Predicting Unethical Behavior Among Marketing Practitioners

Abstract

A differential association model of unethical behavior was utilized to predict unethical behavior among marketing practitioners. The data were collected through a systematic random sample of 280 marketing managers selected from the 1975 American Marketing Association roster. Newstrom and Ruch 's 17-item ethics scale was used to develop six types of predictors of unethical behavior, "What I do, " among marketers. These six types of variables included (1) the marketer's beliefs, "What I believe"; (2) what the marketer thought his peers believed, "Peer beliefs"; (3) what the marketer thought top management believed, "What top management believes"; (4) what the marketer thought his peers did, "What my peers do"; (5) the opportunity the marketer thought his peers had to become involved in un-ethical behavior, "Opportunity for peers"; and finally (6) the opportunity the marketer himself had to become involved in unethical behavior, "Individual opportunity." In the case of these marketing practitioners, their perceptions of what their peers do and their own opportunity to become involved in unethical behavior that involved others were better predictor variables than were any of the other variables analyzed.