Journal of Macromarketing: Research On Marketing Ethics: A Systematic Review of The Literature

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Research on Marketing Ethics: A Systematic Review of the Literature

Alexander Nill and John A. Schibrowsky
Journal of Macromarketing 2007 27: 256
DOI: 10.1177/0276146707304733
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Research on Marketing Ethics:
A Systematic Review of the Literature
Alexander Nill and John A. Schibrowsky
ethics scandals, marketers are constantly struggling with the eth-

The growing field of marketing ethics research is investigating ical or moral side of their activities. Thus, marketers were often
the many aspects of marketing that have an ethical dimension. criticized for ethical misconduct long before Enron, Worldcom,
This article provides a systematic review of this research by and others were in the headlines (Armstrong and Sweeney
(1) developing a categorization scheme for marketing ethics 1994). While many of the recent scandals were primarily linked
research, and (2) by analyzing—via content analysis—all jour- to accounting irregularities and financial misdeeds, “marketing
nal articles, which have been revealed by a major search misconduct clearly had a role in the scandals involving financial
engine for the time span 1981 to 2005, in terms of quantity, services firms” (Murphy et al. 2005).
nature and scope, topical areas, and publication outlets. While A systematic review of the marketing ethics literature,
the results indicate an increase in the number of publications, along with implications for future research based on trends
marketing ethics became less represented in the mainstream lit- as well as gaps in the literature, is needed to extend the mar-
erature. Much progress has been made in areas such as improv- keting ethics discussion and shed some light on the current
ing our understanding of marketers’ values, marketers’ ethical state of marketing ethics research. More specifically, the
decision-making processes, and cross-cultural related issues. purpose of this article is fourfold: First, the article will
Societal issues and basic normative questions attracted sub- develop a categorization scheme for marketing ethics
stantially less interest from researchers. research that allows for a methodical comparison and analy-
sis of marketing ethics articles. Second, a systematic selec-
Keywords: marketing; ethics; literature; review; categori- tion of journal articles employing an electronic database
zation; content analysis such as ABI/INFORM and Business Source Premier will be
presented. The review will cover journal articles published
between 1981 and 2005—the timeframe of the Journal of
Macromarketing—in marketing journals that are listed in
The high visibility of marketing activities and managers’ the electronic database—including the top journals of the
efforts to administer their firms’ relationships with its stake- field such as Journal of Marketing, Journal of Marketing
holders—including but not limited to customers, employees, Research, and Journal of Consumer Research, and the inter-
stockholders, and the general public (Mundt 1993)— disciplinary journals Harvard Business Review, Sloan
continue to keep ethics among the most challenging issues Management Review, California Management Review,
for marketing managers and academics alike. The rising Business Horizons, Journal of Business, Journal of Business
focus of marketers on building and maintaining relation- Ethics, and Journal of Business Research. Third, the review
ships through trust and commitment clearly has ethical should provide Journal of Macromarketing readers with a
dimensions (Whysall 2000; Gundlach and Murphy 1993). sense of the quantity of marketing ethics articles published, the
The global integration of markets and marketing, which is scope of the research (macro versus micro and normative ver-
accelerated by the transformative changes in electronic sus positive coverage), how marketing ethics research has
communication (Kilbourne 2004), coupled with political evolved in terms of content (i.e., which topics have been stud-
transformations toward free market systems in many countries, ied and which have not), and where the ethics literature is pub-
has further propelled ethical problems for marketers. Indeed, lished. Finally, in the hope of sparking academic debate and
“as more firms move into multinational marketing, ethical inquisitiveness, the article seeks to identify the most impor-
issues tend to increase” (Murphy and Laczniak 1981, 258). As tant trends in the marketing ethics literature and provide
documented by an increasing deluge of literature discussing Journal of Macromarketing, Vol. 27 No. 3, September 2007 256-273
ethical issues in marketing and business, the general public DOI: 10.1177/0276146707304733
distrust of marketing activities, and a continuous string of © 2007 Sage Publications
256
JOURNAL OF MACROMARKETING 257
future direction, particularly in terms of research gaps and ethics research, the categories being used are somewhat nar-
expected topical areas of interest. row. Also, the selection of the literature being discussed is
not explained and might not necessarily be representative of
the field.
ETHICS IN THE MARKETING LITERATURE Gaski (1999) undertook a review of the prescriptive mar-
keting ethics literature with the purposes of subsuming all
While ethical issues in marketing are not a new area of standard ethical prescriptions under the categories “obey the
concern—ancient philosophers from Aristotle to Cicero law” and “act in your own self interest.” He concluded that
analyzed typical marketing ethics problems more than two marketers would end up acting ethically as long as they
thousand years ago—they have demanded substantially more heeded the law and acted in their own self-interest. A simi-
attention from researchers and practitioners over the last two lar evaluation of the superfluous nature of the study of ethics
decades. The public mistrust of modern business has been in business was offered earlier by some supporters of the
reported consistently almost since its inception (Stevens 2004). neoclassical theory who contended that marketers should
The Gallup Polls that report on the perceived ethics of various not bother with normative ethical questions (Levitt 1958;
professions show marketing practitioners rank near the bottom Friedman 1970). Smith (2001) rejected this line of thinking
among professionals in honesty and ethical standards by explicating that “obey the law” is an often necessary but not
(Advertising Age 2002). The field of marketing has long been sufficient requirement for good conduct. Marketers who are not
criticized along a number of ethical lines, including issues such genuinely interested in ethical conduct might look for legal
as product liability, personal selling tactics, false or misleading loopholes and their “obedience to the law may be colored by
advertising, product dumping, price gouging, marketing to low- beliefs about whether others obey the law and the possibility of
income consumers, foreign child labor, and a host of other areas being caught” (Smith 2001, 8). There are many situations
of ethics that have gained international attention (e.g., Dunfee, where the law and self-interest are too inconsistent to provide
Smith, and Ross 1999; Lawrence, Wotruba, and Low 2002; any guidance for marketers.
Laczniak 1999; Lund 2000). While chief executive officers Whysall (2000), the most recent review article on the mar-
seem to have a tendency to view such behavior as the excep- keting ethics literature, provided an overview of the dimen-
tion, the public appears to consider it as the rule. “It seems the sions of ethical research and ethical dilemmas in marketing by
U.S. public is far more pessimistic about the ethical climate of extending Tsalikis and Fritzsche’s (1989) categorization
business these days than are members of top management” scheme with green issues in marketing, health related con-
(Laczniak et al. 1995). cerns, consumer attitudes, disadvantaged consumers, privacy
In one of the first comprehensive reviews of the marketing issues, and ethics in supply chains. He asserted that teleologi-
ethics literature with more than one hundred references, cal and deontological theories have dominated the field and
Murphy and Laczniak (1981) come to the conclusion that it is argued that the importation of ethical models developed by
nonmainstream, predominantly prescriptive in terms of giving moral philosophers were rarely “adequate in themselves to
normative advice to marketers, and is dominated by ethical guide marketing decisions” (Whysall 2000, 189). As could be
issues in advertising and marketing research ethics. Murphy argued in the case of all the above cited literature reviews,
and Pridgen (1991) provide an extensive inventory of the dif- Whysall (2000, 175) noted that his review was “inevitably
ferent subject areas covered in the marketing ethics literature. somewhat selective and personal.”
In the early nineties, Laczniak comments on the evolution of
the marketing ethics literature in reference to the Murphy and
Laczniak article of 1981: “In the past decade, there has been a THE SCOPE OF MARKETING ETHICS
broader coverage of marketing issues, greater academic visi-
bility for publications addressing marketing ethics, and the While research efforts in the area of marketing ethics
development of a theoretical and empirical foundation for have increased dramatically over the last two decades with
future research in this area” (Laczniak 1993, 91). more depth and breadth of coverage, and more publications
Tsalikis and Fritzsche (1989) analyze the literature on in mainstream marketing journals, there are surprisingly few
business ethics with a special focus on marketing ethics systematic literature reviews. Part of the problem is the
using the categories normative and positive. They conclude somewhat elusive and controversial definition of the scope
by voicing two major concerns that reduce the utility of sci- of marketing ethics and the difficulty to systematically
entific studies of marketing ethics: (1) the focus of the mar- select and analyze the contributions in the field. While some
keting ethics literature on deontological and teleological authors (Murphy and Laczniak 1981; Murphy and Pridgen
moral philosophies given the pluralistic nature of the field of 1991; Whysall 2000) categorize the field according to mar-
moral philosophy and (1) the preponderance of single global keting’s diverse subdisciplines, such as marketing research,
measures, which lead to unreliable results and cannot detail advertising, pricing, and so on, others (Gaski 1999; Hunt
the dynamics of ethical evaluations. While their extensive and Vitell 1986) divide the literature into the broad categories
research provides valuable insights on the state of marketing normative and positive, or a combination of both (Tsalikis and

