An enterprise-wide strategic stakeholder approach to sales ethics (original) (raw)

A Framework for Personal Selling and Sales Management Ethical Decision Making

Journal of Personal Selling and Sales Management, 2007

This framework for personal selling and sales management ethical decision making is based on sales and marketing ethics research and grounded in ethical decision-making models in marketing. Using the two major streams of research-individual and organizational factors-a framework is developed that includes organizational culture, ethical issue intensity, and sales organization ethical climate or subculture. The variables influence a sales-related ethical decision with the evaluation of outcomes.

Marketing Ethics: Mediating Influences on Sales Managers’ Ethical Decision-making

Advances in economics, business and management research/Advances in Economics, Business and Management Research, 2024

Ethics plays an vital role and dominant in the company. The ethical problems faced by the buyer and seller in the market leads to negative or positive commercial relations. The seller have to give more emphasis towards this process will lead to a shake-up in trade and commercial communications between buyer and seller. The establishment of an ethical structure like transparency, fair value, proper sales operation and proper communication within the marketing department has positive effects on growth of the company. Sales management coordinating the sales professionals to achieve higher revenue to the company's goals while maintaining ethical standards. The ethics in sales activities ensure the ethical standard with integrity and a focus on customer well-being. Having a good understanding between the consumers' ethical behaviors and the consumption of the products provides more benefits in helping the managers to analyze the behavior of the customer. This practice not only protects the company's reputation but also contributes to long-term business success. This paper focused towards that and collected 395 samples from managers working in FMGC companies located in India.

A Cross-National Investigation of Industrial Salespeople's Ethical Perceptions

Journal of International Business Studies, 1991

This study examines ethical perceptions of industrial salespeople in the United States, Japan, and South Korea. Marketing ethics, in general, and selling ethics, in particular, have experienced *Alan J. Dubinsky is Professor of Marketing at St. Cloud State University (St. Cloud, Minnesota). His research interests are in the areas of personal selling and sales management.

Corporate codes of ethics and sales force behavior: A case study

Journal of Business Ethics, 1992

A growing public concern regarding ethical business conduct has stimulated marketing research in the ethics area. This study is the first empirical research to investigate the relationship between a code of ethics and sales force behavior. The findings present preliminary evidence that a well communicated code of ethics may be related to ethical sales force behavior. Furthermore, it appears that a sales force that is employed in such an environment can be profiled as being relatively high in job performance and receiving equally high satisfaction from their positions. Suggestions are made for future research and recommendations are offered for marketing practitioners.

Ethical perceptions of field sales personnel: An empirical assessment

The Journal of Personal …, 1992

This study examines ethical perceptions of industrial salespeople in the United States, Japan, and South Korea. Marketing ethics, in general, and selling ethics, in particular, have experienced *Alan J. Dubinsky is Professor of Marketing at St. Cloud State University (St. Cloud, Minnesota). His research interests are in the areas of personal selling and sales management.

Moving beyond ethical decision-making: a practice-based view to study unethical sales behavior

Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management, 2019

Changes in the business environment are rapidly transforming sales practice and pressuring the integrity of key actors in sales. Given that unethical sales behavior is a social activity produced and reproduced by various actors in a complex sales task environment, we introduce a novel research perspective to the study of unethical sales behavior, namely a practice-based view. With knowledge from a systematic literature review and a practice-based view from organization research, we suggest that unethical behavior should be studied as a practice formed through socialization and interaction with relevant others. This view provides an important alternative as well as a complementary perspective to the ethical decision-making paradigm that has dominated the field for several decades. The study answers scholars' recent calls to strengthen the theoretical foundation of sales ethics research and further extend its perspective toward the social context of sales. With a focus on dynamics, social relations, and the enactment of practices, the practice-based view produces new types of knowledge on unethical behavior and potential new means for addressing it. The article makes suggestions for future practice-based research and proposes several theories for use in studying unethical behavior in currently important sales contexts.

Relationship outcomes of perceived ethical sales behavior: the customer's perspective

Journal of Business Research, 2005

This research analyzes the role of ethical salesperson behavior as perceived by the customer in developing a better quality relationship between the salesperson and the customer. The results show that perceived ethical sales behavior plays a major role in affecting the quality of the buyer–seller relationship as it has a positive effect on customer satisfaction, trust and commitment to the salesperson. In addition, satisfaction with and trust in the salesperson positively influence customer commitment to the salesperson. Finally, perceived ethical sales behavior has a stronger effect on customer satisfaction with the salesperson when the customer's attitude toward the industry in which the salesperson works is more negative than when it is more positive. Implications and future research issues are discussed.

The relationship between salespersons’ ethical philosophy and their ethical decision-making process

Asian Journal of Business Ethics, 2013

The aim of the present research is studying the relationship between the salespersons' ethical philosophy and their ethical decision-making process and seeks to answer two fundamental questions: first, what is the ethical philosophy of salespersons? And second, how does the salespersons' ethical philosophy affect their ethical decisionmaking process? Statistical population of this research is salespersons who have passed the sales training course at the Department of Commerce Research Centre. One hundred thirty-seven questionnaires of total 300 accessible populations were analyzed through path analysis method. The findings indicate that most salespersons are idealists. Although this idealism affects the ethical judgment directly, but the effect of relativism on ethical intention is more considerable.

Examining impacts of the salesperson's ethical behavior on the customer's satisfaction, trust and commitment

The present research examines impacts of salesperson's ethical behavior on customers' satisfaction, trust, and commitment to the salesperson. The sale as one of marketing aspects is the building block of success of any business. In fact, marketing without the sale would not lead to its goals. Following the long-term procedures and basics, improving personal skills, and salespersons' ethical behavior levels result in forming the success bases of the marketing and sales. Although, the salesperson's ethical behavior could increase the sale, much research has not been conducted on examining the impacts of the salesperson's ethical behavior on the customers. The statistical population of the present study includes customers of Panasonic and Sony electronic products. Data used in this study have been collected using questionnaires. To analyze the data, the structural equation modeling embedded in the LISREL software was applied. Results show that the salesperson's ethical behavior has important influences on customers' satisfaction, trust and commitment to the salesperson.