IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/kap/jbuset/v163y2020i2d10.1007_s10551-018-4020-1.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Moral Intensity, Issue Characteristics, and Ethical Issue Recognition in Sales Situations

Author

Listed:
  • Evelyne Rousselet

    (University Paris Est, IRG, Institut de Recherche en Gestion)

  • Bérangère Brial

    (University Paris Est, IRG, Institut de Recherche en Gestion)

  • Romain Cadario

    (IÉSEG School of Management (LEM-CNRS UMR 9221))

  • Amina Béji-Bécheur

    (University Paris Est, IRG, Institut de Recherche en Gestion)

Abstract

Researchers have considered individual and organizational factors of ethical decision making. However, they have little interest in situational factors (McClaren, Journal of Business Ethics 112(1):101–125, 2013) which is surprising given the many situations sales persons face. We address this issue using two pilot qualitative studies successively and a 2 by 2 within-subject experiment with sales scenarios. Qualitative and quantitative data are obtained from front-line employees of the main French retail banks that serve low-income customers. We show that the recognition of an ethical issue differs depending on the role behavior salespersons are engaged in and the nature of the conflict of interest they face. Moreover, the combined effect of these two situational characteristics is mediated by moral intensity. This study not only adds evidence on situational factors affecting ethical decision but also extends empirical research on sales ethics by revealing sales situations that are not considered in the empirical literature. The research implications of the findings are discussed along with the study’s limitations and suggestions for future research.

