Evaluation of Business Administration Students’ Religiosity Levels and Ethical Intentions in the Context of Marketing Ethics

The aim of this research is to investigate possible relationships between religiosity levels, personal moral philosophies, ethical perceptions and intentions of associate’s and bachelor’s degree students. Therefore, a survey was conducted on 189 business administration students chosen through convenience sampling at Balıkesir University. In order to measure the respondents’ levels of religiosity and personal moral philosophies, some scales with established validity and reliability in literature were used. Religiosity variable was analyzed both uni- and multi-dimensionally to make a deeper analysis with multidimensional scales. To assess perceived ethical problem and ethical intentions variable, one question for each was developed with scenario method. Structural Equation Model was used in data analysis. The proposed model was composed of seven hypotheses. Religiosity level was independent variable in four of them. In the structure where religiosity variable was used uni-dimensionally, three of the hypotheses were accepted while one of them was rejected. On the other hand, in multidimensional construct three of the hypotheses were partly accepted whereas one of them was rejected. Regarding the three hypotheses without religiosity variable, perceived ethical problem was detected to have a relationship with ethical intentions; nevertheless, no relationship was found between personal moral philosophies (idealism and relativism) and perceived ethical problem.