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European
Journal of
Marketing
36,7/8
768
Received March 2000
Revised August 2000

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Moral philosophies of
marketing managers
A comparison of American, Australian,
and Malaysian cultures
Kiran Karande
Old Dominion University, Norfolk, Virginia, USA

C.P. Rao
Kuwait University, Kuwait, and

Anusorn Singhapakdi
Old Dominion University, Norfolk, Virginia, USA
Keywords Moral responsibility, Ethics, Australia, Malaysia, USA
Abstract A recent article pointed out that ``past research has paid relatively little attention to
the sources of individuals moral philosophies from either a conceptual or an empirical
standpoint and investigated the determinants of idealism and relativism among American
marketers. A literature review indicates that there is even less theoretical and empirical crosscultural investigation of moral philosophies. As more and more companies are expanding into
foreign markets, problems related to cross-national ethics and social responsibility are becoming
increasingly prevalent. Therefore, this study proposes a framework explaining the differences in
the idealism and relativism of American, Malaysian, and Australian marketers based on: country
differences (cultural differences and differences in economic and legal/political environment);
corporate ethical values; and gender and age of the marketer. Results indicate that there are
differences in the level of idealism and relativism exhibited by marketers from the three countries.
Irrespective of country, corporate ethical values are positively related to the idealism and
negatively related to the relativism of marketers. Also, irrespective of country, women are more
idealistic than men, and relativism increases with age. Implications are offered and avenues for
future research suggested.

Introduction
Globalization forces have been sweeping global and individual country
economies. This emerging economic order has made it imperative for many
businesses to deal with overseas market environments. Issues such as global
warming, child labor, green marketing, software piracy, protection of intellectual
property rights, and patent infringement have acquired increased prominence as a
consequence of these globalization trends (Czinkota and Ronkainen, 1998).
However, these issues do not have the same importance in every country. Vast
differences exist across countries in terms of their economic development, cultural
standards, legal/political systems, expectations regarding business conduct
(Wotruba, 1997), and enforcement of policies (Mittelstaedt and Mittelstaedt, 1997).
European Journal of Marketing,
Vol. 36 No. 7/8, 2002, pp. 768-791.
# MCB UP Limited, 0309-0566
DOI 10.1108/03090560210430791

The authors thank Mohd. Rashid Ahmed and Zabid Md. Rashid, Universiti Pertanian Malaysia,
Malaysia; and Muris Cicic, University of Wollongong, NSW, Australia for their assistance in the
data collection for this study. They also thank Janet Marta fo her comments.

Consequently, what may be considered illegal in one country may be customary

or even acceptable in others (Czinkota and Ronkainen, 1998). Under such
circumstances, understanding how marketers in different countries make ethical
judgments about business situations involving ethical dilemmas is important.
It is well accepted in the business ethics literature that managers apply
ethical guidelines based on their personal moral philosophies when confronted
with ethical issues (Singhapakdi et al., 1999). Moral philosophy refers to the
principles or rules that people use to decide what is right or wrong (Ferrell and
Fraedrich, 1997). Personal moral philosophy is depicted as one of the important
factors influencing ethical decision making in established models of business
ethics (e.g. Hunt and Vitell, 1986; Trevino, 1986; Ferrell and Gresham, 1985).
Ethical judgments may be explained parsimoniously by two aspects of
personal moral philosophies, idealism and relativism (see also Schlenker and
Forsyth, 1977). These two dimensions of moral philosophies have been
extensively used in the business ethics literature and have been shown to
influence important variables in ethical decision making such as perceived
ethical problem (Hunt and Vitell, 1986), ethical intention (Singhapakdi et al.,
1999), ethical sensitivity (Sparks and Hunt, 1998), perceived importance of
ethics and social responsibility (Singhapakdi et al., 1995), ethical judgement
(Vitell and Singhapakdi, 1993), and perceived moral intensity (Singhapakdi
et al., 1999).
In a recent article, Singhapakdi et al. (1999, p. 22) commented that ``past
research has paid relatively little attention to the sources of individuals moral
philosophies from either a conceptual or an empirical standpoint and they
investigated the determinants of idealism and relativism among American
marketers. There is even less theoretical and empirical cross-cultural
investigation of moral philosophies. The present study focuses on crossnational differences in idealism and relativism, and proposes a framework
explaining the variation in idealism and relativism of Australian, American,
and Malaysian marketers by country differences (including cultural differences
and differences in economic and legal/political environment), corporate ethical
values, and gender and age of the marketer.
From a managerial perspective, an understanding of the extent to which
marketers from different countries apply the rules of idealism and relativism,
and why they apply these rules to a varying degree across countries, is useful.
It helps managers comprehend the underlying thinking (philosophy) of
marketers from different countries in evaluating ethical actions. In the
international context, such an understanding can be used by corporate
managers to develop training programs as well as develop codes of ethics that
will enhance the ethical environment in corporations. This study also provides
input on how corporate ethical values are related to the idealism and relativism
of marketers, and how gender and age influence the extent to which one is
idealistic and relativistic, which has implications in terms of developing
management policies/organizational culture, and planning of ethics training
programs.

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This research is organized as follows: first, we review the literature on

moral philosophies. In the second section, we present the theoretical foundation
of the study and develop the hypotheses. In the third section on methodology,
details about the sample, the measures (including their reliability and validity),
as well as measurement equivalence of the idealism, relativism, and the
corporate ethical values scales (Steenkamp and Baumgartner, 1998) are
provided. Next, results are discussed. In the fifth section, managerial
implications are provided, and finally, limitations of the study and
recommendations for future research are given.
Literature review
Business ethics theorists generally agree that when faced with decision
situations having ethical content, managers apply ethical guidelines based on
moral philosophies (e.g. Ferrell and Gresham, 1985; Hunt and Vitell, 1986).
Social psychologists also consider moral philosophies or ``personal ethical
systems to be important factors influencing an individuals ethical
judgements. In particular, Forsyth (1980) identified two aspects of moral
philosophy, relativism and idealism, as important predictors of moral
judgement. Relativism ``rejects the possibility of formulating or relying on
universal moral rules when drawing conclusions about moral questions
(Forsyth, 1980, pp. 175-6). According to Forsyth (1992):
Relativists generally feel that moral actions depend upon the nature of the situation and the
individuals involved, and when judging others they weigh the circumstances more than the
ethical principal that was violated.