Suggested Citation

  • Evelyne Rousselet & Bérangère Brial & Romain Cadario & Amina Béji-Bécheur, 2020. "Moral Intensity, Issue Characteristics, and Ethical Issue Recognition in Sales Situations," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 163(2), pages 347-363, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:jbuset:v:163:y:2020:i:2:d:10.1007_s10551-018-4020-1
    DOI: 10.1007/s10551-018-4020-1
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10551-018-4020-1
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s10551-018-4020-1?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Sean Valentine & David Hollingworth, 2012. "Moral Intensity, Issue Importance, and Ethical Reasoning in Operations Situations," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 108(4), pages 509-523, July.
    2. Blocker, Christopher P. & Ruth, Julie A. & Sridharan, Srinivas & Beckwith, Colin & Ekici, Ahmet & Goudie-Hutton, Martina & Rosa, José Antonio & Saatcioglu, Bige & Talukdar, Debabrata & Trujillo, Carlo, 2013. "Understanding poverty and promoting poverty alleviation through transformative consumer research," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 66(8), pages 1195-1202.
    3. Diana C. Robertson & Erin Anderson, 1993. "Control System and Task Environment Effects on Ethical Judgment: An Exploratory Study of Industrial Salespeople," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 4(4), pages 617-644, November.
    4. Cherry, John & Fraedrich, John, 2002. "Perceived risk, moral philosophy and marketing ethics: mediating influences on sales managers' ethical decision-making," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 55(12), pages 951-962, December.
    5. Jana Craft, 2013. "A Review of the Empirical Ethical Decision-Making Literature: 2004–2011," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 117(2), pages 221-259, October.
    6. Susanna Khavul & Garry D. Bruton, 2013. "Harnessing Innovation for Change: Sustainability and Poverty in Developing Countries," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 50(2), pages 285-306, March.
    7. Nick Lee & Amanda Beatson & Tony Garrett & Ian Lings & Xi Zhang, 2009. "A Study of the Attitudes Towards Unethical Selling Amongst Chinese Salespeople," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 88(3), pages 497-515, October.
    8. Breda Sweeney & Fiona Costello, 2009. "Moral Intensity and Ethical Decision-making: An Empirical Examination of Undergraduate Accounting and Business Students," Accounting Education, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 18(1), pages 75-97.
    9. Chonko, Lawrence B. & Hunt, Shelby D., 1985. "Ethics and marketing management: An empirical examination," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 13(4), pages 339-359, August.
    10. Nicholas McClaren, 2013. "The Personal Selling and Sales Management Ethics Research: Managerial Implications and Research Directions from a Comprehensive Review of the Empirical Literature," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 112(1), pages 101-125, January.
    11. Brenkert, George G., 1998. "Marketing and the Vulnerable," Business Ethics Quarterly, Cambridge University Press, vol. 8(S1), pages 7-20, January.
    12. Craig VanSandt & Jon Shepard & Stephen Zappe, 2006. "An Examination of the Relationship Between Ethical Work Climate and Moral Awareness," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 68(4), pages 409-432, November.
    13. Singhapakdi, Anusorn & Vitell, Scott J. & Kraft, Kenneth L., 1996. "Moral Intensity and Ethical Decision-Making of Marketing Professionals," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 36(3), pages 245-255, July.
    14. Sean Valentine & Connie Bateman, 2011. "The Impact of Ethical Ideologies, Moral Intensity, and Social Context on Sales-Based Ethical Reasoning," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 102(1), pages 155-168, August.
    15. Thomas Tang & Toto Sutarso & Grace Davis & Dariusz Dolinski & Abdul Ibrahim & Sharon Wagner, 2008. "To Help or Not to Help? The Good Samaritan Effect and the Love of Money on Helping Behavior," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 82(4), pages 865-887, November.
    16. Ronald Hill, 2008. "Disadvantaged Consumers: An Ethical Approach to Consumption by the Poor," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 80(1), pages 77-83, June.
    17. W. Chan Kim & Renée A. Mauborgne, 1996. "Procedural Justice and Managers' In-Role and Extra-Role Behavior: The Case of the Multinational," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 42(4), pages 499-515, April.
    18. Dabholkar, Pratibha A. & Kellaris, James J., 1992. "Toward understanding marketing students' ethical judgment of controversial personal selling practices," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 24(4), pages 313-329, June.
    19. Barnett, Tim & Valentine, Sean, 2004. "Issue contingencies and marketers' recognition of ethical issues, ethical judgments and behavioral intentions," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 57(4), pages 338-346, April.
    20. Debabrata Talukdar, 2008. "Cost of Being Poor: Retail Price and Consumer Price Search Differences across Inner-City and Suburban Neighborhoods," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 35(3), pages 457-471, July.
    21. Connie Bateman & Sean Valentine & Terri Rittenburg, 2013. "Ethical Decision Making in a Peer-to-Peer File Sharing Situation: The Role of Moral Absolutes and Social Consensus," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 115(2), pages 229-240, June.
    22. Victoria Bush & Alan J. Bush & Jared Oakley & John E. Cicala, 2017. "The Sales Profession as a Subculture: Implications for Ethical Decision Making," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 142(3), pages 549-565, May.
    23. Raj Agnihotri & Adam Rapp & Prabakar Kothandaraman & Rakesh Singh, 2012. "An Emotion-Based Model of Salesperson Ethical Behaviors," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 109(2), pages 243-257, August.
