Terry W. Loe

A review of empirical studies assessing ethical decision making in business

This article summarizes the multitude of empirical studies that test ethical decision making in business and suggests additional research necessary to further theory in this area. The studies are categorized and related to current theoretical ethical decision making models. The studies are related to awareness, individual and organizational factors, intent, and the role of moral intensity in ethical decision making. Summary tables provide a quick reference for the sample, findings, and publication outlet. This review provides insights for understanding organizational ethical decision constructs, where ethical decision making theory currently stands, and provides insights for future empirical work on organizational ethical decision making.

The Impact of Ethics Code Familiarity on Manager Behavior

Codes of ethics exist in many, if not the majority, of all large U.S. companies today. But how the impact of these written codes affect managerial attitudes and behavior is still not clearly documented or explained. This study takes a step in that direction by proposing that attention should shift from the codes themselves as the sources of ethical behavior to the persons whose behavior is the focus of these codes. In particular, this study investigates the role of code familiarity as a factor impacting the influence of an ethics code on manager behavior. Data collected from 286 executives from companies in the direct selling industry are used to test hypotheses (1) that the perceived usefulness of ethics codes is positively related to the degree of familiarity with the code, and (2) that ethical climate as assessed by managers is positively related to the codes perceived usefulness. Both hypotheses are supported, and their implications and further research directions are discussed.

The Effect of Perceived Ethical Climate on the Search for Sales Force Excellence

This study investigates the relationship of perceived ethical climate to individual commitment to quality, organizational commitment, and performance among business-to-business salespeople from two companies. The results indicate a firm’s ethical climate has an effect on its sales force. Salesperson’s perceptions of a positive organization ethical climate are positively related with their individual commitment to quality and organizational commitment. Although ethical climate does not have a direct effect on performance, it does have an indirect effect on performance when using individual commitment to quality and organizational commitment as intervening variables. Furthermore, the findings suggest an association exists between individual commitment to quality and performance. Implications and directions for future research are discussed.

Direct Selling Ethics at the Top: An Industry Audit and Status Report

Unethical conduct by salespeople contributes to loss to the bottom line directly through misuse of expense reports and indirectly through lost customers who are disenchanted with questionable business practices. Self-regulation by industry has become an important strategy in improving the ethical environment of the industry as well as to establish standards that meet or exceed existing statutory or regulatory requirements. Audits of industry regulatory programs provide a mechanism to uncover weaknesses, heighten awareness of the importance of ethics and allow for improvements to be made and risks reduced. This study audits the Direct Selling Industrys code of ethics as it complies with the Federal Sentencing Guidelines (FSG) and establishes a benchmark against which subsequent ethics research in the Direct Selling Industry can be compared.

Using Role-Play Competition to Teach Selling Skills and Teamwork

Engaging students and motivating them to learn is a continuous challenge for university faculty. This paper discusses the introduction of competition into the classroom in conjunction with experiential role-play exercises as an effective pedagogical tool for teaching selling skills. Role-play sales competition combines three teaching methods and solves several logistical issues related to the use of role-play exercises. These methods are reviewed in the context of sales education and followed by a discussion of the resources and implementation required.

Teaching Marketing Ethics in the 21st Century

Concerns are constantly raised about marketings negative effects on cultural values. Society demands that businesses and marketers, in particular, be more ethically responsible. What have marketing educators done to contribute to improving the ethical character of future marketers and prepare them to make better ethical decisions? This pilot study reviews how marketing educators have approached the teaching of marketing ethics primarily from a pedagogical perspective and explores the views of prominent marketing ethics educators concerning how we should approach the teaching of marketing ethics in the 21st century, and suggestions are offered based upon the findings of this study.

Internationalizing Sales Research: Current Status, Opportunities, and Challenges

With economic activity in emerging markets growing at 40 percent, and with 10 percent and more of the firms in the Global Fortune 500 now headquartered in emerging economies, intense interest lies in the globalization of business activities, including the sales function. This systematic review of the international sales literature in a selection of the most influential journals explains, consolidates, and analyzes current knowledge. This paper also explores the challenges inherent in conducting international sales research, including conceptualization, research management, and data collection issues. Finally, we suggest ways to move forward for researchers in this field, including pertinent topics and how methodological and practical constraints might be addressed.

Using the Theory of Constraints’ Thinking Processes to Improve Problem-Solving Skills in Marketing

Businesses actively seek college graduates who have problemsolving skills, and universities must equip their students with such skills. One of the greatest difficulties when solving problems is correctly identifying the core issue. This article offers instructors tools that instill problem identification and situation analysis skills in students. Eli Goldratt’s theory of constraints’ thinking processes are provided as a model along with guidelines for implementing these tools in marketing.

Ethical Climate’s Relationship to Trust, Market Orientation and Commitment to Quality: A Single Firm Study

This study examines the influence of ethics/compliance programs on the ethical climate of the firm and the relationship between ethical climate and certain marketing performance variables (intra-firm trust, market orientation, and employee commitment to quality). The results revealed significant relationships between ethical climate and intra-firm trust, market orientation and employee commitment to quality.

Promoting Sales Programs: The National Collegiate Sales Competition

Universities with sales programs have the task of preparing students to successfully pursue careers in professional sales and also promoting the programs and students to the business community. This paper outlines the National Collegiate Sales Competition (NCSC) that was held in April 1999 and will be held again in February 2000. The NCSC provides universities an opportunity to further develop sales students, while at the same time displaying their students and programs to business organizations that have a strong emphasis in the sales area.