Those who exhibit high relativism can be described as skeptics, and they
generally feel that moral actions depend upon the nature of the situation and
the principle involved. On the other hand, those who exhibit low relativism
believe that morality requires acting in ways that are consistent with moral
principles, norms, or laws.
Idealism is defined as the degree to which individuals ``assume that desirable
consequences can, with the right action, always be obtained (p. 175). Idealism
describes the individuals concern for the welfare of others. Highly idealistic
individuals believe that harming others is always avoidable, and they would
rather not choose between the lesser of two evils that will lead to negative
consequences for other people. Those who are less idealistic feel that harm is
sometimes necessary to produce good (Forsyth, 1980, 1992). Idealism is not
based on an embrace of moral absolutes; rather, it involves values related to
altruism and a sense of optimism in considering responses to moral issues
(Singhapakdi et al., 1999). Therefore, idealism and relativism are conceptually
independent, and individuals may be high or low on either dimension (Forsyth,
1992).
It is important to highlight how idealism and relativism reconcile with many
of the schools of thought related to moral philosophy that researchers have
developed over the last several decades (for example, teleology, ethical

skepticism, ethical egoism, utilitarianism, and deontology), as well as other

frameworks of moral thought (e.g. ``Survey of ethical attitudes by Hogan (1970,
1973) and cognitive moral development by Kohlberg (1976)). Forsyth (1980)
argued that idealism and relativism together capture many other
conceptualizations of moral philosophy. For example, high relativism-low
idealism individuals exhibit ethical egoism, which espouses that no moral
standards are valid except in reference to ones own behavior, and defines right
or acceptable actions as those that maximize a particular persons self-interest
as defined by the individual. High relativism-high idealism individuals exhibit
idealistic skepticism which argues that morality should focus on ``a contextual
appropriateness not the `good or the `right but the `fitting with all actions
based on love of others (Fletcher, 1973, p. 186). Low relativism-high idealism
individuals exhibit the moral philosophy of deontology, which focuses on the
preservation of individual rights and on the intentions associated with a
particular behavior rather than on its consequences. In deontological
philosophy, there is some universal moral rule that is absolute in determining
right from wrong. The statements endorsed by low relativism-low idealism
individuals are similar to the teleological thought, which stipulates that acts are
morally right or acceptable if they produce some desired result, such as the
realization of self-interest or utility. Low relativism-low idealism thought is also
compatible with utilitarianism, which defines right or acceptable actions as
those that maximize total utility, or the greatest good for the greatest number of
people.
Forsyth (1980) also argued that the relativism scale shared a common
foundation with another frequently used measure of moral thought Hogans
``Survey of ethical attitudes (Hogan, 1970, 1973). Further, he also stated that
while Kohlbergs (1976) cognitive moral development approach relies on the
stage of moral development based on self-generated thoughts, the idealismrelativism approach takes advantage of completely different criteria idealism
in evaluating consequences, and moral relativism when describing variations
in moral thought (Forsyth, 1980). Therefore, an individual who displays postconventional moral reasoning as classified by Kohlberg could endorse any one
of the philosophies characterized by any of the four combinations of idealism
and relativism.
Many ethics studies testify to the fact that idealism and relativism affect
different aspects of ethical decision making. Forsyth (1992) proposed that
idealism and relativism can influence business ethical decisions. Sparks and
Hunt (1998) found that relativism was negatively related to ethical sensitivity
of marketing research professionals where ethical sensitivity is the ability to
recognize that a decision-making situation has ethical content. Singhapakdi
et al. (1999) found that among marketing professionals idealism has a positive
effect and relativism a negative effect on perceived moral intensity. In another
related study, more idealistic and less relativistic marketers were found to
perceive ethics and social responsibility to be more important than did their
counterparts (Singhapakdi et al., 1995). Empirical research has also shown that

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more idealistic and less relativistic marketers tend to exhibit higher honesty
and integrity than less idealistic and more relativistic marketers (Vitell et al.,
1993). Further, the deontological norms of marketers are influenced positively
by idealism and negatively by relativism (Vitell and Singhapakdi, 1993). In
summary, there is extensive literature demonstrating that idealism and
relativism influence ethical decision making.
Theoretical foundation and hypotheses
In this section, it is proposed that the variation in idealism and relativism of
marketers is explained by country differences (including cultural differences
and differences in economic and legal/political environment), corporate ethical
values, and individual characteristics of gender and age. Figure 1 summarizes
the proposed framework.
Country differences
Cultural differences. In this section, cultural differences among the three
countries and their influence on idealism and relativism are described based
upon Hofstedes (1983) and Hofstede and Bonds (1988) five dimensions of
culture. Hofstedes typology is relevant for our study because it captures
culture along five different dimensions, and has been widely used in studying
marketing and managerial issues, and specifically ethical decision making (e.g.
Vitell et al., 1993; Singhapakdi et al., 1994).
Individualism/collectivism. Individualism implies:
A loosely knit social framework in which people are supposed to take care of themselves and
of their immediate families only; while collectivism is characterized by a tight social
framework in which people distinguish between in-groups and out-groups; they expect their
in-group (relatives, clan, organizations) to look after them, and in exchange for that they feel
absolute loyalty to it (Hofstede, 1980, p. 45).

In other words, individualism indicates the extent of non-dependence on the

organization. Marketers in collectivistic countries (such as Malaysia) would be
expected to be more loyal to their organizations because of greater dependence,
and therefore concerned for their organizations wellbeing when making
decisions.
Idealistic individuals assume that desirable consequences can, with the right
action, always be obtained, feel that harming others is always avoidable, and
would rather not choose between the lesser of two evils that will lead to
negative consequences for other people (Forsyth, 1992). In other words, in
trying to make the right decisions, idealistic individuals are likely to look after
the welfare of others and society in general, and consequently, marketers from
individualistic countries are likely to be less idealistic than those from
collectivistic countries. Alternatively, collectivistic managers, in order to
protect the organization, might be tempted to act in ways that will harm others,
thus influencing idealism negatively. In other words, individualism could
impact idealism in both directions.

