Mutuality: A root principle for marketing ethics
Abstract
This paper seeks to identify a mid-level unifying ethical principle that may help clarify and articulate the ethical responsibilities of business firms in the field of marketing ethics. The paper examines critically the main principles which have been proposed to date in the literature, namely consumer sovereignty, preserving the conditions of an acceptable exchange, paternalism, and the perfect competition ideal, and concludes that all of them are vulnerable to damaging criticisms. The paper articulates and defends the mutuality principle as the most plausible candidate for the role of master principle in the relations between a firm and its customers. This principle requires that sellers look for reciprocity in their relations with their customers, seeking to provide to their customers something that helps them improve in some way their well-being and is commensurate with what they receive from themDownloads
References
Anderson, E. 1995. Value in ethics and economics. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Aquinas, T. 2006. Summa theologiae, English Province of the Order of Preachers (Eds.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Aristotle, 1976. The ethics of Aristotle. The Nicomachean ethics. Translated by J.A.K. Thomson. London: Penguin Classics.
Arneson,R. J.1999. Human flourishing versus desire satisfaction. Social Philosophy and Policy, 16 (1): 113-412.
Arneson, R. J. 2005. Joel Feinberg and the justification of hard paternalism. Legal Theory, 11(2): 59-84.
Arrow, K. 1973. Social responsibility and economic efficiency. Public Policy, 21: 303-17.
Baker, S.M., Gentry, J. W. & and Rittenburg, T.L. 2005. Building understanding of the domain of consumer vulnerability. Journal of Macromarketing, 25(2): 1-12.
Beauchamp, Tom 2013. The Principle of Beneficence in applied ethics. The Stanford Encyclopaedia of Philosophy (Winter 2013 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), URL = <http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2013/entries/principle-beneficence/>.
Berlin, I. 1969. Four essays on liberty. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Bhandari, B. S. 1997. Some ethical issues in computation and disclosure of interest rate and cost of credit. Journal of
Business Ethics, 16: 531-535.
Brandt, R. B. 1979. A Theory of the good and the right. Oxford: Clarendon.
Brenkert, G. 1998. Marketing to inner-city blacks Powermaster and moral responsibility. Business Ethics Quarterly, 8(1): 1-18.
Brock, G. 1996.Paternalism and the (overly?) caring life. Business Ethics Quarterly, 6(4): 533-548.
Brockway, G. 1993. Limited paternalism and the salesperson: A reconsideration. Journal of Business Ethics, 12:275-79.
Broome J. 1999. Ethics out of economics. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Camenisch, P. F. 1991. Marketing ethics: Some dimensions of the challenge. Journal of Business Ethics, 10: 245-48.
Carson, T. 2001. Deception and withholding information in sales. Business Ethics Quarterly, 11(2): 275-306.
Chaplin, L.N., Roedder, D. 2007. Growing up in a material world: Age differences in materialism in children and adolescents. Journal of Consumer Research, 34(4): 480-93.
Crisp, R. 2013. Well-being. In E. N. Zalta (Ed.), The Stanford Encyclopaedia of Philosophy.
URL = <http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/sum2013/entries/well-being/>.
Duska, R. 1997. Whistle-blowing and employee loyalty. In T. L. Beauchamp and N. E. Bowie (Eds.), Ethical theory and business. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Dworkin, G. 1988. Paternalism: The theory and practice of autonomy. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Ebejer, J. M. and Morden, M. J. 1988. Paternalism in the marketplace: Should a salesman be his buyer’s keeper? Journal of Business Ethics, 7:337-339.
Elegido, J.: 1998, La responsabilidad básica de la empresa hacia sus clientes. In D. Melé (Ed.) Etica en Dirección Comercial y Publicidad, Barcelona: Estudios y Ediciones IESE.(English versión available at http://ssrn.com/abstract=2464617).
Elegido, J. M. 2009. The just price: Three insights from the SalamancaSchool. Journal of Business Ethics, 90: 29-46.
Elegido, J. M. 2015. The just price as the price obtainable in an open market. Journal of Business Ethics, 130 (3): 557-572.
