Chuah Chin Wei

THE EFFECTS OF PERSONAL CULTURAL VALUES AND
PROFESSIONAL VALUES TOWARDS THE MARKETING
ETHICS OF ACADEMICIANS
CHUAH CHIN WEI
UNIVERSITI UTARA MALAYSIA

2009
THE EFFECTS OF PERSONAL CULTURAL VALUES AND
PROFESSIONAL VALUES TOWARDS THE MARKETING
ETHICS OF ACADEMICIANS
A thesis submitted to the Graduate School in partial

fulfillment of the requirements for the degree
Master of Business Administration
Universiti Utara Malaysia
By
Chuah Chin Wei
© Chuah Chin Wei, 2009 All rights reserved

PERMISSION TO USE
In presenting this thesis in partial fulfillment of the requirements for a postgraduate
degree from Universiti Utara Malaysia, I agree that the University Library may make it
freely available for inspection. I further agree that permission for copying this thesis in
any manner, in whole part or in part, for scholarly purposes maybe granted by my
supervisor or in their absence, by the Dean of Graduate School. It is understood that any
copying or publication or use of this thesis or parts thereof for financial gain not be
allowed without my written permission. It is also understood that due recognition shall be
given to me and to Universiti Utara Malaysia for any scholarly use which may be made
of any material of my thesis.
Request for permission to copy or to make other use of materials in this thesis, in whole
or in part, should be addressed to:
Assistant Vice Chancellor

College of Business
06010 Sintok
Kedah Darul Aman
Malaysia
I
ABSTRACT
The main purpose of this research is to assess the personal cultural value and professional
values in regards to academicians’ marketing ethics. A survey of academicians was
conducted to determine the factors that are related to the academicians’ marketing ethics
using these dimensions: Collectivism, Uncertainty Avoidance, Power Distance and
Professional Values. From 108 questionnaires distributed to all the academicians in INTI
International College Penang, 88 respondents were collected. The findings showed that
Power Distance and Professional Values were the factors that influence academicians’
marketing ethics. Further analysis showed that demographic factors such as age, gender,
years of working experience, academic qualification do not have any influence on
academicians’ marketing ethics. Since the result of the study showed that Power Distance
and Professional Values are the main factors that influence the marketing ethics of
academicians, the management of the college would perhaps look into methods and ways
of cultivating the professionalism among academicians in order for them to possess a
good marketing ethics.
II
ABSTRAK
Tujuan utama kajian ini adalah untuk mengetahui pengaruh nilai-nilai budaya peribadi
(personal cultural values) dan nilai-nilai professional terhadap etika pemasaran ahli
akademik. Satu soal selidik terhadap ahli-ahli akademik di Malaysia telah dilaksanakan
untuk menentukan faktor yang mempengaruhi etika pemasaran mereka. Kaji selidik ini
menggunakan dimensi berikut iaitu dimensi Kolektivism (Collectivism), Penghindaran
Ketidakpastian (Uncertainty Avoidance), Jarak Kuasa (Power Distance) dan Nilai-Nilai
Professional (Professional Values). Sejumlah 88 soal selidik yang boleh digunapakai
untuk tujuan analisis berjaya dikumpul semula daripada sejumlah 108 borang soal selidik
yang diedarkan. Kajian ini mendapati bahawa faktor Jarak Kuasa (Power Distance) dan
Nilai-nilai Professional (Professional Values) merupakan faktor yang mempengaruhi
Etika Pemasaran para ahli akademik. Analisis seterusnya mendapati bahawa faktor
demografik seperti usia, jantina, kelayakan akademik dan pengalaman kerja tidak
mempengaruhi Etika Pemasaran para ahli akademik. Oleh kerana keputusan kajian ini
mendapati faktor Jarak Kuasa dan Nilai-Nilai Professionalisma merupakan faktor yang
menjurus kepada Etika Pemasaran para ahli akademik, maka, adalah disyorkan bahawa
pihak pengurusan kolej seharusnya memupuk Nilai-nilai Professionalisma kepada para
akademik untuk memastikan bahawa mereka mempunyai Etika Pemasaran yang wajar
dan positif.
III
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
I would like to express my sincere, heartfelt appreciation to those involved in the

completion of this study
First and foremost, I would like to express my greatest appreciation and my deepest
gratitude and thanks to my supervisor, Haji Mohamad Zainol Abidin bin Adam, who has
always been there to provide guidance, advices and generous amount of time in guding
me throughout the duration of preparing this thesis.
In addition to that, I would like to thank my external supervisor, Professor Madya Hoe
Chee Hee for his comment and guidance along the way of marking my thesis report.
Next, I would like to express my appreciation to my family, especially my dad and mum,
who has always been supportive when I decided to take up a Master’s Project as a partial
fulfillment of the Master Degree instead of coursework.
Great appreciation is also extended to friends and colleagues especially lecturers in INTI
International College Penang as they are the respondents to this research and their
participation warrants the success of this survey.
To the many people that I did not specially named, I am indebted for their help,
suggestions, inspiration and patience, which they have offered generously during the
preparation of this report. Thank you and may God bless you.
As a final word, for the intellect, which is the most fundamental tool necessary for
academic work, the physical well being to carry loads of paper around, the emotional
strength to withstand academic critiques which are sometimes cutting, and the ups and
downs seemingly unhurried lifestyle. I thank God for His glory and this research is
dedicated to Him. Last but not least, may the God’s blessing be upon the readers for this
research.
IV
TABLE OF CONTENT
CONTENT PAGE
PERMISSION TO USE I
ABSTRACT (ENGLISH) II
ABSTRAK (BAHASA MELAYU) III
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT IV
TABLE OF CONTENT V
LIST OF TABLES VI
LIST OF FIGURE VII
CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION
1.1 Chapter Overview 1