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Figure 1.
Theoretical frameworks
for idealism and
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Relativism rejects the possibility of formulating or relying on universal moral

rules when drawing conclusions about moral questions. Collectivistic
managers might be more prone to attribute their actions to situations or
circumstances in order to take care of their organization and colleagues because
relativists generally feel that moral actions depend upon the nature of the
situation and the individuals involved. In other words, they are likely to be
more relativistic than individualistic managers. Consistently, the more
individualistic managers, with no pressures of loyalty, might have fewer
reasons to attribute actions to circumstances. In other words, managers from
collectivistic countries are likely to be more relativistic than those from
individualistic cultures.
Masculinity/femininity. Hofstede (1980) defined masculine cultures, such as
the USA and Australia, as those that value material success and assertiveness
more, and the less masculine cultures, such as Malaysia, as those that place
more value on qualities like modesty, humility, benevolence, interpersonal
relationships and concern for the weak, which may contribute to marketers
idealism and relativism. For example, in making decisions, the more ambitious
and competitive marketers from countries ranking high on masculinity might
be tempted to respond to pressure for greater efficiency at all costs. Therefore,
they may be more willing to consider taking actions that are harmful to others
more than those who come from less masculine cultures, and therefore show
relatively less idealistic tendencies. As for relativism, the more competitive and
ambitious marketers from masculine cultures would be expected to attribute
actions to the situation in order to achieve greater efficiency and show superior
performance, which can be contrasted with those from less masculine cultures
who would have less motivation to do so. Thus, masculinity can be expected to
be positively related to relativism.
Power distance. Power distance is the degree to which the members of a
group or society accept that ``power in institutions and organizations is
distributed unequally (Hofstede, 1980, p. 45). Individuals from cultures with
high power distance (such as Malaysia) usually accept the inequality of power,
perceive differences between superiors and subordinates, are reluctant to
disagree with superiors and believe that superiors are entitled to privileges
(Hofstede, 1983). In contrast, those from cultures with lower levels of power
distance are less likely to tolerate class distinctions, are more likely to prefer
democratic participation and are not afraid to disagree with superiors.
Consequently, marketers from high power distance countries are likely to
perceive a need to minimize disagreement with superiors and satisfy superiors,
by trying to act in ways that will not harm others and raise controversies. In
other words, power distance is positively related to idealism. By a similar
argument, in determining the rightness of decisions, marketers from high
power distance countries might be more prone to attribute certain actions to
situations so that they can satisfy their superiors, and therefore are likely to be
more relativistic than those from low power distance countries.

Uncertainty avoidance. Hofstede (1980, p. 45) defined uncertainty avoidance

as:
A characteristic of culture that defines the extent to which people within a culture are made
nervous by situations that they consider to be unstructured, unclear, or unpredictable, and the
extent to which they try to avoid such situations by adopting strict codes of behavior and a
belief in absolute truths.

The risk-taking orientation of marketers from low uncertainty avoiding

countries would lead them to take actions in order to improve efficiency and
performance, even if they were harmful to others. On the other hand, the more
conservative managers from the high uncertainty avoiding countries would not
take actions that would be questionable (and risky). In other words, managers
from the uncertainty avoiding cultures are likely to be more idealistic than
those from low uncertainty avoiding countries. Along the same lines, the risktaking managers from low uncertainty avoidance countries would be prone to
attributing certain actions to the situation and therefore be more relativistic
than those from the high uncertainty avoidance countries.
Confucian dynamism. Confucian dynamism is a work ethic that values thrift,
persistence, ordered relationships and having a sense of shame (Hofstede and
Bond, 1988). They stated that individuals in countries ranking high on
Confucian dynamism tend to adhere to the more future-oriented teachings of
Confucius; those from countries ranking low on Confucian dynamism tend to
be more present- and past-oriented. Marketers from cultures ranking high on
Confucian dynamism have a strong sense of shame and are likely to be wary of
actions that are improper or disgraceful. Marketers from high Confucian
dynamism countries would, therefore, avoid any actions that are harmful to
others and bring disrepute to the company. In other words, they would exhibit
greater idealism than marketers from low Confucian dynamism countries.
Alternatively, it is also possible that marketers from high Confucian dynamism
countries might be sensitive to the shame arising out of inferior performance
(within the company) and might, therefore, believe that greater efficiency and
profits are important, even at the cost of harming others. In other words,
Confucian dynamism on idealism could influence idealism in both directions.
Using similar arguments, it can be argued that in order to avoid shame,
managers from the high Confucian dynamism cultures might be tempted to
attribute actions to the situation and therefore be more relativistic.
Consistently, those from low Confucian dynamism countries might be less
concerned about the shame of low performance and be less relativistic.
Table I summarizes Hofstedes ranking of the three countries on five
dimensions of culture (Hofstede, 1980; Hofstede and Bond, 1988). In general,
Australians and Americans are ranked higher on individualism and
masculinity, and lower on uncertainty avoidance and power distance than
Malaysians. On Confucian dynamism, the USA and Australia are ranked very
close but no ranking was available for Malaysia. Based on masculinity, power
distance, Malaysian marketers would be expected to have higher idealism than
those from Australia and the USA. Based on uncertainty avoidance, Malaysian

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marketers would be expected to have lower idealism than those from Australia
and the USA. Further, based on individualism and Confucian dynamism,
differences in idealism of marketers from the three countries could be in both
directions. Similarly, Australian and American managers would be expected to
exhibit higher relativism than Malaysian managers, based on individualism
and masculinity, and Malaysian managers would be expected to exhibit higher
relativism than Australian and American managers, based on power distance,
uncertainty avoidance, and Confucian dynamism.
Differences in economic and legal/political environment. The impact of
differences in economic development and the legal/political environment
among nations has been noted by scholars (e.g. Mittelstaedt and Mittelstaedt,
1997; Wotruba, 1997). In the context of protection of intellectual property (IP),
Mittelstaedt and Mittelstaedt (1997, p. 21) noted that ``it is clear that protecting
an IP by excluding others from its use is viewed differently in developing and
developed countries and:
Although this often seems to be a purely economic issue, many developing nations also have
cultural traditions that serve to reinforce the LDCs economic interests. For example, for the
``public good, many developing nations neither allow patents by their own nationals nor
recognize patents of others for such goods as medicines or food products (Ehrbar, 1992).

