Business Within Ethical Marketing Education: The Upcoming Challenges

Business Within Ethical Marketing Education: The Upcoming Challenges

Carmina S. Nunes, Ana Estima, Judite Manso
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-7998-5345-9.ch074
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Abstract

The purpose of this chapter is to offer a new perspective on how business ethics, and more specifically ethical marketing, can be integrated into ethical education and the teaching of good practices, providing answers for different organizational ethical questions. The authors argue that ethical marketing currently plays a pivotal role in organizations, making it necessary to properly address issues from a moral point of view. Referring to elements related to the marketing area, such as the market itself, costumers, products, promotion, price, place, etc., the authors demonstrate that ethics and its purpose can add value to any organization. The sphere of ethical marketing has had extraordinary visibility, especially throughout the last decades, probably because of how they relate to the four marketing-mix P's. The authors argue that it is crucial to have a solid understanding of the significance of these principles.
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Literature Review

Business Ethics

The domain of business ethics has had an astonishing perceptibility, probably because of the misinterpretation of the connotation of terms as “morality”, “values”, and “principles”. We argue that a solid understanding of the significance of business ethics and its elements, such as ethical compass, ethical codes, ethical dilemmas, ethical teaching, ethical training, etc., can help organizations improve their relationship with stakeholders, as well as avoid prejudicial practices.

Business ethics has been seen and understood as a connection between the mission of a business and ethics, i.e. the way business goals align themselves with a code or mission of ethics and how that translates into business practices. The fundamental questions to be answered are how you can make the practice of business more ethical and how different stakeholders should interact with business from an ethical point of view (Robin, 2009). Another equally important aspect is that a business must remain ethical throughout the time; otherwise, ethics itself is in danger (Kaptein, 2017).

Regarding the different definitions of business ethics, we can go back to that is supported by different activities and situations where there is an uncertainty regarding what is right and what is wrong for a business (Crane & Matten, 2004). Also, ethics in business is perceived as a set of values and opinions that should govern an organization and its business behavior. Business ethics has to be taught, as it addresses not only traditional subjects, such as ethical dilemmas and Social Responsibility (SR), but also new findings related to moral psychology, organizational behavior and its interactions. In fact, it is impossible to discuss business ethics without addressing these key areas: moral philosophy, S.R. and ethical verdicts (Wines, 2008).

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