Search results

This study aims to examine the cheating behaviour among accounting students in terms of the extent of neutralization of cheating and the effectiveness of deterrents to cheating of cheaters and non-cheaters. It also aims to examine the differences in the cheating behaviour between males and females of cheaters and non-cheaters groups.

Using a questionnaire survey on academic dishonesty developed by Haines et al. (1986) which was administered to accounting students, 435 usable responses were obtained and analysed using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences. In achieving the objectives, mean score, standard deviation and independent sample t-tests were performed.

The results on the extent of cheating neutralization revealed that cheaters have significantly greater excuses to cheat than the non-cheaters. In addition, males have greater neutralization for cheating than females. In terms of the effectiveness of the deterrent to cheating measures, there were significant differences between cheaters and non-cheaters on the effectiveness of two deterrents to cheating measures. The comparison between males and females reveals significant differences between the two genders for cheating neutralization as well as the three cheating deterrents for both cheaters and non-cheaters groups.

The present study does not only investigate the differences in the cheating behaviour between cheaters and non-cheaters in terms of neutralization and deterrents to cheating but also provides evidence on the cheating attitude based on gender.

Mobile loafing, or non-work-related mobile computing, is deviant workplace behavior that can reduce productivity and increase cybersecurity risks. To thwart mobile loafing, organizations often adopt formal controls that encompass rules and policies. These formal controls can serve as a phase-shifting event. Phase shifting is a process where individuals reevaluate and revise their perceptions of the regulation of deviant behaviors. Despite the importance of understanding this process, little research has examined the announcement of formal controls as an impetus for phase shifting. The primary objectives of this study were to induce a phase-shifting perception in an organizational setting and explore its determinants and moderating role in the context of mobile loafing.

The authors proposed and tested a model using two-wave data collected from 231 Amazon Mechanical Turk workers. To test the research hypotheses, they used covariance-based structural equation modeling and logistic regression.

The authors found that peer's mobile loafing and neutralization positively influence mobile-loafing intention before and after the announcement of formal controls. This research also shows that the higher an employee's neutralization, the likelier they perceive the announcement of formal controls as phase shifting. Also, the authors found that the moderating effect of phase-shifting perceptions functions in such a way that the relationship between T1 and T2 mobile-loafing intention is weaker when employees perceive the announcement of formal controls as a phase-shifting event.

The authors’ results provide managers with useful insights into effectively using formal controls to mitigate employees' deviant behavior. To effectively use formal controls, managers should articulate formal controls that can trigger employees to revise their perceptions of counterproductive workplace behavior policies.

This study is one of the first in information systems research to empirically examine the announcement of formal controls as a phase-shifting event and explore its antecedents and moderating role in the context of deviant workplace behavior in general and mobile loafing in particular.

Through an ethnographic content analysis of 936 letters to the editor, op-eds, and editorials and 1,195 online comments, this chapter examines how participants in the public sphere neutralized accusations of racism leveled against Donald Trump in the early phase of his presidential campaign. The study shows that both supporters and opponents effectively (if not purposefully) neutralized racism through a number of techniques. Trump’s opponents neutralized racism by calling attention to a number of other perceived flaws in his candidacy. Trump’s supporters obscured the charges of racism by endorsing him and calling attention to positive qualities. Others neutralized racism by changing the subject or making neutral observations. Supporters neutralized charges of racism in three additional ways. Most commonly, they framed Trump’s comments as accurate. Some defensively drew a distinction between legal and illegal immigration. A relative few claimed that others were also racist or xenophobic. That there were a number of ways of defining Trump’s stance toward Mexican immigrants demonstrates the role of human agency in producing social structures. Structural factors in the discursive field such as the stock of existing conservative frames, Trump’s absurdity shield, and political partisanship also facilitated the neutralization of accusations of racism.

This study aims to offer understanding of the parent – child relationship by examining, through a socio-material lens, how one aspect of the new child surveillance technology market, child GPS trackers (CGT), are rejected or adopted by families, highlighting implications for child welfare, privacy and children’s rights policy.

The authors gathered netnographic data from a range of online sources (parenting forums, online product reviews, discussion boards) that captured parental views towards the use of CGT and stories of the technology in use and theorize the data through application of a novel combination of neutralisation and affordance theory.

The research reveals how critics of CGT highlight the negative affordances of such product use (highlighting the negative agency of the technology). Parental adopters of CGT, in turn, attempt to rationalize their use of the technology as a mediator in the parent – child relation through utilisation of a range of neutralisation mechanisms which re-afford positive product agency. Implications for child welfare and policy are discussed in the light of those findings.

The paper presents an empirical, qualitative understanding of parents negotiating the emergence of a controversial new child-related technology – CGT – and its impact upon debates in the field of parenting and childhood; develops the theory of parental style towards parental affordances, using a socio-material theoretical lens to augment existing sociological approaches; and contributes to the debates surrounding child welfare, ethics, privacy and human rights in the context of child surveillance GPS technologies.

The principles of acidity and basicity measurement are explained by describing colour‐indicator titration of aqueous solutions. Similar methods are used to determine neutralisation values of non‐aqueous solutions such as petroleum products, although electrometric titration is more suitable for dark‐coloured oils and used oils. The practical importance of neutralisation value tests is discussed, with particular reference to additive oils, turbine oils, gear lubricants and transformer oils.

Fashion designers in South Africa remain ambivalent in embracing sustainable fashion. This study examines the role of neutralisation techniques on attitude towards sustainable fashion. The study was conducted in South Africa, an emerging market known for water scarcity and pollution emanating from the textile industry.

