The present study examines a psychological motivator and some behaviors of the materialist. In this study, we examine a motivator that is broader than status-social consumption motivation. Four hypotheses are proposed that link materialism to social consumption motivation, opinion leadership, time spent shopping, and spending. Data were gathered from 204 adults. The analysis showed that materialism correlated significantly with social consumption motivation and a mid-range level of opinion leadership, and was a significant and important predictor of time spent shopping and spending. Results suggest that materialists are sensitive to the social acceptability and communicative ability of products and brands.

Jaani Vä isä nenreceived his Master's Degree in Statistics from the University of Tampere, Finland. He currently works as a researcher in the Institute of Business Information Management at Tampere University of Technology, where he is also completing his doctoral studies. His current research interests are related to electronic commerce and especially in the use of search engines in the marketing field.Abstract This study investigates the online purchase behaviour of a key segment of the population, the 'Net Generation' university-aged student, from two of the world's most advanced IT nations with the greatest potential in e-commerce: Finland and the USA. Information about online shopping behaviour in 2002 is compared with 2004/2005 for the two countries. The research also answers the question whether online shoppers from the two countries approach the consumer buying decision process differently over time. The results provide useful guidance to consumer e-marketing companies.

This study builds on prior work on the effect of demographic variables on undergraduate attitudes towards business ethics and examines differences between US and Japanese students sampled in 2011. The samples comprised 89 US and 147 Japanese undergraduate students (n-236). Respondents completed the Attitude Towards Business Ethics (ATBEQ) questionnaire and demographic questions. Data were analyzed with SPSS ANOVA, post-hoc t-tests and with non-parametric tests. Significant Japanese and US student samples differed significantly (p < 0.05) on at least fifty percent of ATBEQ statements. The Japanese students expressed significantly stronger agreement with seven Machiavellian and three Social Darwinism statements whereas the US students expressed significantly stronger agreement with only two Machiavellian and one Social Darwinism statements.

Unfortunate unethical events are continuing in the business arena and now more than ever these business judgmental shortcoming focus attention on the ethics of business executives. Thus, colleges and universities must continue to address business ethics as they prepare and train the next generation of executives. Educational institutions should be concerned with the environmental factors and curricular additions or modifications that may impact their graduating students who will become future business leaders. The purpose of this study is to examine students’ attitude toward business ethics and to determine: (1) if attending a religiously affiliated educational institution impact these ethical attitudes, and (2) if completing ethics courses or religious studies courses effects these ethical attitudes. There is evidence to suggest that students attending religiously affiliated colleges and universities may have attitudes about business that are more ethical. Additionally, the argument that ethics can be taught is supported. Business majors who had completed at least one ethics course were found to have a more strict ethical perspective. No differences were found with non-business majors who had one or more ethics courses compared to those students that did not complete such a course. Results also indicated that business majors with one or more religious studies course were slightly more ethical in their outlooks. The influence of religious studies courses on ethical attitudes was far greater for non-business majors. The implications are that ethical education and institutional climate may play a role in effectively shaping students attitudes about business ethics. This study suggests that completing ethics courses for business majors and religious studies courses for non-business majors may impact undergraduate students’ attitudes towards business ethics. Colleges and universities must continue to focus on the challenges and address opportunities to achieve success in business ethics education.

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