A cross‐cultural assessment of attitudes regarding perceived breaches of ethical conduct by both parties in the business‐consumer dyad

Abstract

Recent initiatives in business curricula have included emphases on global business and ethics. Using 28 scenarios which reflect potential concerns regarding the conduct of either business or a consumer, this research combines these issues by comparing the ethical predisposition of business students in Australia with their Canadian counterparts. A sample of 264 students indicated that students in both countries generally hold high expectations for the behaviour of business and consumers. Both groups exhibited quite similar views in relation to the 28 consumer and business‐related scenarios. When comparing Canadian students to Australian students, four significant differences were documented in the 14 scenarios which address the behaviour of business entities. The assessment of attitudes regarding questionable consumer actions provided even more homogeneity as only one statistically significant difference was identified. The study concludes by documenting a series of attitudinal differences on the part of groups defined not by nationality, but rather on the basis of gender or age. These demographic differences were more pronounced than were the differences across the two countries. Copyright © 2003 Henry Stewart Publications.

The transformative potential of marketing from the consumers' point of view

“…It would be of value to probe further into the origins of these differences of looking at marketing. In connection with this, we note that there is evidence of cross‐country differences in public attitudes towards marketing both at a normative ideological level (e.g., Dalsace and Markovitch, ) and with respect to more functional, day‐to‐day scenarios of marketing ethics (Fisher et al ., ).…”

The moral self: A review and integration of the literature

“…For instance, internalization moral identity has been found to positively influence deontological and utilitarian moral judgments (Conway & Gawronski, ) and ethical beliefs (McFerran, Aquino, & Duffy, ). Further, research has found that moral judgment disposition (measured in various ways; Brady & Wheeler, ; Fisher, Woodbine, & Fullerton, ; Forsyth, , ; McFerran et al, ; Schminke, ) and moral sensitivity (Morton et al, ) positively relate to moral reasoning and ethical judgments.…”

Examining ethics and materialism with purchase of counterfeits

“…Researchers have also documented the choice of purchasing counterfeit goods in relation to the evaluation of product attributes, such as brand and logo (Gentry et al, 2001;Hoe et al, 2003). Many researchers have investigated consumer ethical decision making related to demographic characteristics, including age, gender, cultural background, and religiosity (Callen and Ownbey, 2003;Cheung and Prendergast, 2006;Fisher et al, 2002;Shen and Dickson, 2001;Swaidan et al, 2003Swaidan et al, , 2006Van Kenhove et al, 2003;Vitell and Paolillo, 2003). Of particular relevance to this study, previous research suggests that younger consumers are more likely than older consumers to engage in unethical behavior such as the purchasing of counterfeit goods (Callen and Ownbey, 2003;Cheung and Prendergast, 2006).…”