A structured questionnaire was used to collect cross-sectional data from a sample of 590 fashion designers using a web-based online survey. Study constructs were drawn from the neutralisation theory and theory of planned behaviour.

Standard multiple regression analysis results identified denial of injury, appeal to higher loyalties and external locus of control as the major rationalisation techniques influencing South African designers' negative attitudes towards sustainable fashion.

Research was conducted in South Africa where the concept of sustainable fashion is still at developmental stages. The generalisation of the study findings may be enhanced by extending the study to other markets with a fully developed market for sustainable fashion.

The study results underscore the necessity of reducing social, structural and institutional barriers associated with the adoption of sustainable fashion. This study provides input towards efforts to develop attitude change strategies to stimulate designers to embrace sustainable fashion.

The research study contributes to theory, practice and future research.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationships between grit, unethical behavior and job stress among business-to-business salespeople.

The empirical analysis includes 240 business-to-business salespeople. Structural equation modeling is used to test the study’s hypotheses.

Results suggest grit is directly related to less frequent unethical behavior and customer-directed deviance. Neutralization techniques positively moderate the relationship between salesperson grit and both unethical behavior and customer-directed deviance. Grit is indirectly related to job stress through the positive relationship between unethical behavior and job stress.

Given research on grit in sales is relatively new several opportunities to pursue additional research in this area are presented.

Sales leaders may benefit from administering the salesperson grit scale as part of the screening process and developing grit among salespeople through training and coaching. Sales leaders should emphasize the negative impact of adopting neutralization techniques (excuses) in condoning unethical behaviors. The indirect effect of grit in reducing job stress through ethical behaviors underscores potential ways to mitigate costly and detrimental sales outcome losses.

This study develops a novel framework to explore the relationships between grit and unethical behaviors as moderated by neutralization techniques (excuses); examines an additional component of grit not previously considered in some studies of salespeople; and investigates whether these relationships increase a previously unexplored outcome – job stress.

This study aims to examine the antecedents of company secretaries’ behaviour and their relationship and effect on intended whistleblowing with the role of neutralisation as a moderating factor on an individual’s ethical decision-making in whistleblowing.

Using a modified version of the theory of planned behaviour as a framework and a quantitative research approach, a Likert-type scaled, self-administered questionnaire was conducted on a non-probability sample, totalling 208 company secretaries, currently working for various consultancy, audit and secretarial firms in Malaysia. The data obtained were analysed through structural equation modelling.

Findings indicated that attitude, subjective norm, perceived behavioural control, ethical obligation as well as self-identity were found to be predictors in a company secretary’s intended behaviour to whistle-blow. However, neutralisation was proved not to be a contributing factor in whistleblowing between intention and behaviour.

The quantitative measures of intention and behaviour are incompatible based on their levels of specificity or generality. Also, there may be an existence of social desirability bias among the respondents, indicating the need for a wider sample.

The study offers valuable knowledge by providing organisations and regulators with several insights into improving the company secretaries’ whistleblowing behaviour, including the need to strengthen whistleblowers’ support and alleged malpractice investigation and analysis systems. It also enables company directors and regulators to implement whistleblowing policies as an internal control mechanism, thus realising an individual’s intention to highly engage in whistleblowing.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study represents the first research that has empirically tested the relationship and effect of antecedents of company secretaries’ whistleblowing intention and behaviour using a modified version of the theory of planned behaviour, thus adding to the stock of literature on this topic and showing that “neutralisation” had an insignificant effect on the possibility of fraudulent reporting.

This paper aims to examine how socio-economic status (SES) shapes consumers’ purchase behavior of genuine brands and counterfeits. It also forms a typology based on the decision-making processes of these two groups by exploring neutralization processes and emotional outcomes related to their behaviors.

Data are collected through in-depth, semi-structured interviews with 42 users and non-users of counterfeits from different SES groups.

This paper develops a consumer typology based on the customer behavior of counterfeit and genuine brand users, as well as emotional outcomes and neutralization strategies used to justify their actions according to their SES group. These categories are defined as the black chameleons, the counterfeit owners, the genuine brand owners and the authenticity seekers.

This paper contributes to the counterfeit literature by examining the consumption practices of each SES group of users and non-users of counterfeits by focusing on motivations, emotional outcomes and neutralization processes. The study shows how consumers’ end consumption practices and their SES group explains the mix findings on the counterfeit literature.

The purpose of this paper is to understand how and why environmentally conscious consumers rationalise their non-green purchase behaviour.

Seven focus groups were conducted. A total of 51 people, aged 19-70 years, participated in the study. Theoretical thematic analysis was used to organise the data as various themes emerged.

Through application of neutralisation theory, this study identified additional barriers to green consumption. Two new neutralisation techniques emerged, namely protecting (maintaining) one’s sense of self and consumer attachment to the brand. These techniques recognise the impact consumer culture has had on consumers.

The study took place in an urban centre hence the views of the participants may be different from those who live in rural centres; low-income consumers were under-represented; and more male participants would have been desirable.

Despite its limitations, this study reveals that consumers will rationalise their decisions in order to protect their self-esteem and self-identity. Until green becomes a social norm, consumers will continue to place individual goals over collective goals. Understanding this rationalisation process is important if marketers and policy makers want to encourage behavioural change.

This study makes a valuable contribution to the understanding of the green attitude-behaviour gap. It provides fresh insights into how environmentally conscious consumers vindicate their non-green consumption behaviours and how marketers and policy makers can overcome these challenges. It also identifies two new neutralisation techniques and extends the theory to a consumer culture context.