From another perspective, Laczniak and Murphy (1993, p. 216) noted that:
``. . . in many less developed countries, pressures on organizations to succeed
are often more fierce than in a developed country setting. Laczniak and
Murphy (1993) further explained that in order to achieve primary needs, firms
in less developed countries might have to take actions that will lead to
immediate financial improvement and stability. They argued that it is not until
financial security has been attained that the firms will start to pay attention to
such secondary needs as ``to be perceived as a good corporate citizen and
conduct business ethically (p. 216). These studies suggest that in ethical
situations, managers from developing countries and developed countries are
likely to apply different criteria to gauge the ethicality of a situation, and thus
exhibit different moral philosophies. In general, managers from developed
countries are more likely to believe that actions should be taken without
harming others, than those from developing countries. Also, managers in
developing countries are likely to believe that moral actions depend upon the

Table I.
Scores (and ranks) for
the three countries on
Hofstedes dimensions

Country

Power distance

Individualism

Australia
Malaysia
USA

36 (41)
104 (1)
40 (38)

90 (2)
26 (36)
91 (1)

Masculinity
61 (16)
50 (25-26)
62 (15)

Uncertainty
avoidance
51 (37)
36 (46)
46 (43)

Confucian
dynamism
31 (11-12)
n/a
29 (14)

Notes: Ranks range from 1-53 for all dimensions except Confucian dynamism 1-20
Source: Hofstede (1980) and Hofstede and Bond (1988)

situation, and therefore likely to be more relativistic than managers from

developed countries.
With regard to the legal/political environment, the relationship between the
legal environment and moral philosophies has been implicitly noted by many
business ethics scholars. For example, Beauchamp and Bowie (1993, p. 4) noted
that ``Law is the publics agency for translating morality into explicit social
guidelines and practices and stipulating offenses. Dunfee (1996, p. 318) stated
that the legal system is sometimes required to nurture or to implement the
moral preferences of society, particularly with reference to universal moral
prohibitions against physical harm. He also stated that where moral views
have not converged toward a sufficiently broad consensus, the law may help to
bring about a change in attitude. Therefore, the legal/political framework
within a country can be expected to impact a managers moral philosophy, and
idealism and relativism.
The legal/political systems vary across countries both in terms of content
and enforcement (e.g. Vogel, 1992; Wotruba, 1997). Vogel (1992) noted that in
spite of globalization, the norms of business (as well as business and academic
interest) in ethics were substantially higher in the USA than in other advanced
capitalist countries such as western Europe and Japan. He attributed it to the
distinctive institutional, legal, social, and cultural environment in the USA that
contributes toward a stringent enforcement of law. In another relevant study,
Wotruba (1997) stated that: ``undoubtedly there are some less developing
countries for which comprehensive legislation on restrictive practices has yet to
be enacted. And even in such countries where legislation does exist,
enforcement is often negligible (Newman, 1980). In the context of this study,
the legal/political systems (including the existence, specificity, as well as the
enforcement of laws) can be expected to be different across the three countries.
For example, there is evidence that in the USA the legal/political systems are
well-developed (e.g. Vogel, 1992), and that in Malaysia they are evolving (e.g.
Gupta and Sulaiman ,1996). Although there is no academic research on the
regulatory environment in Australia, it can be expected to be different from
that in the USA and Malaysia. Marketers from countries with more stringent
legal/political environments are more likely to believe that desirable
consequences can, with the right actions, always be obtained, and therefore are
more idealistic. Also, they are more likely to believe that morality requires
acting in ways that are consistent with the law, and therefore exhibit less
relativism than managers from countries with less stringent legal/political
environments. In the context of this study, Malaysian marketers are likely to be
more relativistic and less idealistic than Australian managers, and Australian
managers are likely to be more relativistic and less idealistic than American
managers.
In summary, based on cultural differences and differences in economic and
legal/political environment, we expect Australian, Malaysian, and American
marketers to exhibit different levels of idealism and relativism. It is not
possible to hypothesize the direction of differences because multiple aspects of

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country differences influence marketers idealism and relativism, at times in

conflicting ways. Thus, the following hypothesis was formulated:
H1a. There are differences in the idealism exhibited by marketers in
Malaysia, Australia, and the USA.
H1b. There are differences in the relativism exhibited by marketers in
Malaysia, Australia, and the USA.
Corporate ethical values
In addition to country factors, most models of ethical decision making posit
that organizational factors such as an organizations ethical values influence a
managers ethical decision making (Hunt and Vitell, 1986, 1993; Ferrell and
Gresham, 1985; Trevino, 1986). Many researchers believe that, in addition to
the individual moral standards, unethical standards are affected by
organizational pressures (e.g. Ford and Richardson, 1994). Hunt et al. (1989)
defined corporate ethical values as:
A composite of the individual ethical values of managers and both the formal and informal
policies on ethics of the organization.

