Search results

Recent initiatives in business curricula have included emphasis on global business and ethics. Combines these issues by comparing the ethical predisposition of business students in New Zealand and Singapore to their US counterparts. A sample of 373 students indicated that the students in the three countries generally hold high expectations for the behaviour of consumers. The overall predisposition of the three groups as measured by the grand mean of the responses was virtually identical. However, of the 14 scenarios evaluated, four exhibited significant differences between the three groups. In two of these four, students from New Zealand expressed greater tolerance for questionable consumer action while US students expressed greater concern in regard to the other two. Singapore’s situation was somewhat in the middle. The results indicate that a global measure of ethical predisposition may be misleading and that ethical attitudes may be situational. Marketers must consider the characteristics of each country when assessing risk.

The purpose of this paper is to propose an inter-disciplinary approach to the ethics of social networking services (SNS) that connects critical analysis with the doing of ethics in terms of both pedagogic and technological practice.

Primarily conceptual and discursive, drawing on theoretical concepts from a broad, inter-disciplinary field. These concepts are integrated into a multi-dimensional framework that proceeds through four sequential stages: socio-economic, ethical, legal and practical/professional. Particular instances of SNS are used as illustrative examples.

The evaluation of ethical issues can be enriched by broader, holistic approaches that take account of the socio-economic, technical and legal contexts in which SNS technologies are designed, deployed and used. Inter-disciplinary approaches have the potential to generate new connections and possibilities for both the teaching and the professional practice of ethics.

Applied ethics are used to consider practical solutions that explore regulatory measures and envision alternative models of social networking. The approach proposed has practical value for teachers and students of computer ethics, as well as for IT practitioners.

This paper synthesises elements from media, communication and cultural studies, science and technology, information systems and computer science. The paper offers a strategy of inquiry to understand various aspects of SNS ethics – legal, socio-economic and technical. It presents a methodology for thinking about and doing ethics which can be used by IT practitioners.

This article aims to explore the public evaluation of the ethics of marketing tobacco in Indonesia through the theoretical lens of normative ethics.

The present study adopted a symbiotic ethical approach which combined normative and positive ethical approaches. The data was collected in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, from six focus groups and thirty photo elicitation interviews with a total of 71 participants.

The thematic analysis has identified six main themes, economic contribution of the tobacco industry, harmful nature of tobacco products, tobacco marketing targeting vulnerable groups, covering the danger of smoking, intention and integrity of tobacco marketers and infringement of law and social norms. Adopting the theoretical lens of utilitarianism, deontology, contractarianism and virtue ethics, the analysis illustrates that most participants believed that tobacco marketing practices in Indonesia are unethical.

The findings of the study were disseminated in a public engagement event to stakeholders in Yogyakarta. The findings influenced the development of No Smoking Area monitoring instrument and the introduction of “Free from Tobacco Advertisement in No Smoking Area” policy in Sleman Regency, Yogyakarta.

Indonesia, with its lenient regulatory environment, provides a unique setting for investigating public evaluation of the ethics of tobacco marketing. This is one of the first studies that investigates public evaluation of tobacco marketing ethics in Indonesia through the theoretical lens of utilitarianism, deontology, virtue ethics and contractarianism.

Setting measurable criteria for implementing ethical codes is a pivotal issue in construction organizations. This paper aims to present an approach for evaluating ethical codes implementation within an organization based on 30 indicators for effective implementation of codes of ethics, with the objective of enhancing employees’ ethical behaviour within the organization.

This study builds on a theoretical model that was developed using existing classification in the literature, including six processes of ethical codes implementation (process of: identification and removal of barriers, coding, internalization, enacting values, monitoring and accountability). The model was validated by applying partial least square structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) estimation approach on questionnaire survey data which were collected from construction practitioners in Hong Kong. Fuzzy synthetic evaluation (FSE) analysis was adopted to assess the level of ethical code implementation.

