Ethical Problems of Marketing Researchers

TLDR

Most ethics studies in marketing research focus on researchers’ duties to respondents and clients or on perceptions of ethical practices. The study empirically investigates the major ethical problems of marketing researchers, the adequacy of professional codes, their prevalence, and top management’s effectiveness in mitigating them.

Abstract

Almost all studies on ethics in marketing research have focused on either delineating the responsibilities and obligations of researchers to respondents and clients or exploring whether various groups perceive certain marketing research practices to be ethical or unethical. The authors empirically examine four research questions: What are the major ethical problems of marketing researchers? To what extent do our professional codes of conduct address the major ethical problems of marketing researchers? How extensive are the ethical problems of marketing researchers? How effective are the actions of top management in reducing ethical problems of marketing researchers?