1.2 Background of the Study 2
1.3 Problem Statement 4
1.4 Research Questions and Objectives 5
1.5 Theoretical Framework 6
1.5.1 Independent Variables 8
1.5.2 Dependent Variables 8
1.6 Significance of the Study 11
1.7 Definition of Terms 12
1.8 Scope and Limitations 14
1.9 Chapter Conclusions 15
1.10 Organization of the Thesis 15
CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW

2.2 Marketing Ethics 17
2.3 Demographic Factors 21
2.4 Personal Cultural Value 25
2.5 Professional Value 29
V
CHAPTER THREE: METHODOLOGY

3.2 Research Design 32
3.3 Population 33
3.4 Sample 33
3.5 The Sampling Techniques 34
3.6 Questionnaire Preparation & Scale Type Used 34
3.7 Pilot Test 37
3.8 Reliability Test 38
3.9 Statistical Method 39
3.10 Chapter Summary 40
CHAPTER FOUR: FINDINGS

4.2 Descriptive Statistic of Data Collection 41
4.2.1 Response Rate 42
4.2.2 Gender of Respondents 42
4.2.3 Ethic Group of Respondents 43
4.2.4 Age of Respondents 43
4.2.5 Years of Working Experience of Respondents 44
4.2.6 Academic Qualifications of the Respondents 45
4.3 Testing of the Hypothesis 46
4.3.1 Hypothesis testing for Demographic Variables 46
4.3.2 Hypothesis testing for Personal Cultural Values 49
4.3.3 Hypothesis testing for Professional Values 55
4.4 Regression Analysis 57
4.5 Chapter Summary 59
CHAPTER FIVE: DISCUSSION, RECOMMENDATIONS AND CONCLUSIONS

5.2 Summary of the Study 62
5.3 Summary of the Findings and Discussion 64
5.4 Conclusion 72
5.5 Implication and Recommendation of the Study 74
REFERENCES 77
APPENDICES
Appendix A
Appendix B
LIST OF TABLE
TABLE PAGE
Table 3.1 Summary of part of the Questionnaire 37

Table 3.2 Reliability Statistic for the Pilot Test 39
Table 4.1 Response Rate 42
Table 4.2 Gender of Respondents 42
Table 4.3 Race of Respondents 43
Table 4.4 Age of Respondents 44
Table 4.5 Years of Working Experience of Respondents 45
Table 4.6 Academic Qualification of Respondents 45
Table 4.7 Independent Sample Test between gender and
academicians’ Marketing Ethics 47
Table 4.8 One way ANOVA between ethnic group, age, years of
working experience, academic qualifications and
Academicians’ Marketing Ethics 49
Table 4.9 Correlations between Collectivism and Academicians’
Marketing Ethics 50
Table 4.9.1 Correlations between Collectivism and dimensions of
Table 4.10 Correlations between Uncertainty Avoidance and
Table 4.10.1 Correlations between Uncertainty Avoidance and
dimensions of Academicians’ Marketing Ethics 52
Table 4.11 Correlations between Power Distance and Academicians’
Marketing Ethics 53
Table 4.11.1 Correlations between Power Distance and dimensions of
Academicians Marketing Ethics 54
Table 4.12 Correlations between Professional Values and
Academicians’Marketing Ethics 55
Table 4.12.1 Correlations between Professional Values and dimensions
of Academician’s Marketing Ethics 56
Table 4.13 Multiple Regression Analysis 58
VI
LIST OF FIGURE
FIGURE PAGE
Figure 1.1 Theoritical Framework of the Study 9

CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Chapter Overview
This chapter consists of eight (8) parts: (1) Background of The Study, (2) Problem
Statement, (3) Research Questions and Research Objectives, (4) The Theoretical
Framework, (5) Research Hypothesis, (6) Significant of the Study, (7) Definition of
Terms, (8) Limitation and Scope
Part One (1) Background of The Study describes about the background and theories
related to the study. Part Two (2) Problem Statement discusses the subject related to the
topic. Part Three (3) discusses what the questions needed to be answered in this study and
the objective of the research. Part Four (4) discusses the theoretical framework of the
study and Part Five (5) and Six (6) consist of the hypothesis of the study and the
significant of the study respectively while Part Seven (7) and Eight (8) consist of the
definition of terms and scope and limitation of the study.
1

1.2 Background of the Study
Much has been discussed about marketing ethics and the major factors that influences
one’s perceived and practiced marketing ethics. Of all these factors that have been
analyzed throughout these past researches that, majority of the researches agrees that
culture plays the most important role in influencing one’s for ethical decision making
(Singhapakdi et.al, 1995). Ferrell and Gresham (1985) specified cultural environment as a
background variable of ethical decision making in marketing and so does Hunt and Vitell
(1986) that prioritized cultural environment as one of that factors directly influenced the
marketing ethics decision process. The interest of looking deeper into what are the
influencing factors that determine and affect one’s marketing ethics decision arises when,
Murphy and Laczniak (1981) reviewed the scholarly work in marketing ethics at that
time they concluded that the area was lacking in its theoretical dimension (Singhapakdi &
Vitell, 1993). Their criticism has stimulated positive feedback towards the research in
marketing ethics. Early scholarly work by Ferrell and Gresham (1985), Hunt and Vitell
(1986) has build up the foundation models and theory which was finally being tested by
other scholar such as Mayo and Marks (1990), Singhapakdi and Vitell (1990, 1991), and
Vitell and Hunt (1990).
Past research revealed that both personal cultural value and professional value had the
biggest impact towards marketing ethics and ethical decision making. The influence of
2

personal cultural values on ethical decision making has been well recognized by the
theoretical work in the marketing ethics literature by Ferrell and Gresham (1985), Hunt
and Vitell (1986), Ferrell, Gresham and Fraedrich (1989) (Rallapalli et.al,2000). There
are several studies which examined the impact of professional value on the ethical
decision making (Singhapakdi and Vitell 1993) and Vitell et.al (1993a). However, an
extensive literature search showed that there has not been much research which compares
professional values across culture (Rallapalli et.al, 2000).
Hence, the main purpose of this study is to analyze how personal cultural values and
professional values underlie the perceived marketing ethics of academician. The reason
academicians are chosen is because there has been no prior research done on this group
and statement claims that there will be a significant differences between the ethical
behavior between nonstudent marketing practitioner and the academicians. This survey
looks to justify the statement claimed by previous research (Yoo and Donthu 1998)
3