Corporate ethical values can be expected to influence the moral philosophy of

managers because they reflect a shared understanding regarding what is
correct behavior and how ethical issues will be handled in the organization
(DeConinck, 1992). In other words, corporate ethical values influence the
standards that delineate the ``right things to do and the things ``worth doing
(Jansen and Von Glinow, 1985). Corporate ethical values have also been shown
to influence managerial performance. For example, organizational success is
enhanced when ethical standards of an organization are widely shared (Hunt et
al., 1989). Similarly, Weeks and Nantel (1992) found that well-communicated
codes of ethics led to higher ethical standards and superior job performance of
salespeople in the USA. The corporate ethical values-moral philosophy
relationship also depends upon the enforcement of the code of ethics. Well
enforced consequences for misconduct, and not just stated organizational
concern, are likely to make managers consider the morality of their actions (e.g.
Laczniak and Inderrieden, 1987). Because acting ethically is rewarded and
acting unethically is punished, marketers working in companies with higher
corporate ethical values are more likely to believe that desirable consequences
can, with the right actions, always be obtained. Consequently, they are likely to
be more idealistic than those managers who work in companies with lower
corporate ethical values.
In a recent study of American marketers, Singhapakdi et al. (1995) showed
corporate ethical values influence managerial perceptions. They found that
managers in organizations with high levels of corporate ethical values tended
to assign a higher level of importance to certain elements of corporate ethics
and social responsibility. In a study specifically related to ours, Singhapakdi et
al. (1999) argued that marketers in organizations with higher levels of ethical
values should have a higher moral standard, on average, than those in

organizations with lower levels of ethical values, and therefore be more

committed to finding ethical solutions to moral problems (i.e. be more idealistic)
and rely more on rules and guidelines (i.e. be less relativistic). They found a
positive corporate ethical values-idealism relationship but an insignificant
relationship between corporate ethical values and relativism. Therefore, we
hypothesize that:
H2a. Corporate ethical values are positively related to the idealism of
managers.
H2b. Corporate ethical values are negatively related to the relativism of
managers.
Gender
Researchers have identified gender as an important demographic variable
influencing an individuals ethical decisions (e.g. Singhapakdi et al., 1999). For
example, in a meta-analysis using data from more than 20,000 respondents in
66 samples, Franke et al. (1997) found that women are more likely than men to
recognize that a business practice involves a moral issue. From a theoretical
perspective, Gilligan (1982) argued that men and women differ in their moral
reasoning, and identified characteristics of men and women that influence their
ethical attitudes and behavior. She stated that men are more likely to adhere to
the ``ethic of justice by emphasizing rules and individual rights, whereas
women are more likely to adhere to the ``ethic of care by emphasizing
relationships and compassion.
In a recent study of American marketers, Singhapakdi et al. (1999) found
even though women were found to more idealistic and less relativistic than
men, the gender effect was non-significant and small, and therefore makes an
investigation into this issue more important. Based on Gilligans (1982) work, it
can be argued that ``the ethic of caring exhibited by women would lead them to
believe that taking actions that are detrimental to others is avoidable; therefore,
women exhibit greater idealism. Men, on the other hand, tend to be more
``independent, masterful, assertive, and instrumentally competent (Eagly and
Wood, 1991, p. 309), and therefore could attribute certain actions to
circumstances in order to demonstrate their competence. With a more
communal character, women might have no motivation to do so. In other
words, men would be expected to be more relativistic than women. These
arguments are compatible with the observations of Forsyth et al. (1988, p. 244)
that ``the ethic of caring appears to be conceptually similar to the idealism
dimension of moral philosophies and ``may also be inversely related to
relativism if individuals feel that caring for others is a fundamental moral
principle. These differences are also consistent with arguments made in the
section on the effect of cultural differences about the effect of masculinity/
femininity on idealism and relativism. Therefore, we hypothesize that:
H3a. Women tend to be more idealistic than men.
H3b. Women tend to be less relativistic than men.

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Age
The relationship between age and moral philosophy can be explained using
different theoretical perspectives. For example, Kohlbergs (1981) cognitive
moral development theory contends that an individuals cognition, emotion,
and judgment may change as he or she moves through stages of moral
development. It can be argued that age and ethical behavior should be related
because as individuals move through stages of moral development, moral
development occurs mainly due to life experiences. Other researchers have
reasoned that people tend to become more ethical as they grow older (Terpstra
et al., 1993), which can be explained by the argument that as people age they
tend to become less concerned with wealth and advancement and more
interested in personal growth (Hall, 1976). From another perspective, age and
work experience are highly correlated, and because of their experience, older
managers tend to be exposed to a variety of ethical problems and become more
sensitive to the harm that ethical transgressions can do to the organization and
its stakeholders (Singhapakdi et al., 1999). They argued that more senior
managers may therefore be less willing to make exceptions to ethical guidelines
and be more committed to produce desirable outcomes. Therefore, we
hypothesize that:
H4a. A marketers age is positively related to his or her idealism.
H4b. A marketers age is negatively related to his or her relativism.
Methodology
Sample
A self-administered questionnaire was used as the data collection technique
for all three groups of marketing practitioners. For the American group,
national mailing lists of professional members of the American Marketing
Association (AMA) were used as the sampling frame. A random sample of
2,000 US practitioner members with primary areas of interest in marketing
and sales management were mailed questionnaires. Of the 1,997 delivered,
453 responded for a response rate of 22.7 per cent. The response rate is
comparable to previous marketing ethics studies that have also used AMA
mailing lists (e.g. Hunt and Chonko, 1984). For the Australian sample, a
mailing list of recipients of the Australian Marketing Institute magazine was
used as the sampling frame. The questionnaire was included in the magazine
and 500 questionnaires were returned. Since questionnaires were not directly
mailed to the sample in Australia, the response rate could not be assessed. For
the Malaysian group, the sampling frame consisted of companies listed on the
Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange and respondents were managers responsible
for making marketing decisions. A total of 350 questionnaires were mailed to
a random sample from the list, of which 156 replied for a response rate of
44.57 per cent. The questionnaire was administered in English for all three
samples. Because Malaysia and Australia are members of the British
Commonwealth, English is a well understood language, particularly in the
business setting.

The non-response bias for the US sample was assessed with an analysis of
variance between the ``early and ``late respondent groups (Armstrong and
Overton, 1977). There were no statistical differences between the early and late
respondents. For the Australian and Malaysian sample, the non-response bias
based on early and late respondents could not be assessed as this information
was not coded at the time of data collection. After eliminating incomplete
questionnaires, 369 responses from the USA, 120 from Malaysia, and 487 from
Australia were used. Table II summarizes the profile of the three samples.