258 SEPTEMBER 2007
TABLE 1
CATEGORIZATION SCHEME FOR MARKETING ETHICS
Normative (Examination of What Ought to Be) Positive (Examination of What Is)
Macro • What should be the role of marketing ethics in a • What is the role of marketing ethics in a free enterprise, private-
free enterprise, private-property system? property system?
• What should be the role of marketing ethics in non- • What is the role of marketing ethics in nondemocratic societies
democratic societies and transitional societies? and transitional societies?
• What should be the relationship between law and • What is the impact of laws on marketing ethics?
ethics? • What are marketers doing to help to solving societal problems?
• What should be marketers' role in helping to solve • What is the ethical decision-making process of aggregated
societal problems? groups of marketers?
• What should be marketers' ethical responsibility • What is the relationship between ethics and profits?
toward the society? • What are marketers, differing value systems across cultures?
• Which ethical position should marketers take when • What are (if any) universally accepted ethical norms?
acting in foreign cultures with different value systems? • What is the role of consumer sovereignty in marketing decisions?
• What should be the role of consumer sovereignty?
• What should be marketers' responsibility toward
vulnerable consumers?
Micro • How should firms define their ethical responsibility? • What are common ethical dilemmas?
• How should firms make ethical decisions in marketing? • How do firms define their ethical responsibility?
• How should firms deal with specific ethical • How do firms implement marketing ethics?
challenges? • How do firms train marketing ethics?
• How should firms implement marketing ethics? • What is the role of codes of conduct?
• How should a code of conduct be designed? • How are marketers coping with intrapersonal value conflicts?
• How should firms train marketing ethics? • What are conflicts between personal values and the marketer's
• How should marketers cope with intrapersonal occupational role?
value conflicts? • What is the ethical decision-making process in firms?
Fritzsche 1989). Still others (DeGeorge 2005) distinguish TABLE 2

between general ethics—subdivided into descriptive ethics, FUNCTIONAL AREAS OF MARKETING ETHICS
normative ethics, and metaethics—and special ethics such as
Abbrev. Topic
marketing ethics, accounting ethics, and so on.
In the following, a categorization scheme is introduced with Functional areas
1. Prod Product related issues
the purposes of (1) analyzing the approaches to the study of
2. Price Price related issues
marketing ethics, and (2) systematically reviewing the market- 3. Place Placement related issues
ing ethics literature. Inspired by Hunt’s (1976) conceptual 4. Prom Promotion related issues
model of the scope of marketing, marketing ethics is divided
into the broad dichotomies positive/normative and micro/ Subdisciplines of marketing
5. Sales Sales related issues
macro, followed by a categorization into the functional areas of 6. Cons Consumer related issues
marketing ethics. The categorization scheme is presented in 7. Intl International related issues
tables 1 and 2. For the purposes of this article, the dichotomies 8. Edu Marketing ethics education related issues
positive/normative and micro/macro, which yield 2 × 2 = 4 9. MRes Marketing research related issues
10. SocM Social marketing related issues
classes or cells, are assumed to be mutually exclusive. Thus, an 11. Inter Internet related issues
article is either placed in positive and micro, positive and 12. Law Law and ethics related issues
macro, normative and micro, or normative and macro. This is
not to say that an article could not reasonably be placed into Specific ethics related topics
two classes at the same time. For example, many positive con- 13. Soc Ethics and society related issues
14. Dec Ethical decision making models related issues
tributions might also come up with normative recommenda- 15. Stake Ethical responsibility toward marketers’
tions that can be deduced from the results of their studies. stakeholders related issues
16. Valu Ethical values related issues
17. Norm Norm generation and definition related issues
The Positive/Normative Dichotomy 18. Impl Marketing ethics implementation related issues
19. Relig Relationship between ethics and religion
The positive/normative dichotomy suggests a classifica- related issues
tion “based on whether the focus of the analysis is primarily 20. Discr Discrimination and harassment related issues
descriptive or prescriptive” (Hunt 1976, 20). Descriptive 21. Green Green marketing related issues
22. Vuln Vulnerable consumer related issues
contributions in marketing ethics aim to describe, explain,

understand, and possibly predict ethically relevant marketing The Micro/Macro Dichotomy
activities, processes, and phenomena. Empirical investiga-
tions that describe the values or the ethical decision-making The micro/macro dichotomy categorization was based on the
process of individuals and groups can be subsumed under level of aggregation. Micro suggests a low level of aggregation
this category. Also, conceptual approaches suggesting a pos- and refers to ethically relevant marketing activities of “indi-
itive theory of marketing ethics fall under this category. vidual units, normally individual organizations (firms) and
Examples of emerging descriptive theories are the models consumers or households” (Hunt 1976, 20). Thus, micro-
from Hunt and Vitell (1986), Ferrell and Gresham (1985), ethical questions usually focus on ethical dilemmas faced by
Ferrell, Gresham and Fraedrich (1989), and Jones (1991). individual firms and the individual decision maker within the
These models offer a better understanding of marketers’ firm. Intrapersonal conflicts which may emerge between an
decision making in ethically relevant situations. The purpose individual’s personal value system and the value system of
of these models is “not to provide normative guidance for his/her company—the prototypical question in this area is
marketing decisions that are more ethical” (Hunt, forthcom- whether an employee should blow the whistle—fall under
ing), but “to increase our understanding of the ethical deci- this category (Brummer 1985).
sion-making by means of a process theory.” It is assumed In contrast, macro suggests a high level of aggregation and
that the ethical decision-making process is influenced by a refers to ethically relevant marketing activities for consumer
variety of situational and contextual factors such as the groups, the society, and marketing systems. Thus, macro refers
industry environment, the organizational environment, per- to the ethical perspective of aggregate marketing activities
sonal experiences, and the cultural environment. According including macromarketing with a focus on “big, complex, and
to the Hunt and Vitell (1986) model, it is thought that systemic issues, the interplay of marketing and society, and
depending on how the individual perceives the ethical prob- ultimately, improvements to life quality for large numbers of
lem, the available alternatives, and the probability of result- stakeholders affected by marketing systems” (Shultz 2005, 3).
ing consequences, a deontological and a teleological Complex issues such as the general role of marketing ethics
evaluation occur. Singhapakdi and Vitell (1990, 16) and in a free enterprise, private-property system, the relationship
others (Mayo and Marks 1990) found “partial support to between law and ethics, and marketers’ role in helping to
Hunt and Vitell’s propositions.” solve societal problems are subsumed under this category.
In contrast, normative marketing ethics adopt a prescriptive From the viewpoint of decision makers, there are areas of
perspective. That is, it attempts to prescribe from an ethical per- overlap between microethical and macroethical issues.
spective “what marketing organizations or individuals ought to Many executives might face both categories in a single deci-
do or what kinds of marketing systems a society ought to have” sion. That is, some decisions might pose microethical prob-
(Hunt 1976, 20). Thus, normative marketing ethics generate lems but have far reaching consequences for a large group of
ethical standards for marketers regarding the question of what consumers or even the society as a whole at the same time.
is right and what is wrong (Laczniak and Murphy 1993; Smith For example, the recent decision of Deutsche Bank CEO
and Quelch 1993; Chonko 1995). They are concerned with the Joseph Ackermann to lay off 20,000 employees to improve
justification of moral norms and ethical values and can be seen the bank’s return on investment did not only have an imme-
as an instrument to criticize and assess differing value systems. diate impact on the life of these employees, it also sparked a
Deontological and teleological theories, which have been bor- fierce political discussion with potentially regulatory conse-
rowed from moral philosophy, are the two dominating quences in Germany (Walker 2005).
approaches in the marketing ethics literature (Whysall 2000).
Topical Areas of Marketing Ethics
Teleology, such as utilitarianism and egoism, judges the
value of an action from its outcome only. According to util- Topical areas of marketing ethics had to be defined with
itarianism as it has been introduced by John Stuart Mill the purpose of classifying the analyzed articles in the litera-
(1806–1873) and Jeremy Bentham (1748–1832), one should ture (see table 2). This is not to say that one article cannot
choose the alternative that leads to the greatest happiness of address more than one topic. Thus, the proposed topical
the greatest number (Mill [1861] 1979; Frankena 1963). areas are not mutually exclusive and one article might be
Deontology judges the value of actions only from the per- placed in several functional categories at the same time.
spective of their inherent wrongness or rightness regardless However, for purposes of this article, we tried to identify the
of the consequences. Thus, deontological approaches rely primary topical areas and limited the categorization of func-
on the duty to follow absolute principles. Kant’s moral tional areas to two per article. A topical categorization
laws—the famous categorical imperatives—are truly deon- scheme should be relevant for marketing scholars, reflect the
tological (Kant [1783] 1965). Thus, Kant ([1783] 1965, 10) topical foci in the marketing ethics literature, and be exhaus-
argued that “being ethical is having ethical intentions with- tive enough that no important topics are left out without
out considering the consequences because any result of any becoming unwieldy. Thus, the categorization scheme
action is influenced by uncontrollable variables.” required an incremental step-by-step approach.