1.3 Problem Statement
Various studies conducted for the past 20 years has been focusing on the marketing ethics
of marketers and also the perceived marketing ethics of student who has undertakes
ethical subjects such as marketing ethics and business ethics. However, none of the
research had really discuss about another group of community which is closely related to
the other two groups mentioned above. The group that is being mentioned here is the
academicians.
In their research paper, “The effects of marketing education and individual cultural
values on marketing ethics of students”, Boonghee Yoo and Naveen Donthu (1998) has
suggested that for future research directions, researcher can focused on researching
business professionals’ and academicians’ marketing ethics. It is to be said that
nonstudent marketing practitioners and academicians are likely to behave differently
from students and show a higher level of ethical sensitivity than students because they are
generally more experienced in the marketing environment and feel more responsible
(Sparks and Hunt, 1998).
Hence, this survey is conducted to research further on the possible variables that affect
marketing norms has been significantly identify throughout a few literature review. In
4

this research, we will investigate the cultural value which is measured at individual level,
that affects the marketing ethics as being researched by Yoo and Donthu, In addition, this
research will also identify another strong value that has the same impact on marketing
ethics which is the professional cultural value as being identified by Singhapakdi,
Rallapalli, Pao and Vitell (1995).
1.4 Research Questions and Objectives
(a) Research Questions
1. Will collectivism influences academicians marketing ethics?
2. Will uncertainty avoidance influences academicians marketing ethics?
3. Will power distance make an impact on academicians marketing ethics?
4. Will professional values influence academicians marketing ethics?
(b) Research Objectives
The specific objectives of this research are as follows:
i. To determine whether collectivism influence the extent to which
academician’s marketing ethics
ii. To determine whether uncertainty avoidance influence the extent to which
5

iii. To determine whether power distance influence the extent to which
iv. To determine whether professional values influence the extent to which
1.5 Theoretical Framework
Sekaran (2004) defines theoretical framework as a conceptual model of how one
theorizes or make logical sense of the relationship among several factors that have been
identified as important to the problem. Theoretical framework discusses the relationship
and connections among variables that are deemed to be integral to the dynamics of the
situations that is being investigated. The developments of the framework contribute in
setting up the research hypothesis and test the level of relationship of variables and thus
improve the understanding of the dynamic situations that is being researched. Sekaran,
Cavana and Delahaye (2001) indicate that there are five basic features that should be
incorporated in any theoretical framework which is listed as following:
i) The variable considered relevant to the study should be clearly identified and
labelled in the discussions.
6

ii) The discussion should state how two or more variables are related to one
another. This should be done for the important relationships that re theorized
to exist among these variables.
iii) If the nature and direction of the relationships can be theorized on the basis of
the findings from previous research, then there should be an indication in the
discussion as to whether the relationships would be positive or negative.
iv) There should be a clear explanation of why we would expect these
relationships to exist. The arguments could be drawn from the previous
study/research findings
v) A schematic diagram of the theoretical framework should be given so that the
reader can see and easily comprehend the theorized relationships
In this survey, several dimensions of personal cultural value and professional value which
make impacts on academicians marketing ethics have been identified. The dimensions
will be further analyzed to clarify which of them are positively related to the marketing
ethics and vice versa.
7

1.5.1 Independent Variable
Sekaran (2001) defines an independent variable is one that influences the dependant
variable in either a positive or a negative way. This means that when the independent
variable is present, the dependant variable will also be present. Increase in the
independent variable which result an increase or decrease in the dependant variables.
Thus, the variance in the dependant variable is accounted for by the independent variable
manipulated. The independent variables in this study are the Personal Cultural Values
which consists of three dimensions namely Collectivism, Uncertainty Avoidance, Power
Distance and Professional Values.
1.5.2 Dependant Variable
The dependant variable is the variable of primary interest to the researcher. The
researcher’s goal is to understand and describe the dependant variable, or to explain its
variability or predict it (Sekaran, 2001). In other words, it is the main variable that leads
itself as a viable factor for investigation. By analyzing the dependant variable, there is a
possibility that we might be able to find solutions for a problem. The dependant variable
for this study is the Marketing Ethics of the academicians.
8

Figure 1.1: Theoretical Framework of the Study
Personal Cultural
Value
Collectivism
Uncertainty Avoidance
Power Distance
Adopted from Yoo et. al The Marketing Ethics of
(2001) Academicians in INTI
International College
Penang
Professional Value Adopted from Vitell et.al
1.6 Hypothesis
Professional Value (1993)
Adopted from
Singhapakdi & Vitell
(1993)
Independent Variables Dependant Variable
Sekaran (2001) defined hypothesis as a logically conjectured relationship between two or
more variables expressed in the form of a testable statement. Hypothesis is developed
based on the theoretical framework that is being discussed earlier. By testing the
hypothesis and confirming the conjured relationships, a solution can be identified to
correct the problem encountered.
The first hypothesis can be stated as follows
H1: There are no relationships between demographic factors with the academicians’
marketing ethics.
9

