of the status of existing knowledge is needed to provide focus and clarity. There have been no comprehensive reviews of the studies of ethics and salespeople, sales managers or sales management, despite recent attention from researchers, practitioners and the general public. The purpose of this review is to comment upon the more significant research in the sales ethics field with the objective of providing insight into the extent and direction of this knowledge, to evaluate the basis upon which it is founded, and to suggest areas of exploration that may be useful for increasing our understanding of it.

Linking Selling Position, Information Processing and Individual Ethical Perspective: An Empirical Investigation of Sales Practitioners

Managers and researchers are provided with insight into some of the variables underlying the ethical conflict of sales professionals. This exploratory study empirically links selling roles to the individual moral perspectives of sales practitioners through the application of a recent taxonomy of sales positions and an ethical perspective questionnaire. Information load and complexity of information processing are key selling dimensions linked to moral perspective.

The direct and indirect effect of NFC on marketers’ work norms, vocational socialization, individual ethical position, and ethical perceptions

Purpose The research sought to expand the conceptual understanding of the antecedents of decision-making under ethical conditions. This study aims to better understand the relationships among need for cognition (NFC), the individual ethical positions of ethical idealism and ethical relativism, organizational and professional socialization, work-related norms and ethical perceptions. Design/methodology/approach The study compared the impact of environmental influences (i.e. socialization and work-related norm) and individual temporally stable characteristics (i.e. NFC and ethical position) on ethical perceptions. The research surveyed marketers and tested a hypothesized model using structural equation modeling. Findings NFC influences marketers’ individual ethical position, their professional socialization and their work norms. The work norms of marketers are influenced by individual ethical position and organizational socialization, but not by professional socialization. Professional socialization is influenced by ethical idealism and not ethical relativism. Research limitations/implications A judgmental sampling technique was used and the findings cannot be generalized to other populations. Practical implications This research provides managers with alternative tools to encourage compliance with professional and corporate guidelines. If managers are seeking an enduring positive influence on work norms, they should be as concerned about the thinking of their employees and their employees’ ethical positions as they are with the vocational rules their subordinates adopt. Social implications Society will benefit from better understanding the different ways in which the ethical perceptions of individual employees are influenced and the various ways in which managers can contribute to ethically responsible corporations. Originality/value Although NFC has been examined in other vocational and decision-making contexts, its influence on individual ethical position, vocational socialization and work-related norms has not been empirically examined in ethical contexts for business decision-making.

Need for Cognition, Information and Moral Decision Making in Marketing Exchange: A Partial Model

This paper extends the understanding of ethical decision making in marketing. A partial model of the ethical decision making process explores conceptually the relationships between need for cognition, information and individual moral evaluations. Propositions are advanced and some implications for marketing practitioners and researchers are discussed.