260 SEPTEMBER 2007
In a first step, we looked at the American Marketing system: “it requires that marketing communications
Association (AMA) for orientation. As expressed in its mis- about goods and services are not intentionally deceptive
sion statement, the AMA sees one of its principle roles as to and misleading” (AMA 2006a, 1) and AMA’s fairness
“advance the thought, application and ethical practice of value: “this includes the avoidance of false misleading
marketing” (AMA 2006b). The AMA provides three general and deceptive promotion” (AMA 2006a, 2).
ethical norms—(1) do no harm, (2) foster trust in the mar-
keting system, and (3) embrace, communicate, and practice Subdisciplines of marketing
the fundamental ethical values honesty, responsibility, fair- • Sales-related issues. All sales-related ethical challenges.
ness, respect, openness, and citizenship. These values are AMA’s fairness value: “we will reject manipulations and
intentionally abbreviated and aspirational, and do not—and sales tactics that harm customer trust” (AMA 2006a, 2).
probably should not—provide recipe-like guidance for mar- • Consumer-related ethical issues. The ethical decision
keters facing ethical questions. For example, what are mar- making of consumers and ethical perceptions of con-
keters in a global environment, where different customs, sumers and their potential impact for marketers.
values, and even laws clash, to do with the first norm—to do • International-related issues. An ever-increasing num-
no harm—which is defined as “adhering to all applicable ber of companies do business in foreign countries and
laws and regulations and embodying high ethical standards” cultures. Cross-cultural issues and problems that may
(AMA 2006a, 1)? Furthermore, one could argue that the arise when different cultures clash, when laws and cus-
AMA norms do not specifically address the problem of bal- toms are conflicting, are subsumed under this category.
ancing the differing interests of stakeholders—a problem • Marketing ethics education–related issues. The ques-
that marketers often have to face when trying to adhere to tion of how—if this is even possible—marketers
different values of different stakeholders. Given the some- and/or marketing students are (or should be) trained to
what inspirational but elusive character of its norms and val- act more ethically falls under this category.
ues, the AMA concludes with the expectation that every • Marketing research–related issues. What are (or
marketing subdiscipline has its own specific ethical issues should be) the ethical responsibilities of marketers
that require policies and commentary. conducting marketing research?
In a second step, we looked at functional areas of • Social marketing–related issues. What are (or should
marketing—the four Ps that have been introduced first by be) specific ethical considerations for marketers
Jerome McCarthy (1960)—and marketing subdisciplines, as engaged in social marketing, a small but important
suggested by the AMA. Next, on a preliminary review of the discipline of marketing?
literature, we expanded the list with ethics-specific topics rel- • Internet-related issues. New advances in electronic
evant for marketing. Procedurally, we added new categories communication such as e-mail and the Internet have
as the literature dictated. Finally, we arrived at a topical cate- raised a plentitude of privacy issues and other ethi-
gorization scheme that is loosely organized as (1) functional cally relevant problems.
areas of marketing, (2) subdisciplines of marketing, and (3) • Law and ethics–related issues. The relationship between
specific ethics related topics (see table 2): law and ethics in marketing. AMA’s first norm to do no
harm: “adhering to all applicable laws and regulations”
Functional areas of marketing (AMA 2006a, 1).
• Product related issues. The sale of potentially dangerous,
malfunctioning, and environmentally harmful products is Specific ethics-related topics
subsumed under this category. AMA’s responsibility • Ethics and society–related issues. What is (or should be)
value: “this means that products are appropriate for their the role of marketing ethics in free enterprise, private-
intended and promoted uses” (AMA 2006a, 2). property, and nondemocratic or transitional systems?
• Price related issues. All pricing-related marketing What are (or should be) the ethical implications for mar-
ethics. AMA’s fairness value: “we will not engage in keters’ ability (or inability) to solve societal problems?
price fixing, predatory pricing, price gouging or bait- • Ethical decision making. How are marketers making
and-switch tactics” (AMA 2006a, 2). (or how should they make) decisions from an ethical
• Placement-related issues. The ethical responsibility perspective? What drives the decision-making process?
and ethical problems that might arise in the relation- • Ethical responsibility toward marketers’ stakeholders–
ship with middlemen. AMA’s respect value: “we will related issues. What ethical responsibilities do marketers
make a special effort to understand suppliers, interme- have (or should they have) toward their stakeholders?
diaries, and distributors” (AMA 2006a, 2). The relationship between ethics and profits, the questions
• Promotion-related issues. Ethical challenges of adver- of the appropriateness of philanthropic contributions, and
tising and promotion, such as manipulating consumers the primacy of the stockholder fall in this category.
to buy what they don’t need or can’t afford and the • Ethical values–related issues. Which ethical values are
question of whether this is possible, are placed in this marketers adhering to or which should they be adher-
category. AMA’s norm to foster trust in the marketing ing to? How can ethical values be measured?
• Norm generation and definition–related issues. How is terms of journal coverage and the time frame (it had to cover
ethics (or how should it be) defined? How can ethical the whole period under review). After consideration of vari-
values relevant for marketers be generated? ous databases, Business Source Premier was selected as the
• Marketing ethics implementation–related issues. How primary database because it appeared to be the most com-
is ethics (or how should it be) implemented in the prehensive and complete for the time frame evaluated.
decision-making process of marketers? The discus- Third, appropriate search terms had to be identified. After
sion about the usefulness of codes of conduct and mis- preliminary analysis, the source words marketing and ethics
sion statements falls under this category. were found to be the most comprehensive. For the time
• Relationship between ethics and religion–related frame of this review (1981 to 2005), Business Source
issues. The impact religion and religious values Premier produced 930 ethics contributions. However, this
(should) have on marketing ethics and the ethical deci- search algorithm did not necessarily reveal all articles focus-
sion-making process of marketers. ing on marketing ethics. For example, the keywords market-
• Discrimination and harassment–related issues. AMA’s ing and deception revealed 88 articles. Of those 88
value respect: “we will value individual differences even contributions, 10 were already discovered by the original
as we avoid stereotyping customers or depicting demo- keywords marketing and ethics. Of the 78 remaining arti-
graphic groups (e.g. gender, race, sexual orientation) in cles, we checked the first 20. One of those 20 was an article
a negative or dehumanizing way” (AMA 2006a, 2). whose main focus is marketing ethics. That is, in this case,
• Green marketing–related issues. Marketing ethics the search algorithm missed one article. We also cross-
challenges germane to protecting the natural environ- checked the keywords marketing and misconduct (14 arti-
ment. AMA’s value citizenship: “we will strive to pro- cles with an overlap of 7 articles, and no marketing ethics
tect the natural environment” (AMA 2006a, 3). articles in the remaining 7) and marketing and fraud (102
• Vulnerable consumer–related issues. Ethical problems articles with an overlap of 10 articles).
and challenges in dealing with vulnerable consumers. Another limitation of the search algorithm was the overlap
AMA’s value responsibility: “we will recognize our between ethics and social responsibility, since both expres-
special commitments to economically vulnerable seg- sions are sometimes used interchangeably. While there is no
ments of the markets such as children, the elderly, and comprehensive definition of marketers’ responsibility to soci-
others who may be substantially disadvantaged” ety, the orthodox view is that “a socially responsible cooper-
(AMA 2006a, 2). ation pursues profit while respecting the moral minimum”
(Bowie 1991, 58). A more comprehensive definition argues
that corporations have a duty to help solve social problems.
METHOD Many of the articles in the macro/normative cluster are in line
with this definition. There was a 50 percent overlap in the
Given the vast number of marketing ethics articles and electronic database using the keywords marketing and social
the potential number of publication outlets, it was necessary responsibility, which revealed 231 articles, of which 115 were
to explicitly specify the scope of the review and establish already discovered by the original keywords marketing and
straightforward procedures. While contributions with mar- ethics. We checked the first 20 of the remaining 116 articles
keting ethics content can be found in a wide variety of jour- and found 2 articles focusing on marketing ethics. Both arti-
nals and other outlets, for this review, we focused on cles fall in the macro/normative category. Therefore, the
peer-reviewed marketing journals and some business jour- search algorithm using the keywords marketing and ethics
nals that cover marketing issues (Harvard Business Review, might have lead to a slight underrepresentation of articles in
Sloan Management Review, California Management the macro/normative category.
Review, Business Horizons, Journal of Business, Journal of Fourth, each abstract had to be evaluated to determine
Business Ethics, and Journal of Business Research). We whether it was a marketing ethics article or just ethics
started out with the “comprehensive set of marketing and mar- related. Articles that cover some ethical aspects but whose
keting related journals” (Baumgartner and Pieters 2003, 123) main focus was not ethics were not included. The reasoning
that have been analyzed concerning their overall and subarea is that it is common for many marketing studies to include
influence on the marketing discipline. On preliminary review ethical implications without actually focusing on marketing
of the literature, we expanded the list to fifty-eight journals rel- ethics as the primary research topic. As an illustration,
evant to marketing ethics (see table 3). A cross-check of the Holbrook’s article (Holbrook 2005 a), which sheds some
journals not included on the list was performed to get a sense light on conflicts between commercial and artistic interests,
for the nature and scope of marketing ethics articles not pub- also raises ethical questions, but its main emphasis is not on
lished in these journals. During the time period studied, marketing ethics. Furthermore, ethical contributions without
approximately 77 percent of all marketing ethics articles a focus on marketing content were also not included.
published appeared in these fifty-eight journals. Fifth, a content analysis was performed on the abstracts of
Second, an electronic database had to be selected. The all selected journal articles (see table 3). These articles were
two criteria were the comprehensiveness of the database in classified according to the categorization scheme discussed
262 SEPTEMBER 2007
TABLE 3
LIST OF JOURNALS
Abbrev. Journal Abbrev. Journal