The second hypothesis can be stated as follows:
H2: There are no relationships between collectivism with the academicians’ marketing
ethics
The third hypothesis can be stated as follows:
H3: There are no relationships between uncertainty avoidance with the academicians’
marketing ethics
The forth hypothesis can be stated as follows:
H4: There are no relationships between power distances with the academicians’
marketing ethics
The fifth hypothesis can be stated as follows:
H5: There are no relationships between professional values with the academicians’
marketing ethics
10

1.6 Significance of the study
This study is believed to be beneficial for future research in terms of identifying crucial
factors that affects the academicians marketing ethics. Academician plays an important
role in educating future marketers and other business professional. Their perception
towards marketing ethics plays an important part as it will influences the effectiveness of
how ethical related courses to be delivered and to be taught during lectures. In short, it is
hoped that this present study contributes to the following:
i. The perception of academicians towards the marketing ethics.
ii. The impact of academician’s marketing ethics towards the ethical courses
education
iii. Factors that plays an impact toward academician’s marketing ethics
iv. Managerial role on how to improve academician’s marketing ethics
v. Ethical behavior of academician’s if they are involve in marketing
management
11

1.7 Definition of Terms
Ethics
According to Campling et.al (2006), ethics is defines as the code of moral principles that
sets standards of good or bad, or right or wrong in a person’s conduct and thereby guides
the behavior of that person or group. These principles guide behavior and help people
make moral choices among alternative courses of action. Spark and Hunt (1998)
identified ethics as a learned, personal characteristic. Ethics are also define as “relate to
moral evaluations of decisions and actions as right or wrong on the basis of commonly
accepted principles of behavior” (Dibb. et al 2001) From what is defined by them, we can
conclude that marketing ethics is about the ethical behavior in marketing that has been
learned and possessed by its practitioners.
Collectivism
Collectivism, as being defined by Hofstede (1991), is a group of people who “from birth
onwards are integrated into strong, cohesive in groups, which throughout people’s
lifetime continue to protect them in exchange for unquestioning loyalty”.
12

Uncertainty avoidance
Uncertainty avoidance is defined as the extent of feeling “threatened by uncertainty or
unknown situation” (Hofstede, 1991).
Power distance
Power distance is defined as the extent of which less powerful people “expect and accept
that power is distributed unequally” (Hofstede, 1991). As for professional values, it can
be defined as “values relating to one’s professional conduct that are commonly shared by
the members of the particular profession” (Singhapakdi and Vitell, 1993b, p.528).
Professional ethics “consists of those morally permissible standards of conduct each
member of a group wants the others to follow even if their following them would mean
he/she too has to follow them” (Davis 1998).
Marketing Ethics
Dibb et.al (2001) defined marketing ethics as “moral principles that define right or wrong
behavior in marketing” while Vitell (1986) defines marketing ethics as “an inquiry into
the nature and grounds of moral judgments, standards and rules of conduct relating to
marketing decisions and marketing situations”.
13

1.8 Scope and Limitations
The present research looks only on perception of academicians in INTI International
College Penang towards marketing ethics. This present study that is conducted in INTI
International College Penang and the academicians that participate in the survey are
previously involved in the business industry, might have brought inaccurate result to the
survey.
This research was conducted in the northern region of Malaysia and it may not be
representative for the different region in within the Peninsula Malaysia which possesses
different culture and mindset. The perception towards marketing ethics is limited to the
Malaysia’s northern region culture.
Due to time and budget constraint, this research could not include the samples from other
private institutions of higher learning and the public universities. This research focuses
on lecturers from one private institution only and might not be accurate as data and
perception varies from colleges to colleges.
14

1.9 Chapter Conclusions
In this chapter, it is apprehensive in terms of preparing and also completing the whole
research by concerning the various important aspects such as problem statement, purpose
of the study, significant of the study and others.
1.10 Organization of the Thesis
The thesis is divided into five chapters. Chapter One (1) discusses on the introduction of
this research which consist of an overview for this research followed by the background
of the study, problem statement, the research question and research objectives, the
theoretical framework of the research, the hypothesis, significant of this study, the
definition of terms and the scope and limitation of this survey.
Chapter Two (2) addresses about the literature review done for the previous research.
This includes the review and suggestion from previous study that leads to the idea of
conducting this research.
15

Chapter Three (3) addresses the methodology of the research. This chapter discusses the
methods that are being used for the survey including the measurement of the variables,
the scaling that is being used, the sampling methods. Discussion on how the
questionnaire is designed and collected can be found within this chapter.
Chapter Four (4) discusses about the findings and data analysis of the survey. Data
collected from the questionnaires are tested and analyzed.
Chapter Five (5) addresses about the discussion of the findings and the result of the
survey. In addition, this chapter will brief about the implication of the research and
propose a recommendation for future studies.
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CHAPTER 2
LITERATURE REVIEW
This chapter will cover the literature review of the marketing ethics and the facts and
theories related to it. This part will covers also the review of both personal culture and
professional values which influences the marketing ethics
2.1 Marketing Ethics
Ethics is an important element in marketing decisions making. Dibb. et al (2001) revealed
that no one has develop a universally accepted approach for dealing the importance of
ethics in marketing decisions. They defined ethics as “relate to moral evaluations of
decisions and actions as right or wrong on the basis of commonly accepted principles of
behavior” and marketing ethics “are the moral principles that define right or wrong
behavior in marketing” (p.740). Vitell (1986) defined marketing ethics as “inquiry into
17

