The construct of Cognitive Moral Development (CMD) has drawn much attention in the study of business ethics for over two decades. The Defining Issues Test (DIT) has made a significant contribution to the literature as an easy-to-administer CMD instrument, and the Moral Judgment Test (MJT), an alternative scale, has also been used widely especially in Europe. The two scales differ in their approaches to measuring CMD, focusing on stage preference (DIT) and stage consistency (MJT), yet empirical comparisons have been scarce. The present research empirically compares the two scales in terms of their correspondence with ethical ideology as a reference scale, and it demonstrates a clear distinction between the DIT and the MJT. Although they both aim to measure CMD, their dissimilar approaches lead to distinctly different implications. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media, Inc. 2006Cognitive Moral Development (CMD), Defining Issues Test (DIT), Moral Judgment Test (MJT), ethical ideology, stage preference approach, stage consistency approach,

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Ajzen and Sheikh () recently challenge calls for adding explicit measures of emotions or affect as independent constructs into the Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA). This assertion has potentially significant theoretical and operational implications for marketers in terms of parsimony and insight. The specific questions of whether or not the addition of anticipated forms of emotions and/or hedonic attitudes to traditional attitude‐based models meaningfully contributes to understanding loyalty intention formation in a retail marketing setting are empirically assessed in this research. Results suggest that, consistent with the arguments of Perugini and Bagozzi (), the independent addition of anticipated emotions (AEs) to attitude models such as the TRA, Theory of Planned Behavior, and Model of Goal‐Directed Behavior (MGB) can be justified in terms of model fit with data, predictive validity (∆R2), and efficacy in explanation. Interestingly, however, and consistent with the theoretical arguments underlying the TRA, the models receiving the most overall support appear to be models wherein AttitudeOverall mediates the contributions of positive and negative AEs on endogenous variables such as Desires and IntentionsLoyalty. While it remains up to the individual marketer which perspective to embrace given the observed gains reported herein, the present research also supports the notion that the addition of hedonic attitude forms and/or AEs can offer an overall net gain for many marketers. The managerial and research implications of the results are discussed.

Brown (2012)

Digital piracy represents a significant threat to the marketers of digital service products. Industry efforts to attenuate the practice, often deterrent in nature, have largely failed. We propose that one reason for this failure is the absence of a commensurably accepted model of the social psychological foundations underlying digital piracy behaviors. A modified version of Perugini and Bagozzi's (2001) Model of Goal Directed Behavior is advocated and empirically validated across both movie and music industry settings for this purpose. The results support the theoretical and empirical efficacy of the proposed model and highlight the importance of attitudes toward the act of digital piracy, the frequency of past digital piracy behaviors, and the motivations and intentions underlying digital piracy. A normative framework is proposed with five actionable recommendations to assist digital service marketers in better addressing digital piracy. The research implications of the reported study are also presented and discussed.

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In this paper, the authors apply institutional theory to explain physician acceptance of pharmaceutical marketing payments and the mechanisms by which the behavior may be influenced by social groups. Using a large panel of over three million physician-year observations, the authors provide evidence that peer and organization norms, captured by the prevalence of peers and organizational members accepting pharmaceutical marketing payments, play an important role in one’s decision to accept such payments. The authors further show that this effect attenuates with physical and psychological distances, with nearest social groups most influencing one’s decision to accept pharmaceutical marketing payments. The authors also find that being male, having longer tenure, or practicing at a teaching hospital strengthens the positive effect of peer influence on volume of pharmaceutical marketing payments accepted. The findings contribute to the literature on institutional theory, provide insights into the management of conflicts of interest, and suggest policy to mitigate the externalities resulting from direct-to-physician pharmaceutical marketing payment.

No abstract