Enderle, G. & Niu, Q. 2012. Discerning ethical challenges for marketing in China. Asian Journal of Business Ethics, 1: 143-162.
Feinberg, J. 1986. The moral limits of the criminal law: Harm to self (Vol. 3). New York: Oxford University Press.
Finnis, J. 1980. Natural law and natural rights. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Finnis, J. 2011. Commensuration and public reason, in John Finnis, Reason in Action: Collected Essays: Volume I. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 233-255.
Finnis, J. 2011b. Natural law and natural rights. Second edition. New York: Oxford University Press.
Freiman, C. & Nichols, S. 2011. Is desert in the details? Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, 82(1): 121-133.
Fried, C. 1981. Contract as a promise. Cambridge. MS: Harvard University Press.
Garrett, T. 1966. Business ethics. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Gaski, J. F. 1999. Does marketing ethics really have anything to say? A critical inventory of the literature. Journal of Business Ethics, 18: 315-334.
Gibbs, P. 2004. Marketing and the notion of well-being. Business Ethics: A European Review, 13 (1): 5-13.
Gibbs, P. 2009. Response to “Gibbs and the problems of satisfaction and well-being.†Business Ethics: A European Review, 18 (4): 412-13.
Griffin, J. 1986. Well-being: Its meaning, measurement, and moral importance. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Grisez, G. 1978. Against consequentialism. American Journal of Jurisprudence, 23: 21-72.
Grisez, G. 1997 The way of the Lord Jesus: Difficult moral questions (Vol. III). Quincy, IL: Franciscan Press.
Grisez, G. and Boyle, J. M. 1979. Life and death with liberty and justice: A contribution to the euthanasia debate. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press.
Grisez, G. and Shaw, R. 1988. Beyond the New Morality (3rded.). Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press.
Guitián, G. 2015. Service as a bridge between ethical principles and business practice: A Catholic Social Teaching perspective. Journal of Business Ethics, 128(1): 59-72
Guyer, P. 2000. Kant on freedom, law, and happiness. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Hardman, D. 2009. Judgment and decision making: Psychological perspectives. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons.
Hill, T., 1992, Dignity and Practical Reason in Kant's Moral Theory, Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
Hogarth, R.M. 1987. Judgment and choice: The psychology of decision (2nded.). Chichester: John Wiley & Sons.
Holley, D. M. 1986. A moral evaluation of sales practices. Business & Professional Ethics Journal, 5(1): 3-21.
Holley, D. M. 1998. Information disclosure in sales. Journal of Business Ethics, 17: 631-641.
Holley, D. M. 2002. Alternative approaches to applied ethics: A response to Carson's critique. Business Ethics Quarterly, 12(1): 73-82.
Kagan, S., 1989.The limits of morality, Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Kotler, P. 2002. Kotler on marketing. New York: The Free Press.
Kultgen,J. 1995. Autonomy and intervention: Parentalism in the caring life. New York: Oxford University Press.
Laczniak, G. R.& Murphy, P. E. 2006. Normative perspectives for ethical and socially responsible marketing. Journal of Macromarketing, 26(2): 154-177.
Laczniak, G. R.& Murphy, P. E. 2006b. Marketing, consumers and technology: Perspectives for enhancing ethical transactions. Business Ethics Quarterly, 16(3): 313-321.
Lewinsohn-Zamir, D.2003.The objectivity of well-being and the objectives of property
law. New York University Law Review, 78: 1669-1754.
Markovits, D. 2004. Contract and collaboration. The Yale Law Journal, 113: 1417-1518.
Melé, D. 2009. Integrating personalism into virtue-based business ethics: The personalist and the common good principles. Journal of Business Ethics, 88(1), 227-244.
Melé, D. 2009. Business ethics in action: Seeking human excellence in organizations. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Mercado, T. 1975. Suma de tratos y contratos. Sierra Bravo, R. (Ed.), Madrid: Editora Nacional.
Miles, M. P., Munilla, L. S. & Covin, J. G. 2002.The constant gardener revisited: The effect of social blackmail on the marketing concept, innovation, and entrepreneurship. Journal of Business Ethics, 41(3): 287-295.
