1986/06/01 by Shelby D. Hunt, Scott J. Vitell, Scott Vitell · 4 citations
Decision Sciences · Neuroscience · Psychology · Social Sciences · #Applied ethics #Business #Business ethics #Consequentialism #Deontological ethics #Epistemology #Ethical decision #Ethical theory #Ethics in Business and Education #Information ethics #Law #Marketing #Marketing ethics #Meta-ethics #Normative #Normative ethics #Normative model of decision-making #Political science #Psychology #Psychology of Moral and Emotional Judgment #Psychology of Social Influence #Public relations #Social psychology #Sociology #Teleology
paper · doi:10.1177/027614678600600103
crossref issued 1986/06/01 · crossref published 1986/06/01 · crossref published-online 1986/06/01 · crossref published-print 1986/06/01 · openalex publication_date 1986/06/01 · crossref created 2007/03/10 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · crossref deposited 2026/04/29 · crossref indexed 2026/08/05 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/06
Almost all the theoretical efforts in the area of marketing ethics have been normative, not positive. Th1at is, almost all theoretical works have focused on developing guidelines or rules to assist marketers in their efforts to behave in an ethical fashion. In contrast, the model developed in this article is descriptive, not prescriptive. It attempts to explain the decision-making process for problem situations having ethical con-tent. The article begins with a discussion and evaluation of the two major normative ethical theories in moral philosophy. deontological theories and teleological theories. Although these theories are normative, to the extent that people actually follow their prescriptions, any positive theory of marketing ethics must incorporate them. The article then develops a positive theory of marketing ethics and uses that theory to help explain some of the empirical research that has been conducted in the area of marketing ethics