The results of the PLS-SEM indicate a good model fit, and the model has a substantial predictive power and satisfactory model representation. Thus, the model is suitable for measuring or evaluating codes of ethics implementation within organization. The process of “enacting value” has the greatest influence on “ethical code implementation”. The results of FSE indicate that the overall level of implementation of ethical codes is high, but there are rooms for further improvement.

The response to the self-assessment questionnaire used for measuring the extent of implementation is relatively low, but it was adequate for statistical analyses considering the fact that it represents the second stage of data collection in a longitudinal manner, and only the respondents who participated in the initial questionnaire survey were asked to participate. The essence of doing this is to test the model for the purpose of self-evaluation of construction organizations regarding codes implementation. Thus, the outcomes are not representative enough for the entire construction organizations in Hong Kong. However, the model was tested to demonstrate how to reflect the strengths and weaknesses of construction companies in Hong Kong with respects to ethical code implementation to identify areas requiring improvement.

Facilities managers can benefit from the findings of this study by applying the model to assess ethical codes implementation within the organization to enhance ethical behaviour.

The main contribution of this study is the generation of a framework for measuring the extent of implementation of ethical codes within construction organizations. The contribution from this study can add significant value to facilities management discipline as well, being a business-oriented sector. As ethical behaviour plays an important role in delivering various facilities. The approach used in this study is useful for facilities managers in the process of implementing codes of ethics.

This conceptual paper aims to examine theoretical issues in the proactive ethical assessment of technology development, with a focus on uncertainty. Although uncertainty is a fundamental feature of complex technologies, its importance has not yet been fully recognized within the field of ethics. Hence, the purpose of this paper is to study uncertainty in technology development and its consequences for ethics.

Going on the insight of various scientific disciplines, the concept of uncertainty will be scrutinised and a typology of uncertainty is proposed and introduced to ethical theory. The method used is theoretical and conceptual analysis.

The analysis results in questions with regard to the collection of information about the object of assessment (i.e. complex technologies and their development) and the framework of assessment (i.e. ethical theory and its practical aim of guiding the assessment of technology development). Moreover, based on the insights of the analysis of uncertainty, it is argued that substantive ethical theories prove to be inapt for the ethical assessment of complex technology development and therefore require a concomitant procedural approach. The paper concludes with requirements for any future ethics of technology under uncertainty.

The value of the paper consists in establishing the need of researching and incorporating uncertainty in ethics. The results are consequently of practical and theoretical interest for anyone working in the field of ethics and technology.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the importance of religiosity in consumer ethics. This objective will be achieved by investigating the impact of intrinsic and extrinsic religiosity on consumer ethics, and segmenting consumers’ religiosity and explore differences between each segment.

The surveys were distributed to undergraduate students, their friends and members of their immediate families, through a large public university in Australia. Of 700 paper questionnaires, participants returned 651. Incomplete surveys with too many missing values were removed from the sample. Of these, 517 were usable, yielding a response rate of 74 per cent. Singles accounted for 53.9 per cent of the sample, followed by married people (26.8 per cent). Of the respondents, 49.9 per cent were men. The majority of respondents were between 18 and 24 years old (52 per cent), followed by 15-34 years (16.4 per cent). Finally, most respondents had an income level of less than $20,000 (36.6 per cent) followed by $21,000-$40,000 (20.5 per cent) and $41,000-$61,000 (19.7 per cent). Overall, despite being dominated by younger consumers, the sample is relatively representative of the entire adult population of Australia.

The results show that both intrinsic and extrinsic religiosity had an impact on consumers’ ethical beliefs. Moreover, the results show significant differences between the two segments studied. The religious segment was more likely than the non-religious segment to reject various unethical beliefs, but no significant differences were found in the behavioural dimensions of recycling and doing good deeds.

This is one of the first few studies to explore the impact of religiosity on consumer ethics in Australia. The results of this study have several implications for academic researchers, religious leaders and managers working in the area of consumer ethics.

This article investigates the relationship between entrepreneurship and ethics under extreme poverty conditions to unearth context-specific nuances faced by entrepreneurs in these conditions.

A qualitative case study, research method approach was used to collect data from established firms engaged in some form of entrepreneurship and new entrepreneurs.

