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This article is the first of two articles examining traditional and emerging ethical issues facing marketing research practitioners. The authors initially discuss professionalism and the duties/obligations of researchers, then turn to what researchers owe respondents and what researchers and clients owe one another. In the next article they will examine what researchers owe the public and the ethics of intelligence gathering in marketing.
As the six scenarios in Table 1 show, a range of ethical dilemmas confront marketing research practitioners. The questions posed at the end of each vignette are not easy ones to answer. For example:
--Is it ethical to use fictitious names of research organizations to guard against possible respondent bias? --How should cost overruns be handled between a research supplier and the client? --Should the public receive information about the technical details of how a widely disseminated poll was conducted?
Possible ethical difficulties flowing from market research practices involve technical, managerial, and societal issues. Researchers must also decide how to treat the respond client, and the general public fairly in discharging their ties. We return to the particular scenarios in Table 1 in the course of developing the specifics of our discussion.
PROFESSIONALISM AND ETHICS
Within the marketing profession, researchers generally have received more academic training, especially in methodological and statistical techniques, than persons in other marketing positions. Also, the research field commonly is believed to have a higher degree of professionalism because the scientific method and objectivity are two of its hallmarks.
However, ethical issues do come into play in marketing research for two reasons (Schneider 1982, p. 591). First, marketing research often involves contact with the general public, usually through the use of surveys. Because this activity relies so heavlly on information from the public--often including sensitive information--marketing research is open to abuse or misuse (see scenario 4 in Table 1). Second, most marketing research is conducted by commercial (i.e., for-profit) firms as either independent research agencies or departments within corporations. The emphasis on the profit motive may occasionally cause researchers, their managers, or clients to "compromise" the objectivity or precision of a project. Throughout our discussion, we address the many situations in which such compromises might occur.
Concern for ethics can benefit marketing research practitioners in several ways...