    24. Mark S. Schwartz, 2016. "Ethical Decision-Making Theory: An Integrated Approach," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 139(4), pages 755-776, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Paramita, Widya & Indarti, Nurul & Virgosita, Risa & Herani, Rina & Sutikno, Bayu, 2022. "Let ethics lead your way: The role of moral identity and moral intensity in promoting social entrepreneurial intention," Journal of Business Venturing Insights, Elsevier, vol. 17(C).
    2. Omar S. Itani & Nawar N. Chaker, 2022. "Harnessing the Power Within: The Consequences of Salesperson Moral Identity and the Moderating Role of Internal Competitive Climate," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 181(4), pages 847-871, December.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Ahmed Musbah & Christopher J. Cowton & David Tyfa, 2016. "The Role of Individual Variables, Organizational Variables and Moral Intensity Dimensions in Libyan Management Accountants’ Ethical Decision Making," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 134(3), pages 335-358, March.
    2. Valentine, Sean & Godkin, Lynn, 2019. "Moral intensity, ethical decision making, and whistleblowing intention," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 98(C), pages 277-288.
    3. Selma Kadic-Maglajlic & Milena Micevski & Nick Lee & Nathaniel Boso & Irena Vida, 2019. "Three Levels of Ethical Influences on Selling Behavior and Performance: Synergies and Tensions," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 156(2), pages 377-397, May.
    4. Peter Mudrack & E. Mason, 2013. "Ethical Judgments: What Do We Know, Where Do We Go?," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 115(3), pages 575-597, July.
    5. Sarah Bayer & Henner Gimpel & Serkan Sarikaya, 2019. "Bank customers’ decision-making process in choosing between ethical and conventional banking: a survey-based examination," Journal of Business Economics, Springer, vol. 89(6), pages 655-697, August.
    6. Jocelyn Husser & Jean-Marc Andre & Véronique Lespinet-Najib, 2019. "The Impact of Locus of Control, Moral Intensity, and the Microsocial Ethical Environment on Purchasing-Related Ethical Reasoning," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 154(1), pages 243-261, January.
    7. Hengky Latan & Charbel Jose Chiappetta Jabbour & Ana Beatriz Lopes de Sousa Jabbour, 2019. "Ethical Awareness, Ethical Judgment and Whistleblowing: A Moderated Mediation Analysis," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 155(1), pages 289-304, March.
    8. Lu-Ming Tseng, 2019. "How Implicit Ethics Institutionalization Affects Ethical Selling Intention: The Case of Taiwan’s Life Insurance Salespeople," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 158(3), pages 727-742, September.
    9. Peter Mudrack & E. Mason, 2013. "Dilemmas, Conspiracies, and Sophie’s Choice: Vignette Themes and Ethical Judgments," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 118(3), pages 639-653, December.
    10. Barbara Culiberg & Domen Bajde, 2014. "Do You Need a Receipt? Exploring Consumer Participation in Consumption Tax Evasion as an Ethical Dilemma," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 124(2), pages 271-282, October.
    11. Gazley, Aaron & Sinha, Ashish & Rod, Michel, 2016. "Toward a theory of marketing law transgressions," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 69(2), pages 476-483.
    12. Nicholas McClaren, 2013. "The Personal Selling and Sales Management Ethics Research: Managerial Implications and Research Directions from a Comprehensive Review of the Empirical Literature," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 112(1), pages 101-125, January.
    13. Omar S. Itani & Nawar N. Chaker, 2022. "Harnessing the Power Within: The Consequences of Salesperson Moral Identity and the Moderating Role of Internal Competitive Climate," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 181(4), pages 847-871, December.
    14. Rahizah Sulaiman & Paul Toulson & David Brougham & Frieder Lempp & Jarrod Haar, 2022. "The Role of Religiosity in Ethical Decision-Making: A Study on Islam and the Malaysian Workplace," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 179(1), pages 297-313, August.
    15. Shobha Mishra & Vibhuti Tripathi, 2022. "Theoretical framework on state-of-the-art sales ethics in marketing," International Journal of System Assurance Engineering and Management, Springer;The Society for Reliability, Engineering Quality and Operations Management (SREQOM),India, and Division of Operation and Maintenance, Lulea University of Technology, Sweden, vol. 13(1), pages 57-78, February.
    16. Connie Bateman & Sean Valentine & Terri Rittenburg, 2013. "Ethical Decision Making in a Peer-to-Peer File Sharing Situation: The Role of Moral Absolutes and Social Consensus," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 115(2), pages 229-240, June.
    17. Mark S. Schwartz, 2016. "Ethical Decision-Making Theory: An Integrated Approach," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 139(4), pages 755-776, December.
    18. Chonko, Lawrence B. & Hunt, Shelby D., 2000. "Ethics and Marketing Management:: A Retrospective and Prospective Commentary," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 50(3), pages 235-244, December.
    19. Lim, Weng Marc & O'Connor, Peter & Nair, Sumesh & Soleimani, Samaneh & Rasul, Tareq, 2023. "A foundational theory of ethical decision-making: The case of marketing professionals," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 158(C).
    20. Lu-Ming Tseng & Yue-Min Kang, 2015. "Managerial Authority, Turnover Intention and Medical Insurance Claims Adjusters’ Recommendations for Claim Payments," The Geneva Papers on Risk and Insurance - Issues and Practice, Palgrave Macmillan;The Geneva Association, vol. 40(2), pages 334-352, April.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:kap:jbuset:v:163:y:2020:i:2:d:10.1007_s10551-018-4020-1. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.