Some important factors underlying ethical decisions of Middle‐Eastern marketers

TLDR: In this article, a self-administered questionnaire was used as the data collection technique for the study of marketing ethics decision-making process of Middle-Eastern marketers, which examined the relative influences of ethical perceptions, perceived importance of ethics, and age on ethical intentions of marketers in the Middle East.

Abstract: This study analyzes the marketing ethics decision‐making process of Middle‐Eastern marketers. In particular, it examines the relative influences of ethical perceptions, perceived importance of ethics, and age on ethical intentions of marketers in the Middle East. A self‐administered questionnaire was used as the data collection technique for this study. Perception of ethical problem and ethical intention were operationalized by means of two marketing ethics scenarios. Age of respondents was measured directly and perceived importance of ethics was measured by a scale that has been used a number of times in the literature. Convenience samples of marketers from three Middle‐Eastern countries, Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia, were used in this study. The survey results generally indicate that a perceived ethical problem is a positive factor of a Middle‐Eastern marketer's ethical intention, as hypothesized. The results also support the hypothesis regarding the influence of perceived importance of ethics, that Middle‐Eastern marketers who perceive ethics to be important are more likely to have an ethical intention than Middle‐Eastern marketers who do not perceive ethics to be important. The research hypothesis regarding the influence of age, however, is not supported. Implications of the findings are discussed.