ACR Advances in Consumer Research JEP Journal of Economic Psychologyb
AMA AMA Educators’ Conference Proceedingsb JGM Journal of Global Marketingb
BE Business Ethics: A European Reviewa JHCM Journal of Health Care Marketing
BEQ Business Ethics Quarterlya JIBS Journal of International Business Studiesb
BH Business Horizons JICM Journal of International Consumer Marketinga
BS Brand Strategya JIM Journal of international Marketing
CMR California Management Review JM Journal of Marketing
DS Decision Sciencesb JME Journal of Marketing Education
EJM European Journal of Marketing JMM Journal of Macromarketing
HBR Harvard Business Review JMMA Journal of Marketing Management
IJM International Journal of Managementa JMR Journal of Marketing Research
IJRM International Journal of Research in Marketing JMRS Journal of the Market Research Society
IMR International Marketing Reviewa JMTP Journal of Marketing Theory and Practice
IMM Industrial Marketing Management JNPSM Journal of Nonprofit and Public Sector Marketingb
JA Journal of Advertising JPIM Journal of Product Innovation Managementb
JAMS Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science JPPM Journal of Public Policy and Marketing
JAR Journal of Advertising Research JPSM Journal of Professional Services Marketing
JB Journal of Businessb JPSSM Journal of Personal Selling and Sales Management
JBBM Journal of Business-to-Business Marketing JR Journal of Retailing
JBE Journal of Business Ethics JSM Journal of Services Marketing
JBIM Journal of Business and Industrial Marketing JSR Journal of Services Researcha
JBL Journal of Business Logistics MER Marketing Education Review
JBR Journal of Business Research MKS Marketing Science
JCA Journal of Consumer Affairs ML Marketing Letters
JCM Journal of Consumer Marketing MM Marketing Management
JCPO Journal of Consumer Policyb MNS Management Scienceb
JCPS Journal of Consumer Psychology MR Marketing Researcha
JCR Journal of Consumer Research PM Psychology and Marketingb
JDM Journal of Direct Marketingb SMR Sloan Management Review
a. Journals that are not in the Baumgartner and Pieters (2003, 123) list.
b. Journals that did not have any marketing ethics articles.
earlier. If a categorization using the abstract was not possible, Quantity: how many articles have been published over the years?
the whole article was analyzed to more clearly ascertain the Nature and scope of the marketing ethics literature: what is the
“primary” topics under investigation. Two independent judges primary focus of the articles in terms of the categorization
were used to increase the objectivity of this research method. scheme positive/normative and macro/micro?
Topical areas of the marketing ethics literature: what are the pri-
When they disagreed about a classification, they discussed the
mary topical areas of the articles?
article until an agreement was reached.
Publication outlets: what is published in which journals?
Quantity of Ethics Articles

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Over the past twenty-five years, the fifty-eight journals
The above procedure produced a total of 930 articles under consideration published 421 marketing ethics articles.
published from 1981 through 2005. Of those articles, 379 As table 5 indicates, the first five-year period, 1981 to 1985,
were determined not to be primarily marketing ethics produced 21 articles. This amount doubled for the next five-
articles. The net result was 551 marketing ethics articles year period (1986 to 1990) and again from 1991 to 1995, when
appearing in marketing and business journals. Of these arti- a total of 86 articles were published. The number of marketing
cles, 421 appeared in the fifty-eight journals listed in table ethics articles continued to grow for each five-year time period.
3. These articles were the data used for this review. The From 2001 to 2005, 147 articles were published, compared to
results are shown in tables 4 through 8. In most cases, the 125 from 1996 to 2000. While the field continued to grow over
results are displayed by individual years along with five year the past five years, it was the smallest percentage growth rate
summaries. While we present and interpret the results in the for any five year period (18 percent). We find this slow growth
next few sections, we encourage readers to review the tables somewhat surprising, given the high levels of interest in busi-
and draw their own conclusions. The findings of this review ness ethics by the government, academia (e.g., Association to
are summarized and organized using four categories that Advance Collegiate Schools of Business), the media, and busi-
will be discussed separately: ness itself, during that time period.
TABLE 4
NUMBER OF MARKETING ETHICS ARTICLES AND PERCENTAGES OF THE DICHOTOMIES BY YEAR
Contributions % Macro/ % Macro/ % Micro/ % Micro/