the nature and grounds of moral judgments, standards, and rules of conduct relating to
marketing decisions and marketing situations”.
According to Yoo, “marketing is considered as the most unethical of business
functions and most marketing practices have been criticized as such”. Much research has
been done about the marketing ethics and its ethical decision making through various
researches and a few models have been developed to measure marketing ethics.
These so called ethical theories developed by past researches indicate that an
ethical decision making is also situational specific. For example, Hunt and Vitell (1986)
in their general theory of marketing ethics, specify “perceived ethical problem” as the
catalyst of the whole ethical decision process while Ferrell and Gresham (1985) specified
that “ethical issue or dilemma” as a component preceding the ethical decision process.
Another field expert, Jones (1991) agrees that situation is critical. In his survey titled
“ethical decision making is issue contingent”, he provided an important construct for
examining ethics-related characteristics of situational factors in decision making in which
he terms it as moral intensity. He defines moral intensity as the extent of issue-related
moral imperative in a situation. It is an important determinant of how an individual
recognizes ethical and moral issues, making moral judgment, establishing moral intent
and engages in moral behavior.
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Ferrell and Gresham (1985), Hunt and Vitell (1986) came to agreed that an
individual will apply ethical guidelines based on different moral philosophies or
ideologies when making decisions involving ethical problems.
Another study from Dibb. et al (2001) have determined three factors that interact
to determine ethical decision in marketing which are individual factors, organization
relationship and opportunity. For individual factors, moral philosophies are principle or
rule that individual use to determine appropriate behavior. Sparks and Hunt (1998)
identified ethics as a learned personal characteristic in which they found that marketing
research practitioners (marketers, marketing lecturers, academicians) are more ethically
sensitive to unethical marketing research practices than marketing students. This means
that if a survey is done on academicians or marketers, the results on both groups of
respondent’s marketing ethics will be different.
In the same study, Dibb., et al (2001) also reveals that the more people are
exposed to unethical activity in the organization environment, the more likely they are to
be unethical themselves.This relates to the organization relationship which directly refers
to the cultural value of an organization. For the purpose of this study, the cultural value is
operationalized at individual level. Lastly, opportunity will provide another pressure that
may determine whether a marketing student will behave ethically.
19

This is because opportunity is a favorable set of conditions that will provide rewards.
Professional codes of ethics also influence opportunity by prescribing what behaviors are
acceptable. (Dibb., et al 2001).
In this study, the marketing ethics is assessed using Vitell, Rallapalli, and
Singhapakdi’s (1993) marketing norms scale. Based on the code of ethics of the
American Marketing Association, these three scholars conducted an exploratory factor
analysis for their survey data and discovered four specific marketing-related norms and a
general honesty and integrity norm. The specific norms are price and distribution norms,
information and contact norms (honesty disclosure of marketing related information and
contractual agreement); product and promotion norms which includes product design,
advertising, sales promotion and finally the obligation and disclosure norms. Each norm
was positively associated with idealism, that is, “one’s acceptance of moral absolutes,”
and negatively associated with relativism, that is, “one’s rejection of universal moral
principles” (Vitell, Rallapalli, and Singhapakdi 1993,)
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2.2 Demographic Factor
Age
Marketing ethics theories generally recognized personal characteristics or demographic
factors as determinants of various aspects of an ethical decision making process (e.g.
Ferrell and Gresham, 1985; Hunt and Vitell, 1986). Among plenty of the identified
demographic factors or personal characteristics, age is said to be directly influence and
individual’s ethical decision. Kohlberg’s (1981) rational theory of cognitive moral
development indicated that individual’s cognition, emotion, and judgment may change as
he/she moves through the six stages of moral development. His identification of age as a
determinant of ethical behavior was supported by Thoma (1985) and Rest (1986)
(Borkowski & Ugras, 1993).
Terpstra et. al. (1993) also agreed that people tend to become more ethical when
they grew older. A good explanation to support both theories is that as people age, they
tend to become less concerned with wealth and advancement but more interested in
personal growth as per suggested by Hall (1976). In other words, older people tend to
appreciate the long-term benefits of acting in an ethical and socially responsible manner.
Borkowski & Ugras (1993), in their meta-analysis of 47 students also reveals that older
21

students perceived and developed a higher ethical behavior and attitude than younger
students. With this in mind, we would expect a positive relationship between a marketer’s
age and his or her perception about the importance of ethics and social responsibility.
Gender
There is no past research that focuses on the gender factor with the level of marketing
ethics. None of the business ethical scholar has manage to come to a theory that gender
does actually plays a role in the level of marketing ethics regardless of students,
marketers nor academicians.
However, a meta-analysis of 47 students by Borkowski and Ugras (1998) revealed
that female students develop higher ethical behavior and attitudes than male students. In
their review, Borkowski and Ugras cited Gilligan (1982) concluded that female address
ethical issues through a “care” or responsibility oriented framework, while males employ
a “justice”, or right oriented approach as posited by Kohlberg (1984).
22

In addition to that, Beltramini et al. (1984) also found that female college students
were more concerned with ethical issues than the male counterparts. (Borkowski and
Ugras, 1998). Thoma (1985) found that females were generally more ethical than males.
He and Rest (1986) did not find the differences to be significant. In addition to that, Ford
and Richardson’s (1994) reviewed fourteen studies analyzing behavior by gender, seven
reported that females would behave more ethically than males while seven found no
relationship between gender and ethical behavior (Borkowski & Ugras, 1998).
Robert Loo (2003) stated that there appeared to be three different approaches used
to explain gender differences found in ethics research. Some researchers reported that
gender differences explain the differences using gender socialization theory (e.g. Betz
et.al., 1989; Schminke and Ambrose, 1997). In this theoretical framework, differences
between men and women are due to early socialization through institutions such as
family and schools, and through sex-specific role requirements such as being a wife or
husband. As a result of gender socialization, women are thought to place greater
emphasis on harmonious interpersonal relations, caring and doing work well, while men
place greater emphasize on competitive success and extrinsic rewards involving financial
and status rewards. Further, men’s greater concern about competitive success suggests
their willingness to engage in unethical behaviors to achieve those goals.
23