Philosophies of
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Measures
Idealism and relativism. The ethics position questionnaire (EPQ) developed by
Forsyth (1980) was used to measure moral philosophies (see the Appendix).
The EPQ consists of two ten-item scales to measure idealism and relativism. A
nine-point Likert scale was used for measurement, with 1 indicating
``completely disagree and 9 indicating ``completely agree. For this study, eight
USA
sample
(per cent)

Malaysian
sample
(per cent)

Australian
sample
(per cent)

Sex
Male
Female

51
49

84
16

73
27

Age group
< 30
30-39
40-49
> 50

17
37
29
17

11
39
40
10

20
35
29
17

12
17
35
9
7
18
2

2
10
21
34
6
5
22

37
4
3
28
11
13
3
1

Characteristics
of respondents

Industry
USA and Australia
Wholesale or retail
Manufacturer or construction
Services
Communications
Advertising or public relations
Marketing consulting
Other
Malaysiaa
Consumer products
Diversified
Construction
Trading services
Finance
Properties
Plantation
Mining and primary resources

Note: a This categorization of industries is appropriate in the Malaysian context

Table II.
Profiles of respondents
in the US, Malaysian,
and Australian samples

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of the ten relativism items were used. The other two items were concerned with
a specific ethical issue about lying (``No rule concerning lying can be
formulated; whether a lie is permissible or not permissible totally depends upon
the situation and ``Whether a lie is judged to be moral or immoral depends
upon the circumstances surrounding the action) and were judged to be
inappropriate for use with other, more general items. For each respondent, the
idealism and relativism scores were computed by summing the items.
The convergent and discriminant validity of the idealism and relativism
measures was also assessed. Each scale was judged to have convergent
validity if it exhibited unidimensional factor structures and had significant
factor loadings (p < 0.01) greater than 0.5 for all indicators of the construct.
Two items on the idealism scale (``Deciding whether or not to perform an act by
balancing the positive consequences of the act against the negative
consequences of the act is immoral and ``Moral actions are those which closely
match ideals of the most `perfect action) and one item on the relativism scale
(``There are no ethical principles that are so important that they should be a part
of any code of ethics) were dropped because of low factor loadings.
The scales were judged to have good discriminant validity if the confidence
interval around the correlations did not contain one (Anderson and Gerbing,
1988). Further, discriminant validity was assessed by comparing the fit with
the correlation between the two constructs, as opposed to being free. If idealism
and relativism are correlated then there should be a significant improvement in
fit with the model without constraints. For all three countries, the correlation
values ranged from 0.15 to 0.07, and 95 per cent confidence intervals did not
contain the value of one. There was no statistical difference in the fit based on a
chi-square test. Therefore, the idealism and relativism scales can be assumed to
exhibit discriminant validity. The reliability of the measures was assessed
using Cronbach alpha which ranged from 0.81-0.89, well above the
recommended level of 0.70 (Nunnally, 1978).
Corporate ethical values, gender and age. The corporate ethical values (CEV)
scale developed by Hunt et al. (1989) was used in this study to measure
corporate ethical values. The scale was designed to reflect ``a composite of the
individual ethical values of managers and both the formal and informal policies
on ethics of the organization (Hunt et al., 1989). The CEV scale has five items
(see The Appendix) and was measured using a nine-point Likert scale with
1 =``completely disagree and 9 = ``completely agree. For each respondent, the
CEV score was obtained by summing all CEV items (with items 1 and 2
reverse-coded). A high CEV score means that the manager works in an
organization with higher corporate ethical values. The CEV scale exhibited
good convergent validity with all factor loadings significant and greater than
0.5 for all three countries. Cronbach alphas for the CEV scale were 0.69 for the
Malaysian sample, 0.81 for the Australian sample, and 0.86 for the American
sample. Gender was measured as a dichotomous variable and age was
measured in four categories.

Measurement equivalence of the idealism, relativism, and CEV scales

The cross-national measurement equivalence of the three scales was
established in three steps. First, using confirmatory factor analysis, the fit of
the proposed structure for each country was assessed[1]. Second, configural
equivalence (similarity of dimensionality of the construct and significance of
factor loadings) was assessed using multi-group analysis with factor loadings
and error variances allowed to vary for the three countries[2] (Steenkamp and
Baumgartner, 1998). Third, metric equivalence, which measures the invariance
of factor loadings and error variances, was assessed by measuring the
improvement in fit (chi-square) with two successive analyses that constrained
factor loadings and error variances to be equal[3] (Bollen, 1989). Based on the
results of the individual country convergent and discriminant validity,
reliability analysis, and multi-group analysis, the three scales can be assumed
to show cross-cultural equivalence, and therefore can be used to measure mean
differences in idealism and relativism of American, Malaysian, and Australian
marketers.

Philosophies of
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Results
Multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) was performed using idealism
and relativism items as dependent variables, and the country of residence,
corporate ethical values, gender, and age as independent variables. MANOVA
results show that overall country of residence, corporate ethical values, gender,
and age significantly explain differences between marketers from the three
countries in their idealism and relativism (F = 21.27 based on Wilks lambda,
p < 0.0001).
H1a and H1b state that there are differences in the level of idealism and
relativism exhibited by marketers from the three countries. Univariate analysis
of variance (ANOVA) identified significant cross-country differences between
marketers on both idealism (F = 20.68, p < 0.0001) and relativism (F = 12.80,
p < 0.0001). Therefore, both hypothesis H1a and H1b were supported. To
illustrate the differences, average scores were computed for marketers from the
three countries on idealism and relativism. As shown in Table III, there are
significant differences in idealism scores of marketers from the three countries
(t = 3.36, p < 0.01 between Australian and Malaysian marketers; t = 6.06,
p < 0.01 between American and Malaysian marketers; and t = 4.39, p < 0.01
between Australian and American marketers). Malaysian managers (mean