Year Total Normative Positive Normative Positive % Macro % Micro % Normative % Positive
2005 37 8 22 13 57 30 70 22 78
2004 34 15 26 21 38 41 59 35 65
2003 25 12 16 24 48 28 72 36 64
2002 23 4 17 22 57 22 78 26 74
2001 27 19 22 22 37 41 59 41 59
2000 18 6 28 11 56 33 67 17 83
1999 39 26 13 28 33 38 62 54 46
1998 27 30 19 15 37 48 52 44 56
1997 22 14 14 27 45 27 73 41 59
1996 20 15 20 10 55 35 65 25 75
1995 15 13 7 33 47 20 80 47 53
1994 17 12 18 18 53 29 71 29 71
1993 18 11 28 39 22 39 61 50 50
1992 20 0 25 50 25 25 75 50 50
1991 16 6 13 31 50 19 81 38 63
1990 14 7 14 43 36 21 79 50 50
1989 12 0 42 25 33 42 58 25 75
1988 7 14 71 0 14 86 14 14 86
1987 5 0 0 60 40 0 100 60 40
1986 4 0 25 75 0 25 75 75 25
1985 5 0 20 20 60 20 80 20 80
1984 4 0 25 25 50 25 75 25 75
1983 7 0 14 29 57 14 86 29 71
1982 3 0 0 67 33 0 100 67 33
1981 2 0 50 0 50 50 50 0 100
TABLE 5
FIVE YEAR SUMMARIES OF THE MARKETING ETHICS ARTICLES AND PERCENTAGES OF THE DICHOTOMIES
Total # Macro/ # Macro/ # Micro/ # Micro/

Contributions Normative Positive Normative Positive # Macro # Micro # Normative # Positive % Micro % Macro % Positive % Normative
2005–2001 147 17 32 29 69 49 98 46 102 66.7 33.3 68.7 31.3
2000–1996 125 25 22 25 53 47 78 50 75 62.4 37.6 60.0 40.0
1995–1991 86 7 16 30 33 23 63 37 49 73.3 26.7 57.0 43.0
1990–1986 42 2 13 15 12 15 27 17 25 64.3 35.7 59.5 40.5
1985–1981 21 0 4 6 11 4 17 6 15 81.0 19.0 71.4 28.6
25 year totals 421 51 87 105 178 138 283 156 265 67.2 32.8 62.9 37.1
% last 5 years 35% 33.3% 36.8% 27.6% 38.8% 35.5% 34.6% 29.5% 38.1%
% last 10 years 65% 82.4% 62.1% 51.4% 68.5% 69.6% 62.2% 61.5% 66.4%
In summary, 35 percent of all marketing ethics articles were determined to be normative. In addition, since 1985, the
were published in the past five years. Even more surprising, ratio of positive versus normative marketing ethics publica-
65 percent of the marketing ethics articles in this study were tions has been growing. Normative articles that provided
published in the past ten years. It can be concluded that mar- (sometimes simplistic) advice on how to behave ethically
keting ethics is a relatively young and evolving field. almost completely vanished. This might show that the field is
maturing and becoming more appreciative of the many com-
Nature and Scope of the Marketing plexities of marketing ethics. Contributions that offered a
Ethics Literature “quick fix” became a thing of the past. The micro/positive cat-
egory emerged as the largest category over the last fifteen
Two areas of interest for marketing ethics researchers years. About half of all contributions fall in this category. This
are the nature (positive versus normative) and scope (micro certainly led to a much-improved understanding of pressing
versus macro) of the publications. questions such as: What are the main issues in marketing
ethics? Which issues are perceived as the main problems by
The positive/normative dichotomy. In total, 265 articles (63 marketing managers? Which values do marketers believe in?
percent) were classified as positive in nature and 37 percent How do marketers make ethical decisions? In short, these
264
TABLE 6
TOPICAL AREAS OF THE MARKETING ETHICS LITERATURE
Date Prod Price Place Prom Sales Cons Intl Edu MRes SocM Inter Law Soc Decision Stake Valu Norm Impl Relig Discr Green Vuln
2005 1 0 0 4 4 6 8 6 0 0 1 0 2 7 3 9 0 5 1 0 1 1
2004 1 1 1 1 4 3 8 8 0 0 1 0 4 6 4 5 2 2 1 0 1 0
2003 1 0 1 2 2 5 5 2 1 1 0 0 2 2 3 5 1 1 0 0 1 0
2002 1 0 1 0 1 1 7 1 1 3 0 0 2 4 0 3 0 2 0 2 0 0
2001 1 0 0 0 2 3 10 1 1 0 1 0 2 5 3 6 1 1 0 0 1 1
2001–2005 5 1 3 7 13 18 38 18 3 4 3 0 12 24 13 28 4 11 2 2 4 2
2000 0 0 0 0 4 0 4 2 1 0 1 0 0 5 1 1 0 1 2 0 2 0
1999 1 0 2 3 1 3 12 1 0 0 1 1 3 7 3 3 4 4 0 0 0 1
1998 1 0 1 4 1 1 5 2 0 1 0 2 1 6 1 3 1 0 3 0 1 2
1997 1 0 1 2 2 3 3 0 2 0 0 0 1 6 0 5 2 3 0 0 0 2
1996 0 0 0 0 1 1 5 0 1 0 0 0 1 6 2 8 1 1 0 0 0 0
1996–2000 3 0 4 9 9 8 29 5 4 1 2 3 6 30 7 20 8 9 5 0 3 5
1995 0 0 1 1 2 2 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 7 1 3 1 2 0 0 1 0
1994 0 0 0 1 1 3 2 0 1 0 0 0 2 2 1 7 0 0 0 1 1 0
1993 0 0 0 2 1 1 0 3 2 0 0 1 0 3 1 4 1 1 1 0 0 1
1992 0 0 0 2 1 1 1 1 3 1 0 1 1 5 0 5 0 1 0 0 1 0
1991 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 0 0 0 0 2 3 1 6 0 2 0 0 0 0
1991–1995 0 0 1 6 5 7 6 7 6 1 0 2 5 20 4 25 2 6 1 1 3 1
1990 0 0 0 0 1 0 2 3 3 0 0 0 0 3 0 1 1 2 0 0 0 0
1989 0 0 0 1 2 0 0 1 3 0 0 0 0 5 0 4 0 1 0 0 0 0
1988 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 2 2 2 3 0 0 0 0 0 0
1987 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 2 0 0 0 0

1986 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
1986–1990 1 0 0 1 4 0 3 4 8 0 0 0 2 12 4 9 2 5 0 0 0 0
1985 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 0
1984 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
1983 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 1 1 3 1 1 0 0 0 0
1982 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0
1981 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 0
1981–1985 0 0 0 1 2 0 0 3 5 0 0 0 1 3 1 8 1 1 0 0 0 0
Total Articles 9 1 8 24 33 33 76 37 26 6 5 5 26 89 29 90 17 32 8 3 10 8
NOTE: For abbreviation definitions, see table 2.