In addition to that, Robert (2003) also mentioned that some researchers reporting
gender differences explain that differences are due to men and women using different
ethical frameworks in their judgments (e.g Harris, 1989; Schminke and Ambrose, 1997).
For example, Schiminke and Ambrose (1997) suggested that women in their study used
the care based golden rule of “do unto others as you would have them do unto you”,
where as men used the justice-based Kantian approach to ethics in business situations.
Finally, past researcher have found the importance on the role of ethical situations
in explaining gender differences. Glover et.al (2002) concluded that gender differences
found in their study were situational specific, men made the more ethical decision when
the moral intensity of the behavior portrayed in their scenarios was extreme, presenting
either ethical or unethical behavior, and men made unethical choices when the portrayed
behavior was in grey “area”. Clearly, the growing representation of women in workforces,
including management positions, suggests that gender differences in ethics warrant
further study (Glover et. al., 2002).
24

2.3 Personal Cultural Value
Collectivism
Collectivism pertains to people who “from birth onwards are integrated into strong,
cohesive in groups, which throughout people’s lifetime continue to protect them in
exchange for unquestioning loyalty” (Hofstede 1991). Collectivist is likely to act as
members of the groups rather than individuals. The collectivists prefer to emphasize “we”
rather than “I”. While individualists pursue self-interests, individual expression, and
prefer loose ties between individuals in a society and organizations as compared to more
formal ties (Hofstede 1984, Triandis 1995).
Hui and Triandis (1986) found that collectivism is associated with sacrifice (in-
group regulations of behavior), extension of self to in-group (interdependence), and
concern for in-group (in-group is center of psychological field: in-group harmony)
Individualists tend to value personal time and freedom (Hofstede 1984, Parsons
and Shils 1951), independence and pleasure (Schwartz 1994), and tend to believe that
personal goals and interests are more important than group interests (Hofstede 1984,
25

Kluckhohn and Strodtbeck 1961). Collectivists are more likely to strive for group success
rather than personal achievement and they tend to adopt the ideological identity of their
authorities (Hofstede 1984).
As collectivists are vulnerable to in-group influences and loyal to in-group norms,
they are expected to consider marketing norms that are prevalent within their marketing
in-group. Collectivists value the in-group’s opinions and are willing to make a joint
decision with their in-group members. Hence, collectivists may be more likely to stick to
organizational codes of ethics even at the expense of personal interests since the welfare
and goals of the group are of primary concern (Kluckhohn and Strodtbeck 1961).
Individualists, on the other hand, may be more likely to follow their own personal codes
of ethics
Consequently, collectivists care about the owners and stockholders, consumers,
business partners, and other employees because they want to build harmony with related
group (Vitell, Nwachukwu, and Barnes 1993). Therefore, collectivists are likely to
consider marketing ethics that assert protection of such stakeholders.
26

Uncertainty avoidance is defined as “the degree to which the members of a society feel
uncomfortable with uncertainty and ambiguity, which leads them to support beliefs
promising certainty and to maintain institutions protecting conformity” (Hofstede 1985).
Individuals who have high uncertainty avoidance are more concerned with security in life,
feel a greater need for consensus and written rules, and are intolerant of deviations from
standard practices in contrast to individuals with low uncertainty avoidance (Hofstede
1984).
The people with strong uncertainty avoidance follow norms rigidly, whereas those
with weak uncertainty avoidance are flexible (Hofstede 1994). Since those people with
strong uncertainty avoidance will consider norms positively, which reduces ambiguity
among various activities, procedures, and behaviors, therefore they need to control the
environment, events, and situations (Ferrell and Skinner 1988). Thus, as with power
distance, this could lead individuals who are high in uncertainty avoidance to engage in
questionable actions in the belief that it was best for the company.
27

Power Distance
This dimension, which concerns general human inequality, is defined as the degree to
which the members of a group or society accept the fact “that power in institutions and
organizations is distributed unequally” (Hofstede 1985). In contrast to individuals with
low levels of power distance, individuals with high levers of power distance 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 1984).
People with large power distance show greater reliance on centralization and
formalization of authority, greater tolerance for lack of autonomy, and acceptance of
inequalities in power. Also, they accept a power hierarchy, tight control over their
behaviors, vertical top-down communication, and even discrimination. People of large
power distance are likely to obey their superiors and follow more formal norms rather
than their peers and informal norms (Vitell, Nwachukwu, and Barnes 1993).
28

In contrast, people of small power distance listen more on their peers and
informal norms. This implies that individuals with a high power distance may place their
companies’ interests ahead of their own. In some cases, this could lead such individuals
to engage in questionable actions in the belief that it was best for the company.
2.4 Professional Values
Singhapakdi et.al., (1993) defined professional values as “values relating to one’s
professional conduct that are commonly shared by the members of a particular
profession.” Davis (1998) reviewed professional values as: “It consists of those morally
permissible standards of conduct each member of a group wants the others to follow even
in their following them would mean he/she too has to follow them.” According to the
social learning theory, an individual would develop behaviors, values, and norms for a
profession through professional socialization. Another approach, developmental theory
suggests that individual moral behavior is a result of how one understands the situations
and reasons. There has been plenty of research done on a professional environment on
ethical decision making (e.g Singhapakdi and Vitell, 1993b; Vitell et.al., 1993a), there
has not been much research comparing professional values on marketing ethics.
29

Vitell et.al (1993b) in their research which applies the Hofstede’s (1984) cultural
typology to ethical issues, they discussed the effects of culture on the ethical decision
making which is important for this study as ethical decision making will affect ethical
behavior in which, marketing ethics is considered as one of an ethical behavior.
According to Vitell et. al (1993b), they are looking at the facts that the ethical judgment
of a marketer can be partially explained by his/her professional values. In this study, we
will be adapting Vitell’s framework but we shall prospect the effects of professional
values towards the marketing ethics of academicians.
30

