A Cross-National Investigation of Industrial Salespeople's Ethical Perceptions

Abstract

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 increasing research attention. Many of the empirical studies have focused on ethical situations confronting marketing and sales practitioners. Despite the abundance of research in the general topic of marketing ethics, as well as the globalization of competition in recent years, a topic that has been virtually ignored is whether ethical perceptions of sales personnel are consistent across countries. This paper reports a cross-national comparison of business ethics of industrial salespeople across the three countries. The findings indicate that nationality influences salespeople's beliefs about the ethics of selling practices and the need for company policies to guide those practices.