Australia
Malaysia
USA
a

Mean idealism
score

Australia

t-values
Malaysia

57.37
61.28
53.85

a
3.36
4.39a

6.06a

Note: Differences significant at the 1 per cent level

USA

Table III.
Mean idealism scores
and t-values for paired
comparisons

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Table IV.
Mean relativism scores
and t-values for paired
comparisons

idealism score = 61.28) are found to be significantly more idealistic than

Australian managers (mean idealism score = 57.37), who in turn are
significantly more idealistic than American managers (mean idealism
score = 53.85). As shown in Table IV, there are significant differences in
relativism scores of marketers from the three countries (t = 3.11, p < 0.01
between Australian and Malaysian marketers; t = 4.93, p < 0.01 between
American and Malaysian marketers; and t = 3.02, p < 0.01 between Australian
and American marketers). Malaysian managers (mean relativism score = 40.69)
are found to be significantly more relativistic than Australian managers (mean
relativism score = 36.96), who in turn are significantly more relativistic than
American managers (mean relativism score = 34.46).
The above analysis suggests that various country factors might play a
differential role in determining the idealism and relativism of marketers. For
example, the economic environment and political/legal environment might be
having a greater impact on the relativism of marketers. On the other hand,
cultural variables such as collectivism, power distance, and Confucian
dynamism might be having a relatively greater influence on the idealism of
marketers. Since this is the first cross-cultural investigation into moral
philosophies of marketers, more work is needed investigating cross-national
differences in moral philosophy.
H2a states that corporate ethical values positively influence managers
idealism and H2b states that they negatively influence relativism. Results
indicate corporate ethical values have an influence on both idealism and
relativism, with F statistics of 25.23 and 9.94 (p < 0.001 for both F s). Therefore,
H2a and H2b are supported. These results can be contrasted with those of a
similar study by Singhapakdi et al. (1999), where they found that idealism was
significantly influenced by CEV but not relativism.
H3a states that women are more idealistic than men, and H3b states that
women are less relativistic than men. Mixed results were obtained for these
hypotheses. While significant gender differences were found on idealism
(F = 7.57, p < 0.001), differences in relativism were non-significant. The mean
idealism score for men was 55.76 and that for women was 59.24. The lack of
gender differences on relativism might be a reflection of the fact that women
managers in our sample might be as aggressive and competitive as male
managers, thus motivating them to a similar degree to attribute certain actions
to circumstances. In a similar context, with a sample of American marketers,

Australia
Malaysia
USA
a

Mean relativism
score

Australia

t-values
Malaysia

USA

36.96
40.69
34.46

a
3.11
3.02a

4.93a

Note: Differences significant at the 1 per cent level

the gender-relativism relationship was also found to be non-significant by

Singhapakdi et al. (1999).
H4a and H4b hypothesize the effect of age on idealism and relativism. While
significant age effects were found on relativism (F = 11.38, p < 0.001), age
effects on idealism were non-significant. Mean relativism scores for the four
age groups were 41.04 for the under 30 age group, 38.32 for the 30-39 age group,
34.97 for the 40-49 age group, and 35.13 for the 50 and over age group. A closer
analysis of the idealism results indicates that although the results are not
significant at the 5 per cent level, the mean idealism scores were 55.93, 57.40,
57.70, and 58.98 from the youngest to the oldest age groups, which are in the
hypothesized direction. The direction of results is consistent with that found in
earlier studies for the level of work experience by Singhapakdi et al. (1999).
Implications
The findings of this study investigating the variation in moral philosophies of
idealism and relativism has potential implications for international companies.
Many companies have increased their presence in overseas markets using a
variety of methods such as opening subsidiaries, joint ventures, exporting, and
licensing. Whether it is an employee in a subsidiary, a joint venture partner, or
an exporting partner, it is essential for an international manager to understand
the ethical thinking processes of the managers, and their moral philosophies
(idealism and relativism) because they can potentially result in unethical acts.
In the international marketing arena, cultural, economic, and other differences
between international buyers and sellers create the potential conflicts of values,
especially in the areas of marketing ethics and social responsibility. Our
findings have implications in terms of measures that can be taken to reduce
such conflicts, in the interest of establishing enduring international business
relationships.
This study identified cross-cultural differences in idealism and relativism,
and explained their variation across managers with cultural differences and
differences in economic and legal/political environment; differences in
corporate ethical values; and gender (only on idealism) and age (only on
relativism) differences. Even though moral philosophies are individual
characteristics, our study shows that the societal environment (cultural,
political/legal), as well as the corporate environment, influences the manner in
which people evaluate and judge unethical actions, which means that society in
general and, more specifically, organizations can shape the moral philosophies
of individuals, thereby influencing ethical behavior.
The findings of this study can be incorporated in ethics training programs.
First, through training international managers can be made aware that people
differ in their thinking with regards to ethics and social responsibility,
specifically, in terms of idealism and relativism. Second, they can be made
aware of the potential reasons for the differences, such as culture, economic
and legal/political environment, corporate ethical values, and individual
differences. More specifically, scenarios and cases can be developed that