CHAPTER 3
METHODOLOGY
Data collections play an important role as part of research resign. Data can be separated
into two types, quantitative data and qualitative data. The data can be collected by using
two sources, namely, primary data sources and secondary data sources. According to
Sekaran (2004), primary data refers to information obtained directly by researcher by
conducting a survey. Secondary data, on the other hand, refers to information gathered
from sources that has already existed or being collected by previous studies. In this study,
primary data are used to achieve the objectives of the research.
31

3.2 Research design
This part discusses about the sampling and population techniques that is being used to
conduct the research. The main purpose of this study is to determine the factors that
affect INTI International College’s academicians marketing ethics. The dependent
variable in this study will be the marketing ethics among academicians in INTI
International College Penang while the independent variables in this study will be the
personal culture values which includes collectivism, uncertainty avoidance and power
distance and the professional values that is being possessed by the academicians.
Uma Sekaran (2004) stated that the dependant variables are mainly influenced by
independent variable in either a positive or a negative way. This means that with the
present of the dependant variables, there shall be, a present of its independent variable
and an increase in each independent variables shall results an increase or decrease in a
dependant variable.
Among these two variables, the dependant variables attract the intention of researcher
most. The purpose of a researcher in conducting a survey is to understand and describe
the dependant variable. In other words, it is the main variable that lends itself for
investigation as a viable factor. By analyzing the dependant variables, it is possible to
find answers or solution to a research problem.
32

To further analyze the dependant variable and to enable us to thoroughly understand it,
data collected from questionnaires need to be quantified and measured, together with the
independent variables that play an important role in affecting it.
3.3 Population
Uma Sekaran (2004) defines population as an entire group of people, events, or things of
interest that the researcher wishes to investigate.
3.4 Sample
Uma Sekaran (2004) also defines sample as a subset of a population. It is made up by
members present within a population. By studying these samples, researchers will able to
draw conclusions which will is generalized to the population. In this study, the whole
populations of INTI academicians are considered as the sample
33

3.5 The Sampling Technique
For the purpose of this study, all the academicians in INTI are chosen as the research
sample. A total of 108 academicians participate in this research.
3.6 Questionnaire Preparation & Scale Type Used
(a) Questionnaire Preparation
Questionnaire is a pre-formulated written set of questions to which the primary data is
gathered when a respondent answers it. The type of questionnaire that is used depends on
the study that will be carried out. For the purpose of this study, the questionnaires were
designed with an “easy to understand and answer” format using jargon free language.
This study uses questionnaire that was developed by previous studies and it was prove
useful in gathering information for the purpose of the study.
In this research total of 108 sets of self administered questionnaires were distributed to
the academic staff of the college and only 88 questionnaires had been collected back
within 2 weeks upon distribution. It was distributed to the academicians who work in
INTI International College Penang. A covering letter was attached together with the
34

questionnaire explaining the purpose of the study, assuring the confidentiality of their
response together with an instruction to request them to complete the questionnaire. The
questionnaire developed for the purpose of this study consists of two parts.
In the first part, the respondent’s demographic profiles were asked such as gender, age,
race, years of working experiences and academic qualifications. The second part is
consists of 48 questions. The entire questions were based on the dimension of personal
and professional values underpinnings. This part measures the impact of personal cultural
values and professional values on academicians’ marketing ethics. This part was divided
in four (4) dimensions. The first dimensions, “collectivism” consists of six (6) questions
and was adopted from Yoo et.al (2001). The second dimensions which consists 4
questions that measure “uncertainty avoidance” was also adopted from Yoo et. al (2001).
The third dimension that measure “power distance” contained five (5) questions which
were adopted from Yoo et.al (2001), On the other hand, the fourth dimension which is
“professional values” contained nine (9) questions which were adopted from Singhapakdi
& Vitell (1993). Marketing ethics consists of twenty four (24) questions adopted from
Vitell et. al (1993).
(b) Scale Type Used
Likert scales were very common nowadays and were regarded as one of the primary
method in gaining respondent’s attitude throughout the questionnaire. One advantage of
35

the Likert Scale method is that it can produce scale that have good reliability and validity
(Bearden & Netemeyer 1999; Blankenship et al 1998; Churchill and Peter 1984). Also
being an example of closed questioning, these questions are comparatively simple and
require relatively low involvement, which means that respondents are most likely to start
and complete the questionnaire (Blanenship et al 1998; Neuman 2003).
While Likert Scale is considered as an ordinal scale (Malhotra et al., 1996; Neuman,
2003), it is usually treated as an interval measure (Malhotra et al., 1996; Sekaran, 2004).
This is due to the fact that the same pattern typically emerges from its summated
responses, irrespective of the data being treated as ordinal or interval (de Vaus, 2002;
Malhotra et al., 1996).
All scale questions in the questionnaire used numbered scales. Numbered scale points
were not only employed to facilitate data analysis, but also due to the intention to assume
interval scale data (Zikmund, 2003). Although numbered scales do not automatically
foster higher reliability (Bearden & Netemeyer, 1999). According to Nunnally (1978),
respondents’ use the numbers as a clue on how to think about the questionnaire question
and therefore find it easier to respond.
Each item in Part Two utilized a five point Likert scale that anchor from one (1) (strongly
disagree), two (2) (disagree), three (3) (neutral), four (4) (agree) to five (5) (strongly
agree).
36

