A Study of Marketing Ethics in Korea: What Do Koreans Care About?

This study explores the general marketing ethics among Koreans. Based on a scenario approach, we focus on the ethical problems developed or identified from previous research in the western countries. We find that the people in our sample perceive the relative seriousness of ethics problems in Korean enterprises in this order: bribery, unfair price increases, exaggerated advertising and sexual discrimination. And, by examining marketing-related ethical issues, first we find marketing- related experiences make the sense of ethics weaker. Second, the younger generation in Korea shows less ethical reaction in general. Third, Koreans in the 30s show a unique ethical sense compared to the other age-groups. Introduction Recently, the Chosun-Ilbo, a major Korean newspaper, reported the existence of a strict 'code of conduct' for the foreign companies in Korea such as Shell, Volvo, Dow-Corning and IBM (2000/8/15). Specifically, it said that for them gifts, entertainment, and special treatment are mostly not allowed in doing business in Korea. Also, it said that it has not been easy for them to keep the 'code of conduct' in Korea on many occasions. This report indicates how hard it is for one to keep from breaking the code of business ethics in the usual business in Korea. Moreover, we believe a large part of Koreans still doubt whether such ethics ever exist. In this research, we examine "Korean business ethics," if they exist, and we ask whether they are either different from or the same as ethics found in advanced countries. In this study, as argued in the "general theory of marketing ethics" (Hunt and Vitell 1986), we assume that the individual perception of ethical problems is the basis of an ethical decision and eventually leads to ethical behaviors. We particularly focus our attention on marketing ethics since marketing is an area frequently misunderstood by many Koreans due to its deceptive promotions. Methodology In this study, we follow the research tradition of the Vignette method, a scenario-based approach that is about how managers (participants in this study) respond to certain ethical dilemma situations (Baumhart 1961; Gifford and Norris 1987; DuPont and Craig 1996; Fritzsche et al 1995; Ward et al 1993; White and Rhodeback 1992; McCabe et al 1991; ShepardandHartenian 1991; Barnett and Karson 1989; Norris and Gifford 1988). In particular, we let the people answer the same questions in terms of other people's perspective since subjects tend to answer the survey questions with socially desirable responses, particularly for the questions of privacy or ethical issues. In other words, we ask the same question reworded in this way: 'assume that you are not the decision maker and that others will decide. " It is known that the marketers are goal-oriented people. Interestingly, the 'goal-oriented' is often interpreted negatively in Korea. The competitive nature of the marketing profession forces marketers to get ahead of competitors with possible ethics abuse. Vitell and Grove (1987) posit that the subdisciplines of marketing (i.e., advertising, personal selling, pricing, marketing research and international marketing) offer extensive opportunities for unethical behavior. And, we also explore the marketing ethics with the ages. Glover et al (1997) point out that there are two contrasting tendencies as people get older. One is that idealism decreases while cynicism increases. On the other hand, the ability to recognize ethical issues even in everyday management decisions becomes greater. We surveyed a total 473 working people across the nation for about two months from September to October in 1998. By excluding 21 improper answers, 452 questionnaires (including no responses for certain items) were used in the final analysis. Overall, our sample does not show any serious skewed distribution in terms of the demographic variables. Specifically, the survey used in this study has two parts. …