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highlight situations where managers could potentially act in ways that are
detrimental to others. Also, situations under which it is critical that rules and
regulations cannot be violated could be highlighted through cases. These
scenarios can be extended by including cross-national differences in culture
and economic and legal/political environment across countries. While the
issues discussed above can be incorporated in training on a regular basis, these
can especially be useful for employees being transferred overseas for shortterm and long-term assignments. Increasing their sensitivity to differences in
the moral philosophies of their counterparts should help them anticipate
actions of subordinates, colleagues, superiors, as well as other business
associates in a foreign environment.
Irrespective of the country, corporate ethical values had a positive influence
on idealism and a negative influence relativism. Therefore, organizations from
different countries with similar corporate ethical values can find common
ground in the moral philosophies of their managers. Hence, international
companies, when scouting for suitable partners in foreign markets, may look
for overseas partners with similar corporate ethical values. This would ensure
smoother business relations and interactions, especially in the areas of ethics
and social responsibility. Also, it is useful for international marketers to know
that, in general, women tend to be more idealistic than men, and relativism
increases with age. This is particularly relevant given the increase in
employment of women in the workplace.
Limitations and extensions
This study has some potential limitations. A potential limitation concerns the
nature of sampling frames used in this study. Although a self-administered
questionnaire was used as the data collection technique in the three countries,
different sampling frames were used. In the USA and Australia, the sampling
frame was a national mailing list of professional members of the respective
marketing associations. In Malaysia, however, the sampling frame was
managers responsible for making marketing decisions from companies listed
on the Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange. Also, non-response could not be
assessed with the Australian and Malaysian samples. Therefore, the findings
of this study should be viewed considering the differences in the nature of these
sampling frames and the measurement of non-response. Another limitation of
this study is that it did not account for the within country heterogeneity of the
samples. For example, the Malaysian population is heterogeneous with
substantial Moslem, Chinese, and Malay segments, that could potentially
exhibit differences. The results of our study have to be interpreted with the
knowledge that this within country variation is not accounted for.
This study can be extended in several ways. Useful insights can be obtained
by extending the study to additional countries with different cultural
orientations and legal/political environment such as those in Europe and South
America. The current research is based upon the premise that moral
philosophies are antecedents of ethical decision making. This study did not test

for the effects of idealism and relativism on any specific dependent variable,
such as ethical perception or ethical intention. This could be tested in a crosscultural study by addressing specific ethics and social responsibility issues,
such as intellectual property protection, global warming, and child labor. Other
determinants of ethical decision making, such as a societys moral climate
can be similarly studied. This would help international marketers gain a
better understanding of cross-country differences that drive ethical decision
making.
Notes
1. The chi-square, goodness of fit index (GFI), adjusted goodness of fit index (AGFI), and
comparative fit index (CFI) model for the three samples were 45.07-208.41 (20 d.f.),
0.89-0.91, 0.81-0.83, and 0.89-0.90 with a one-factor idealism, 53.75-95.14 (14 d.f.), 0.89-0.95,
0.77-0.91, and 0.87-0.93 for relativism, 32.04-152.24 (5 d.f.), 0.89-0.92, 0.69-0.77, and 0.77-0.92
for CEV. Although the chi-square statistic was significant, it is influenced by sample size.
The recommended level for the other fit indices is 0.90 (Sharma, 1996). However, Bagozzi
and Yi (1988) point out that AGFI tends to be a conservative estimate of fit and is usually
lower than the GFI. Our analysis indicates that a one-factor idealism and relativism model
provide an adequate fit for the three samples and the CEV scale offers a moderate to low
fit.
2. Three different models were estimated, using multi-group analyses (Bollen, 1989). First, a
completely constrained model, with the factor structure, factor loadings, and error
variances of the indicator variables equal was estimated. Second, the constraint on the
equality of factor loadings was relaxed (called the partially constrained model). Finally, in
the third model the constraint on the equality of error variances was relaxed (called the
completely free model). Configural equivalence was assessed with chi-square, GFI, and CFI
of the completely free model (Steenkamp and Baumgartner, 1998). For the completely free
model, the chi-square, GFI, and CFI are 918.44 (329 d.f.), 0.90, and 0.89 for idealism and
relativism, and 259.57 (15 d.f.), 0.89, and 0.87 for CEV. Although the chi-square statistic is
significant, it is influenced by sample size, and the other fit indices generally meet the
recommended level of 0.90 (Sharma, 1996). In addition, all the factor loadings are
significant for the three scales. Therefore, the three instruments can be considered to be
configurally equivalent.
3. The difference in chi-square between the completely constrained model and the partially
constrained model was 17.38 (30 d.f.) for idealism and relativism, and 12.95 (10 d.f.) for the
CEV. All three differences were not significant at the 0.05 level. Therefore, the factor
loadings for the three scales can be assumed to be similar in the three samples. The
difference in chi-square between the partially constrained model and the completely free
model was 52.35 (30 d.f.) and 48.70 (10 d.f.) for CEV. The difference is not significant at the
0.05 level for the relativism scale. Both differences in chi-square are significant. The GFI
and CFI, however, do not show an increase in fit. The possibility of differences in error
variances across the three samples for the idealism scale has to be considered in
interpreting the results.
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Appendix. Measurement scales for idealism, relativism, and corporate ethical
values
Idealism (Forsyth, 1980)
1. A person should make certain that their actions never intentionally harm another even
to a small degree.
2. Risks to another should never be tolerated, irrespective of how small the risks might be.
3. The existence of potential harm to others is always wrong, irrespective of the benefits to
be gained.
4. One should never psychologically or physically harm another person.
5. One should not perform an action which might in any way threaten the dignity and
welfare of another individual.
6. If an action could harm an innocent other, then it should not be done.
7. The dignity and welfare of people should be the most important concern in any society.
8. It is never necessary to sacrifice the welfare of others.
Relativism (Forsyth, 1980)
1. What is ethical varies from one society to another.
2. Moral standards should be seen as being individualistic, what one person considers to be
moral may be judged to be immoral by another person.
3. Different types of moralities cannot be compared as to ``rightness.
4. Questions of what is ethical for everyone can never be resolved since what is moral or
immoral is up to the individual.
5. Moral standards are simply personal rules which indicate how a person should behave,
and are not to be applied in making judgements of others.
6. Ethical considerations in interpersonal relations are so complex that individuals should
be allowed to formulate their own individual codes.
7. Rigidly codifying an ethical position that prevents certain types of actions could stand in
the way of better human relations and adjustment.

Corporate ethical values (Hunt et al., 1989)

1.

Managers in my company often engage in behavior that I consider to be unethical.

2.

In order to succeed in my company, it is often necessary to compromise ones ethics.

3.

Top management in my company has let it be known in no uncertain terms that

unethical behaviors will not be tolerated.

4.

If a manager in my company is discovered to have engaged in unethical behavior that

results in personal gain (rather than corporate gain), he or she will be promptly
reprimanded.

5.

If a manager in my company is discovered to have engaged in unethical behavior that

results in corporate gain (rather than personal gain), he or she will be promptly
reprimanded.

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