Mill, J. S. 1956. On liberty. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill.
Mochrie,R. I.2006. Justice in exchange: The economic philosophy of John Duns Scotus. Journal of Markets & Morality, 9(1): 35–56.
Nash, L. 1990. Good intentions aside: A manager’s guide to resolving ethical problems. Cambridge MS: Harvard Business School Press.
Nill, A. & Schibrowsky, J.A. 2007. Research on marketing ethics; A systematic review of the literature. Journal of Macromarketing, 27(3): 256-273.
O'Neill, Onora, 1989. Constructions of Reason, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Parfit, D. 1984. Reasons and persons. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Pellegrino E. D. & Thomasma, D. C. 1993. The virtues in medical practice.New York:Oxford
University Press.
Penz, G. P. 1986. Consumer sovereignty and human interests. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Primaux, P. & Stieber, J. 1999. When MR = MC: Ethical efficiencies in value and pricing. Journal of Business Ethics, 18(2): 201-211.
Santos, N.J.C. & Laczniak, G. R. 2009. Marketing to the poor: An integrative justice model for engaging impoverished market segments. Journal of Public Policy & Marketing, 28(1): 3-15.
Scanlon, T. M. 1975. Preference and urgency. The Journal of Philosophy, 72: 655-669.
Schlegelmilch, B. & Oberseder, M. 2010. Half a century of marketing ethics: Shifting perspectives and emerging trends. Journal of Business Ethics, 93(1): 1-19.
Schor, J. 2004. Born to buy: The commercial culture and the new consumer culture. New York: Scribner.
Sen, A. K. 1985. Well-being, agency and freedom: The Dewey Lectures 1984, The Journal of Philosophy, 82: 169-221.
Sirgy, J. M. 1996. Strategic marketing planning guided by the Quality-of-Life (QOL) Concept. Journal of Business Ethics, 15(3): 241-59.
Sirgy, J. M., and Su, G. 2000.The ethics of consumer sovereignty in an age of high tech. Journal of Business Ethics, 28(1): 1-14.
Sirgy, J. M., Lee. D. and Grace, B. Y. 2011.Consumer sovereignty in healthcare: Fact or fiction? Journal of Business Ethics, 101(3):459–474
Smith, C. N. 1995. Marketing strategies for the ethics era, Sloan Management Review, 36: 85-97.
Smith, C. N., Cooper-Martin, E. 1997. Ethics and target marketing; the role of product harm and consumer vulnerability. The Journal of Marketing, 1-20.
Solomon, R. C. 1993. Ethics and Excellence. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Spinello, R. A.: 1992, Ethics, pricing and the pharmaceutical industry, Journal of Business Ethics, 11: 617-626.
Strutton D., Hamilton, J. B., & Lumpkin, J. R. 1997. An essay on when to fully disclose in sales relationships: Applying two practical guidelines for addressing truth-telling problems. Journal of Business Ethics, 16(5), 545–560.
Velasquez, M. G. 2006. Business ethics: Concepts and cases (6th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.
Walters, K. S.1989. Limited paternalism and the Pontius Pilate plight. Journal of Business
Ethics, 8(12): 955-962.
Wertheimer, A. 1996. Exploitation. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Whysall, P. 2000. Marketing ethics—An overview. The Marketing Review, 1(2): 175–95.
Zamir, E. 1997. The inverted hierarchy of contract interpretation and supplementation. Columbia Law Review. 97: 1710-803.
This journal is an open access journal, and the authors and journal should be properly acknowledged, when works are cited.
Authors may use the publisher's version for teaching purposes, in books, theses, dissertations, conferences and conference papers.
A copy of the authors’ publisher's version may also be hosted on the following websites:
- Non-commercial personal homepage or blog.
- Institutional webpage.
- Authors Institutional Repository.
The following notice should accompany such a posting on the website: “This is an electronic version of an article published in the African Journal of Business Ethics, Volume XXX, number XXX, pages XXX–XXX”, DOI. Authors should also supply a hyperlink to the original paper or indicate where the original paper (http://ajobe.journals.ac.za/pub) may be found.
The following Creative Commons license applies:
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