TABLE 7
LEADING PUBLICATION OUTLETS FOR MARKETING ETHICS ARTICLES
All All
Years Years 2001–2005 1996–2000 1991–1995 1986–1990 1981–1985
Ranking
Journal B&P 2003a Total % Total % Total % Total % Total % Total %
JBE 23 163 38.70 53 36 68 54 28 33 11 26 3 14
EJM 15 22 5.20 13 9 5 4 2 2 1 2 1 5
JME 24 20 4.80 4 3 2 2 8 9 2 5 4 19
MER 46 19 4.50 11 7 3 2 3 3 2 5
JAMS 7 18 4.30 2 1 4 3 6 7 4 10 2 10
JBR 12 16 3.80 6 4 5 4 2 2 3 7
JCM 35 16 3.80 8 5 6 5 1 1 1 2
JMM — 16 3.80 2 1 5 4 1 1 5 12 3 14
JM 1 14 3.30 1 1 3 2 4 5 4 10 2 10
JPSSM 18 14 3.30 3 2 1 1 7 8 2 5 1 5
IMR — 13 3.10 7 5 6 7
BE — 10 2.40 5 3 5 4
JPPM 21 7 1.70 1 1 4 3% 2 2
JMR 2 5 1.20 1 1 1 1 2 5 1 5
JMTP 48 5 1.20 1 1 2 2 2 2
BEQ — 4 1.00 2 1 1 1 1 1
JA 15 4 1.00 1 1 1 1 2 2
JMMA 34 4 1.00 4 3
MR — 4 1.00 2 2 2 5
HBR 4 3 0.70 1 1 2 5
ACR 5 3 0.70 1 1 2 2
IMM 9 3 0.70 1 1 1 1 1 5
BS — 3 0.70 3 2
CMR 19 3 0.70 2 1 1 5
JSM 31 3 0.70 1 1 2 2
JR 10 2 0.50 1 2 1 5
IJM — 2 0.50 2 1
IJRM 22 2 0.50 1 1 1 1
JBIM 39 2 0.50 2 1
JCA 30 2 0.50 2 1
JHCM 33 2 0.50 2 2
JMRS 38 2 0.50 1 1 1 1
JPSM 41 2 0.50 2 2
JCR 3 1 0.20 1 1
MKS 6 1 0.20 1 1
BH 20 1 0.20 1 1
JAR 11 1 0.20 1 5
JBBM 47 1 0.20 1 1
JBL 44 1 0.20 1 1
JCPS 40 1 0.20 1 1
JICM — 1 0.20 1 1
JIM 42 1 0.20 1 1
JSR — 1 0.20 1 1
ML 25 1 0.20 1 1
MM 28 1 0.20 1 1
SMR 14 1 0.20 1 1
MNS 8 0 0.00
NOTE: For list of journal acronyms and their full journal titles, see table 3.
a. Number refers to the ranking by Baumgartner and Pieters 2003.
contributions provide a description, an explanation, and normative question: what ought to be? A cynic could argue
potentially a prediction of existing marketing ethics phe- that all the knowledge we gained about how marketers han-
nomena. Thus, they seek to shed some light on the quintes- dle ethical problems does not provide an answer to the ques-
sential positivist question: what is? tion of what marketers ought to do. To suppose that one can
However, marketing ethics also entails normative questions. deduce an “ought” from an “is,” or what amounts to the same
While most of the normative contributions advise marketers on thing, that one can deduce a normative ethical conclusion
specific ethics questions, only very few investigated the princi- from existing ethical practices, is to commit a logical mistake
pal problem of defining marketing ethics in terms of norms and a contradiction to David Hume’s (1711–1776) distinction
and values that marketers should follow—the quintessential between factual statements and value statements known as
266
TABLE 8
PUBLICATION OUTLETS FOR MARKETING ETHICS ARTICLES
2005 2004 2003 2002 2001 2000 1999 1998 1997 1996 1995 1994 1993 1992 1991 1990 1989 1988 1987 1986 1985 1984 1983 1982 1981 Total
1. JM 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 2 1 1 14
2. JMR 1 1 1 1 1 4
3. JCR 1 1
4. HBR 1 1 1 3
5. ACR 1 1 1 3
6. MKS 1 1
7. JAMS 1 1 1 2 1 1 2 2 1 3 1 2 19
8. MNS 0
9. IMM 1 1 1 3
10. JR 1 1 2
# of articles 1 3 1 1 2 3 1 4 1 2 2 4 3 2 3 4 2 4 0 3 2 2 0 50
the in top
10 journals
BE 4 1 2 3 10
BEQ 1 1 1 1 4
BH 1 1
BS 2 1 3
CMR 1 1 1 3
EJM 3 3 5 2 1 1 3 1 1 1 1 20
IJM 1 1 2
IJRM 1 1 2
IMR 5 1 1 5 1 8
JA 1 1 1 1 4
JAR 1 1
JBBM 1 1
JBE 14 6 7 9 17 13 23 13 6 13 3 7 6 7 5 2 4 3 1 1 2 1 156
JBIM 1 1 2
JBL 1 1
JBR 3 2 1 1 1 2 1 1 1 2 1 16
JCA 1 1 1

JCM 1 1 1 2 3 5 1 1 1 16
JCPS 1 1
JHCM 1 1 2
JICM 1 1
JIM 1 1
JME 2 1 1 2 1 2 2 1 2 1 1 1 1 2 19
JMM 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 2 1 1 1 2 1 15
JMMA 2 1 1 3
JMRS 1 1 2
JMTP 1 1 1 1 1 5
JPPM 1 4 1 1 7
JPSM 2 2
JPSSM 1 1 1 1 1 4 2 1 1 1 14
JSM 1 2 3
JSR 1 1
MER 1 7 2 1 1 1 1 2 1 2 18
ML 1 1
MM 1 1
MR 2 2 4
SMR 1 1
Total articles 37 34 25 23 28 17 39 27 22 20 15 17 18 20 16 14 12 7 5 4 5 4 7 3 2 421
by year
Summary by 2001–2005 1996–2000 1991–1995 1986–1990 1981–1985
5 year
increments
Total articles 147 35% 125 30% 86 20% 42 10% 21 5%
Articles in the 8 5% 9 7% 13 15% 13 31% 7 33% 50
top 10
journals
Total articles 60 41% 74 59% 29 34% 11 26% 3 14% 177
in business
ethics journals
Total articles 75 51% 46 37% 54 63% 26 62% 17 81% 218
in marketing
journals
Total articles 12 8% 5 4% 3 3% 5 12% 1 5% 26
in general
business
journals
NOTE: For list of journal acronyms and their full journal titles, see table 3.

267
268 SEPTEMBER 2007
Hume’s Law (Donaldson and Dunfee 1994). For example, the Functional areas of marketing. In the functional areas
fact that child labor in coal mines with devastating health con- of marketing, ethics articles pertaining to promotional
sequences was a common and accepted business practice activities were most prevalent. This is in line with the
in the early nineteenth century did not make it right from an amount of attention that advertising and other communica-
ethical point of view. tion vehicles have received in the general marketing litera-
The preponderance of positivist contributions could stem ture. It should be noted that over the past five years there
from the fact that most marketing researchers are more has been an increase in the number of articles pertaining to
familiar with positivism—the leading paradigm in market- product-related ethics issues. The functional area with the
ing. In a similar vein, Wilkie and Moore (2003, 132) come fewest articles is pricing. We could only identify one arti-
to the conclusion in their analysis of scholarly research in cle in this area. This is surprising, given the number of
marketing that “the reliance on the scientific approach to ethics-related issues surrounding pricing, such as higher
knowledge development” has a preeminent position. This prices in low-income neighborhoods, price discrimination
might also explain researchers’ affinity for quantitative issues, and so on.
methods, since empirical verifiability is seen as the only
credible criterion for knowledge in the positivist sciences Subdisciplines of marketing. In the subdisciplines, inter-
(Apel 1988). Furthermore, positive studies often relate more national, sales, and education have generated the most inter-
to management issues that the discipline focuses on in est. International ethics were the most researched
understanding existing practices. They are also helpful in subdiscipline and the third overall most investigated topic,
developing and implementing new practices. with seventy-six articles. The amount of research in this area
increased dramatically starting in the early 1990s and it was
The micro/macro dichotomy. As table 5 shows, of the 421 the most researched area over the last five years. The
marketing ethics articles investigated in this study, 283 (67 increasing globalization of businesses and markets, along
percent) were micro and 138 (33 percent) were macro ori- with a growing number of marketers that have to deal with
ented. This ratio of micro to macro contributions has been the ethical challenges of international markets, did not leave
fairly stable over the last twenty-five years. Relatively few academia unaffected. It is interesting to note that the relative
articles have investigated macromarketing ethical issues such interest in this topic—while still very high—peaked in 2001
as the role of marketing ethics in the society and marketers’ and has declined since then. Over the last ten years, most of
potential role in helping to solve societal problems. In fact, this research followed a positivist approach, attempting to
since 2000, only 32 articles were macro positive and even less measure and describe ethics-related issues in an interna-
(17) were classified as macro normative. The interest of mar- tional context. Quantitative cross-cultural investigations
keting researchers in larger societal issues has also been were the preferred choice of study design. Specifically, dif-
reported by Wilkie and Moore (2003, 135) who claim that the ferences in values, norms, perceptions of ethical issues, and
area from 1980 to 2002 “has brought the most significant decision making are well researched in a plentitude of cross-
decline in mainstream interest in this topic during the entire cultural studies.
history (nearly a century) of marketing thought.” It could be Articles pertaining to the teaching of marketing ethics
speculated that “the doctrine of managerial relevance” and its were the second most researched subdiscipline and the
“increasingly privileged position in the halls of academia” fourth most investigated topic overall, with thirty-seven arti-
(Holbrook 2005b, 143) is crowding out the interest in societal cles. While the early research in this area was dominated by
issues. That is, the reward and evaluation system of many uni- normative work, such as advising educators about how to
versities is biased toward managerial relevance and/or publi- instill ethical value in marketing students, later contributions
cations in the field’s top journals as defined by ranking lists focused more on values and the ethical decision-making
(Baumgartner and Pieters 2003). The perceived (or real) pres- process of students.
sure by researchers to produce results that are of managerial Not surprisingly, the interest in Internet-related issues
use for marketing managers and students might prevent them was growing fairly fast starting from the early nineties with
from spending much time and resources on other issues. its peak in 2000—about the same time the new economy
bubble burst. Since then, the number of contributions
Topical Areas of the Marketing Ethics Literature declined in marketing journals. However, at the same time,
journals from other disciplines showed increasing interest in
The marketing ethics articles spanning the last twenty- this area.
five years cover a wide range of topics. The results of the Finally, while ethics issues in marketing research
analysis are displayed in table 6. When categorizing the sparked a fair amount of interest in the 1980s and early
results, three groups of topical areas were considered: func- 1990s, it was less researched over the last decade. Sales and
tional areas of marketing (four Ps), subdisciplines of mar- consumer–related issues gained relative weight over the last
keting, and specific ethics topics. Recall that each article five years, while law and social marketing–related issues
could be classified into two topical areas. were of low interest.

