Moral decision making in international sales negotiations (original) (raw)

The ethical profile of global marketing negotiators

Business Ethics: A European Review, 2014

As international trade and business opportunities grow globally, insight into trading partners' strategies is essential. One of the major strategies that impact trading partners' relationships is negotiation strategy employed by each partner. These strategies assume even greater importance when these strategies have ethical content. This study examines the effects of marketing executives' preferred ethical ideologies (relativism and idealism), opportunism and Machiavellianism on their perceived appropriateness of unethical negotiation tactics. Utilizing a sample of 995 marketing executives from six countries, cluster analysis and multivariate analysis of variance revealed two types of marketing negotiators: principled and corrupt negotiators. Corrupt negotiators tend to be more Machiavellian, more relativist, more opportunistic and less idealistic than their principled counterparts. Principled negotiators tend to perceive unethical negotiation tactics less favorably than their corrupt counterparts. Implications of these results for practitioners and directions for future research are discussed.

Cross‐cultural sales negotiations

International Marketing Review, 1998

States that the involvement of a sales organisation in international business requires sales interactions that transcend national boundaries. Understanding the complexities of cross‐cultural sales negotiations is most important and is a difficult task for sales managers. States that despite the importance and complex nature of cross‐cultural negotiations, the literature is normative and largely disjointed. By using the negotiation process as an analytical framework, this study examines the relevant literature, offers research propositions and indicates additional areas necessitating further research.

Situational Factors Affecting the Use of Ethically Ambiguous Negotiation Tactics

2006

This study reports on the findings of structured interviews conducted to gain information on whether and to what extent situational factors influence Hungarian negotiators’ choices in opting for or against the use of ethically ambiguous negotiation tactics. First the literature on the role of ethic in negotiations, marginally ethical negotiation tactics and variables affecting their use is reviewed. Then the research methodology and sampling are described and the findings are presented and discussed. The paper concludes that for practising Hungarian negotiators the importance and outcome of the negotiations seem to be the most important variables and further, they tend to limit the use of tactics when they negotiate with a counterpart for the first time.

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.

The Effects of Cultural Dimensions on Ethical Decision Making in Marketing: An Exploratory Study

Journal of Business Ethics - J BUS ETHICS, 1999

As more and more firms operate globally, an understanding of the effects of cultural differences on ethical decision making becomes increasingly important for avoiding potential business pitfalls and for designing effective international marketing management programs. Although several articles have addressed this area in general, differences along specific, cultural dimensions have not been directly examined. Hence, the purpose of this study was to examine differences in ethical decision making within Hofstede's cultural framework. The results confirm the utility of Hofstede's cultural dimensions and place ethical decision making within an overall theoretical framework. Sales agents from a high power distance, uncertainty avoidant, Confucian, collectivist culture (i.e., Taiwan) placed more value on company and fellow employee interests (vis-à-vis self interests) than did managers from a masculine, individualistic culture (i.e., the United States). American and Taiwanese ma...

Considerations on Cross Cultural Negotiations

Romanian Economic and Business Review, 2007

Our world is getting smaller and smaller. Continuous improvements in transportation and communication make it easier for companies to become involved in international commerce. With the increase in cross-cultural interaction comes the need for both large and small companies to become versed in successful negotiations with the variety of cultures with which it may be exposed. This report is aimed at educating and assisting the reader in the process of cross-cultural negotiations. This report will highlight three areas where companies and/or individuals will need to focus when engaged in cross-cultural negotiations. In the Planning and Preparation stage, the reader is encouraged to “know thyself” when it comes to knowing his or her own goals and preferred style of negotiation. Next, in Examining Cultural Dimensions the reader is invited to “know thy audience.” Here, the reader is exposed to different styles of negotiations, characteristics of major global cultures, and enlightened on ...

Ethical and unethical bargaining tactics: An empirical study

Journal of Business Ethics, 1998

Competitive negotiators frequently use tactics which others view as "unethical", in that these tactics either violate standards of truth telling or violate the perceived rules of negotiation. This paper sought to determine how business students viewed a number of marginally ethical negotiating tactics, and to determine the underlying factor structure of these tactics. The factor analysis of these tactics revealed five clear factors which were highly similar across the two samples, and which parallel (to a moderate degree) categories of tactics proposed by earlier theory. Data from one sample also permitted comparisons of the appropriateness of certain tactics across gender, nationality, ethnic origin and perception of one's negotiating style.

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.