Findings from the study indicate that a different mindset is required for entrepreneurs to conduct business in conditions of extreme poverty, and therefore a different approach is needed to evaluate business ethics instead of a wholesale adaptation of Western-based ethical values and practices. The study identifies and provides evidence of imitative entrepreneurship undertaken by both new entrepreneurs and established firms to address basic human needs such as for food and personal hygiene.

The emic focus on Zimbabwe, which has its own inherent circumstances, has the potential to minimise the generalisability of findings from the study. However, this does not detract from the findings of the study but actually provides a basis for further research in other markets that have extreme poverty conditions.

Coping strategies are outlined for managing constraints faced by entrepreneurs and opportunities for interacting with consumers. A conceptual framework is developed for use in understanding and managing the relationship between entrepreneurship and ethics in markets where there are conditions of extreme poverty.

Previous studies have largely focused on Western developed markets. This article extends the debate to markets under conditions of extreme poverty.

Much has been written lately concerning the failure of several major corporations to report their financial statuses accurately. Enron, Global Crossing, IBM and others have failed to provide accurate information to their investors and to provide full disclosure of liabilities that would impact the valuation. While there has been significant discussion about the roles of both internal and external auditing in these cases of financial misrepresentation, little has been said about the role of the corporate communication professional. Does an ethical standard exist for the corporate communicator in the preparation of financial reporting documents and speeches? Has any study been undertaken to evaluate ethics in such a situation? What is being taught and what literature is available relating to ethics and the corporate communication professional? These are some of the questions I seek to answer in this paper. The basis of my paper is a literature search seeking information on what has been written, what studies have been done or how ethics is being taught in our colleges and universities to the corporate communication major.

The purpose of this paper was to address one of Spotswood et al.’s (2012) “uncomfortable questions”. The paper applies negative option marketing, the use of defaults as a behavioral engineering tool to shape choice, to social marketing and then uses the Hunt-Vitell (1986, 1993, 2006) Theory of Marketing Ethics to evaluate it against President Kennedy’s (1962) Consumer Bill of Rights and the American Marketing Association’s (2014) statement of marketing ethics.

A conceptual assessment of the ethics of negative option social marketing (NOSM) using the Hunt-Vitell (1986, 1993, 2006) Theory of Marketing Ethics as the evaluative framework.

When assessed using the Hunt-Vitell (1986, 1993, 2006) Theory of Marketing Ethics, NOSM possesses neither ethically sound means nor socially desirable ends.

This paper contributes to the emerging debate on the use of nudges in a social marketing context and is a partial response to Spotswood et al. (2012).

The purpose of this study was to determine the professional competency levels acquired by internal auditors in detecting unethical behaviour, to evaluate the position of internal auditors on objectivity and integrity in dealing with unethical behaviour and to examine the extent of their awareness on ethical issues in government-linked companies (GLCs).

Data were collected via questionnaires that were randomly distributed to the internal auditors of the selected GLS in Malaysia. These questionnaires were constructed from the Certified Internal Auditor (CIA) Examination Paper and The Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA) Competency Framework.

This study found that internal auditors of the GLCs had a high level of competency in performing audit engagements and were able to detect unethical practices in the companies. The majority of the internal auditors also had a high level of objectivity and integrity when faced with unethical behaviour during audit engagements.

This study provided strong evidence that the internal auditors of Malaysian GLCs strongly complied with IIA Code of Ethics. Besides, they were also aware of the unethical behaviour which occurred within their organizations. However, this study is limited to the internal auditors in GLCs, while the questions of the survey instrument are restricted to the elements of integrity, objectivity and professional competencies of internal auditors.

This study highlights the level of internal-auditor competency and adherence to the IIA’s International Standards for the Professional Practice of Internal Auditing (ISPPIA) and IIA’s Practice Guide to identify unethical behaviour within the Malaysian GLCs.

This study is original as it focusses on GLCs which did not get much attention from previous researchers, particularly the GLCs that operate in a developing country such as Malaysia.