Specific ethic- related topics. Over the time span of this Murphy (1999) developed a framework for marketing
review, the two most researched topics were ethical values, ethics based on virtue ethics as introduced by the classic
with ninety articles, and ethical decision making, with Greek philosophers. “The focus in virtue ethics is on the
eighty-nine articles. person and his/her character traits” (Murphy 1999, 109),
Ethical values–related issues, the basic question of which which can be formed and developed by practicing and imi-
values marketers are (or should be) heeding, has been a main- tating the behavior of others.
stay area of marketing ethics research. Most of this research has The integrative social contract theory (Dunfee, Smith,
been predominantly positive since the early 1990s. That is, the and Ross 1999; Donaldson and Dunfee 1995, 1994;
measuring and describing of marketers’ values stood in the Donaldson 1996, 1989) derives ethical norms through the
forefront, while relatively little research has been done con- assumption of “rational humans seeking to design a binding,
cerning the normative questions of which values marketers though unwritten, agreement that establishes the parameters
should have. Of the ninety ethics value–related articles, only for ethics in economic relationships” (Dunfee, Smith, and
twenty-six were characterized as normative. Ross 1999, 18). Differing norms are considered moral free
The issue ethical decision making—the essential question space. Accordingly, marketers should identify and accept
about how marketers arrive at ethically relevant decisions— the authentic norms of the communities they do business in,
started to take off in the eighties under the influence of posi- as long as these norms are compatible with hypernorms—
tive decision-making models such as the Hunt-Vitell model the norms by which all other norms are to be judged
(Hunt and Vitell 1986). The model assumes that the ethical (Murphy et al. 2005)—and “are based upon informed con-
decision-making process depends, among other things, on sent buttressed by the rights of voice and exit” (Donaldson
the role of individual moral philosophies. For example, Hunt and Dunfee 1995, 109). If marketers operate in multiple
and Vitell (1986) suggest that individuals follow a teleolog- communities with differing authentic norms, as is the case in
ical or deontological evaluation of situations that are per- most international business relationships, the suggested eth-
ceived as ethically relevant. This is an example of positive ical framework provides priority rules that follow “the spirit
research about normative issues. Much of the research that of the overall macrosocial contract”(Dunfee, Smith, and
followed was based on this model or tested and verified Ross 1999, 20). The concept of hypernorms has been criti-
parts of it empirically. Hunt (forthcoming) concluded that cized for its difficulty in justifying and interpreting these
“the empirical tests conducted so far provide strong support norms and providing practical guidance (Nill 2003).
for the H-V theory”. Following the Kantian tradition, Bowie (1999) introduces
While the primary focus of the majority of these studies a deontological approach toward business ethics. Kant’s
was to achieve a better understanding of the ethical decision- three formulations of the categorical imperative can be used
making process, this vastly expanding knowledge base is as “a test to see if any proposed action, including actions in
also very useful in giving normative recommendations. For business, is moral” (Bowie 2002, 62). That is, any morally
illustration, Badaracco and Webb (1995), and Nill and acceptable action has to be logically and pragmatically con-
Schibrowsky (2005) report in their studies, which focus on sistent with the spirit of the categorical imperative. The first
the ethical decision-making process of employees and stu- formulation of the categorical imperative, which resembles
dents, that a corporate culture emphasizing the bottom line the golden rule—“Act according to that maxim only, which
and short-term results is positively correlated with the inten- you can wish, at the same time to become a universal law”
tion to act unethically. The normative implication of these (Kant [1783] 1965, 42)—implies that reciprocity and fair-
studies is to change a corporate culture that seemingly ness among rational beings constitute universal moral stan-
encourages unethical behavior. dards. Accordingly, for any decisions to be made one should
Norm generation and definition–related issues—the ask whether “the principle on which the decision is based
basic questions of how ethics is (or should be) defined and pass the test of the categorical imperative, that is can it be
how ethical values that are relevant for marketers should be willed without contradiction” (Bowie 2002, 63). The second
generated—were of moderate interest in the eighties but formulation of the categorical imperative—“Act in such a
represent only a very small part of the marketing ethics way that you treat the humanity whether in your own or any
articles over the last ten years. This is surprising since other person as an end, and never as a means only” (Kant
there still is no generally accepted definition of ethics in [1783] 1965, 52)—expresses the duty to respect and treat
marketing. What does it really mean to act ethically in a every stakeholder as a person. That is, all people, including
marketing context? This essential question remains mainly customers, employees and all other stakeholders, should never
unanswered. The early attempts to import concepts such be treated as means to an end. The third formulation of the
as deontological and teleological theories from moral phi- categorical imperative—“Act as if you were a member of an
losophy are wrought with difficulties and have been criti- ideal kingdom of ends in which you are both commoner and
cized heavily. Still, only few researchers were looking for monarch at the same time” (Kant [1783] 1965, 64)—views
alternatives. the organization and its business environment, including all

270 SEPTEMBER 2007
stakeholders, as a moral community. A moral community of all whole period under investigation, with approximately 5
business constituencies implies the commitment to strive for percent of all identified topics.
common goals and shared ends. Deontological approaches In summary, three topical areas—ethical decision mak-
have mainly been criticized for being either too abstract or ing, values, and international— account for approximately
elusive to provide practical guidance or for being to strict to half of all marketing ethics research published between 1995
take the complex condition of a multicultural business envi- and 2005. Topical areas that have received increased attention
ronment into consideration. The exclusion of consequences is from ethics scholars over the past five years include sales,
another potential shortcoming in a world where not everyone Internet, and product. On the other end of the spectrum, man-
is willing to heed these universal principles. Furthermore, aging resources, the law, distribution, and norm generation
decisions based on moral duties depend on the on the (some- and definition–related issues have commanded less attention
times flawed) moral reasoning of the person formulating the over the past decade.
principles and do not always offer a clear mechanism for
resolving conflicting duties (Murphy et al. 2005).
Publication Outlets for Marketing Ethics
Other scholars (Nill and Shultz 1997; Nill 2003; Bowen
and Power 1993) suggest a communicative approach, such Of the 551 marketing ethics articles revealed by the elec-
as the dialogic idealism, as a conceptual tool to generate tronic database, 421 (78 percent) were published in the jour-
normative values that offer practical guidance for marketers. nals on our list. It should be noted that the remaining 130
This approach suggests a procedural process for a construc- marketing ethics articles were published in a wide range of
tive dialogue between interested parties, with the goal of journals from other disciplines, such as management infor-
achieving a true consensus among all stakeholders. The out- mation systems, economics, and social studies. While about
come of the dialogue may differ depending on the situa- 15 percent of marketing ethics articles published in the
tional context and the individuals who participate. It is 1980s were not included in our list, this percentage
suggested that the process of the dialogue—the rules that increased to more than 30 percent in the1990s. Specifically,
stipulate an open and fair communication process (the ideal over the last ten years there has been a heightened interest in
dialogue), where every interested party has a right to partic- ethical challenges germane to the advances of the modern
ipate and honest argumentation is the only force allowed to telecommunication technology, the Internet, and privacy
achieve an agreement—is an incontestable prerequisite for issues. The majority of contributions in this field have been
any rational argumentation. The difficulty in implementing published in journals other than marketing.
a communicative approach, which is idealistic in nature, Of the fifty-eight journals on our list, twelve had no mar-
time consuming, expensive, and unfamiliar to most marketing ethics articles over the time span under investigation.
keters, places severe limitations on its practical adoption. Such journals as the Journal of Consumer Policy, the
Laczniak and Murphy (forthcoming) developed a norma- Journal of Direct Marketing (now Journal of Interactive
tive framework, “grounded in the centrality of exchange to Marketing), the Journal of Global Marketing, the Journal of
marketing and the inherent role of societal interactions with Nonprofit and Public Sector Marketing, and the Journal of
the marketing system,” to help marketers elevating the prac- Product Innovation Management had no marketing ethics
tice of marketing ethics. The approach is based on seven articles. This is somewhat alarming, given the editorial foci
integrated basic perspectives that reflect the extant ethics lit- of some of these journals. Conversely, about 40 percent of
erature. These basic ethical perspectives—people first; stan- all marketing ethics articles, a total of 163, appeared in the
dards in excess of the law; responsibility for intentions, Journal of Business Ethics (JBE), which is published by
means, and consequences; moral imagination of managers and Springer Netherlands. It should be noted that JBE has accel-
employees; core set of ethical principles; stakeholder orienta- erated its publication rate to about seven volumes with four
tion; delineation of an ethical decision making protocol— issues per volume and seven articles per issue, with a total
provide a possible road map for managers to consider ethical of close to two hundred articles per year, compared to one
aspects in their decisions. This would also increase trust—a hundred in 1995 and fifty in 1985. Of those two hundred
necessary prerequisite for the efficiency and effectiveness of articles, fourteen were marketing ethics pieces. Compare
the market system—among market participants. The high this to 1995, when only three of the one hundred articles
complexity of this truly integrated approach, which goes were marketing ethics articles.
much beyond simple decision-making rules, might be a The second largest number of marketing ethics articles
potential deterrent for some marketers. appeared in the European Journal of Marketing (EJM), with
Ethics and society–related issues, as well as the ethical 5 percent of all articles and twenty-two articles in total. It is
responsibility toward marketers’ stakeholders related issues— interesting to note that historically—despite the current
large, systemic questions such as: What is (or should be) the trend in some countries such as Germany and Austria to
role of marketing ethics in the society? Which ethical respon- adopt the Anglo-Saxon academic system—academia in con-
sibilities do marketers have (or which should they have) tinental Europe puts less emphasis on managerial relevance.
toward their stakeholders?—received little attention over the Often, the practice of business education and research in

many European universities more resembles a liberal arts eighteen). These fifty articles represent about 12 percent of
approach than a science or trade school approach. While all marketing ethics contributions. A closer examination
virtually all marketing researchers in the United States have exposes a potentially alarming trend. During the 1980s,
been trained from a management and behavioral science nearly one-third of all ethics pieces were published in these
perspective (Wilkie and Moore 2003) and are familiar with top journals, while in the last ten years this number has shrunk
the quantitative methods of empirical investigation—the to approximately 6 percent. Perhaps more disturbing are the
methodological foundation of most positive studies— results for the top five journals (see table 7). While 22 percent
European researchers are relatively more familiar with and of all marketing ethics articles were published in these jour-
used to qualitative methods—the methodological founda- nals in the1980s, this number declined to less than 3 percent
tion of many normative studies. This might be one of the for the last fifteen years. According to Baumgartner and
reasons for the relatively high number of normative contri- Pieters (2003, 136) this “small group of journals dominates
butions in the EJM. Together, JBE and EJM (both European the scientific discourse, and most other journals exert no
journals), account for about 44 percent of all marketing noticeable structural influence in the marketing network.”
ethics articles. The seemingly great interest in marketing This suggests that the marketing ethics discussion is no longer
ethics by these journals could potentially be explained by part of the mainstream marketing discourse.
the historic differences between the academic system in the The potential reasons for the lack of interest in societal
United States and in continental Europe. This is not to say issues discussed above might also be explanatory for the fad-
that U.S. scholars don’t also publish in these journals. To the ing interest in marketing ethics by mainstream researchers.
contrary, the ratio of contributions by U.S researches has Wilkie and Moore (2003, 132) claim that the preeminent posi-
been increasing steadily. tion in the marketing field is “the belief that the major purpose
Another significant finding pertains to the audiences of academic work is to enhance the effectiveness of man-
reached by the marketing ethics literature. As table 8 shows, agers’ marketing decisions.” By its very nature, marketing
throughout the 1980s, nearly 70 percent of all marketing ethics research does not and cannot always deliver manage-
ethics articles were directed to traditional marketing journals. rial relevance. This is not to say that the results of many mar-
Around 1995, this trend began to change significantly, with keting ethics studies are not relevant for managers, but it might
over 50 percent of all marketing ethics articles being pub- suggest that the dictum of managerial relevance is making the
lished in business ethics journals, especially the Journal of field less enticing to many marketing researchers. Anecdotal
Business Ethics. In addition, during this ten year span, evidence suggests that marketing ethics manuscripts are
approximately 7 percent of the articles were published in gen- likely to be rejected by the top tier journals. Furthermore,
eral business journals (which tend to be read by more business since ever more U.S. universities “adopted ‘publish-or-perish’
practitioners), leaving just over 40 percent of the articles in career paths for their new faculty, which added pressures for
marketing journals. It seems likely that the marketing ethics increasingly sophisticated research” (Wilkie and Moore
literature is being read by more business ethics scholars 2003, 133), these young scholars might be inclined to pur-
because of the increased publication rates in business ethics sue more mainstream research projects to target the top jour-
journals. This may help the marketing ethics literature to be nals in the field.
more integrated into the general business ethics literature.
However, the majority of this literature goes unnoticed by
many general marketing scholars. The number of marketing CONCLUSION
ethics pieces appearing in traditional marketing journals has
remained relatively flat for the past fifteen years. It is con- After analyzing the data presented above, we offer the fol-
cerning that those scholars that focus on the traditional mar- lowing thought-provoking observations for future research in
keting journals are not being exposed to the majority of the marketing ethics:
marketing ethics literature. This finding is in line with the First, the field of marketing ethics experienced a vast
increasing research specialization of the marketing field as increase of knowledge over the last twenty-five years. Much
documented by Wilkie and Moore (2003). One could argue progress has been made in achieving a better understanding of
that this specialization is likely to impede the integration of marketers’ main ethical problems, their values, their decision-
marketing ethics into mainstream marketing research. making processes, and international and cross-cultural issues.
Finally, we investigated the amount of marketing ethics Nonetheless, more research is needed to shed further light on
research that was published in the top ten most influential the nature of marketing ethics and to increase our under-
marketing journals as ranked by Baumgartner and Pieters standing of ethical theory. The call for more work on ethical
(2003). Over the past twenty-five years, a total of fifty mar- theory is not only warranted from an academic point of view but
keting ethics pieces were published in the top ten journals also from a practitioner’s perspective. While most marketers that
(the top journal with the most marketing ethics articles was have to make real ethical decisions every day are not looking for
the Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, with idealism, but for strategies and decision-making systems that

272 SEPTEMBER 2007
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Alexander Nill and John A. Schibrowsky

ethics scandals, marketers are constantly struggling with the eth-

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Fritzsche 1989). Still others (DeGeorge 2005) distinguish TABLE 2

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Abbrev. Journal Abbrev. Journal

Quantity of Ethics Articles

Contributions % Macro/ % Macro/ % Micro/ % Micro/

Total # Macro/ # Macro/ # Micro/ # Micro/

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NOTE: For abbreviation definitions, see table 2.

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