Table 3.1: Summary of the part of the Questionnaire
Variables No of Item Item

Part A: Demographic Variables
Gender 1 Part A, Item 1
Race 1 Part A, Item 2
Age 1 Part A, Item 3
Years of Working 1 Part A, Item 4
Experience
Academic Qualification 1 Part A, Item 5
Part B: Independent Variables &
Dependent Variables
Collectivism 6 Part B, Item 1-6
Uncertainty Avoidance 4 Part B, Item 7-10
Power Distance 5 Part B, Item 11-15
Professional Value 9 Part B, Item 16-24
Marketing Ethics 24 Part B, Item 25-48
3.7 Pilot Test
A pilot test was conducted to test and detect the weakness in design an instrument to
provide proxy data for selection of a probability sample (Cooper et. Al., 2006). A total of
20 respondents undertook the pilot test. The questionnaire is distributed randomly among
the academician in INTI International College Penang, in order to determine the
reliability of the instrument that is used to measure the variable of this study before
performing data collection in order to achieve the objectives of this study. The feedback
37

for the pilot test is constructive and only minimal changes needed. Respondents were able
to understand all of the questions with little difficulties. These changes are then being
made for the finally distributed questionnaire
3.8 Reliability Test
Sekaran (2004) mentioned that the reliability of a measure indicates the extent to which it
is without bias (error free) and hence ensures consistent measurement across time and
across the various items in the instrument. In other words, the reliability of a measure is
an indication of the stability and consistency with which the instrument measures the
concept and helps to access the “goodness” of a measure. Cronbach’s alpha is reliability
co-efficient that indicates how well the items in a set are positively correlated to one
another. It is computed based on average inter-correlations among the items measuring
the concept. Thus, the closer the Cronbach’s alpha to 1, the higher the internal
consistency reliability.
In general, reliabilities over 0.80 are considered good and those in the 0.70 range are
considered acceptable while those that are less than 0.60 are considered poor. The result
of the reliability test for this study is ranges from 0.70 to 0.91.
38

Table 3.2 Reliability Statistic for the Pilot Test
Item Number of Items Cronbach’s Alpha

Personal Cultural Value
Collectivism 6 0.906
Uncertainty Avoidance 4 0.735
Power Distance 5 0.901
Professional Value
Professional Value 9 0.725
Marketing Ethics
Price and Distribution norms 5 0.754
Information and Contract norms 6 0.708
Product and Promotion norms 5 0.749
Obligation and Disclosure norms 4 0.708
General Honesty and Reliability 4 0.712
3.9 Statistical Methods
In a research, scientific data is being search and answers to the research question are
being analyzed to provide answers for researcher. Raw data, once being collected, is
organized and then is being analyzed. In order to organize and analyze the data found,
various analyzing software is applicable. One of the most convenient and user friendly’s
application should be the Statistical Package for the Social Science (SPSS) application.
For the purpose of this study, the SPSS version 12 is being used to analyze the statistical
39

data. All the items and variables were coded and entered into this software. In this survey,
statistical analysis method such as frequencies distribution, t-test, one way ANOVA,
correlation and multiple regression analysis is being used to analyze the data collected.
3.10 Chapter Summary
This chapter focuses on the methodology that is being used for this study in terms of
research design, research subject, preparation and administration of the questionnaire,
pilot test and reliability test’s results and also the statistical method that was used for
analyzing the results.
The next chapter will discuss about the finding and the results of the data obtained from
the questionnaire which has been analyzed.
40

CHAPTER 4
FINDINGS
This chapter reports the result of the study. Data were analyzed using several methods
such as descriptive statistics (frequencies and means), independent t-test; correlation;
regression; one way-ANOVA and normality test. Finally, this chapter shows the result of
the hypothesis testing.
4.2 Descriptive Statistics of Data Collection
The demographic factors analyzed in this study includes race, gender, years of working
experiences, academic qualifications.
41

4.2.1 Response Rate
A total of 108 questionnaires were distributed to the academic staff of the college and
only 88 questionnaires had been collected back within 2 weeks upon distribution. The
response rate for this survey is at 81.50%. Table 4.1 shows the response rate of this
survey.
Table 4.1: Response Rate
Questionnaire Questionnaire Percentage

Distributed Replied
108 88 81.5
4.2.2 Descriptive Statistic of Gender
Most of the respondent are male (52.3% or 46 respondents) while 47.7% (42 respondents)
are female. The result is shown in Table 4.2 below
Table 4.2: Gender of respondent
Gender Frequency Percent

Male 46 52.3
Female 42 47.7
Total 88 100%
42

4.2.3 Ethnic Group of the Respondents
The respondents’ ethic group is shown in Table 4.3 below. From the table, it shows that
47.7 percent (42 respondents) of the respondent are Chinese follow by Indian (28.4
percent or 25 respondents) and Malay (23.9 percent or 21 respondents).
Table 4.3: Ethics Group of Respondents
Ethnic Group Frequency Percent

Chinese 42 47.7
Indian 25 28.4
Malay 21 23.9
Total 88 100%
4.2.4 Age of Respondents
Table 4.4 shows the age of respondents. The age of the respondents is classified into four
(4) categories namely those who is from 25 years old to 30 years old, 30 to 35 years old,
36 to 40 years old and finally those aged 40 years old and above. The results from the
table indicates that 34.1 percent (30 respondents) of the total respondent age between 36
to 40 years old followed by 27.3 percent or 24 respondent who are between 31 to 35
years old. On the other hand, 15.9 percent (14 respondents) are between 25 to 30 years
43

old while those 40 years old and above constitute 22.7 percent (20 respondents) of the
total respondents.
Table 4.4 Age of Respondents
Age Frequency Percentage

25 to 30 years old 14 15.9
30 to 35 years old 24 27.3
36 to 40 years old 30 34.1
40 and above 20 22.7
Total 88 100%
4.2.5 Years of Working Experience of Respondents
The result of respondents’ years of working experience is shown in Table 4.5. Working
experience of the respondents was categorized in to four (4) categories namely 2 to 4
years, 5 to 7 years, 8 to 10 years and 10 years and above.The table showed that 42
percent (37 respondents) had a working experience of more than 10 years followed by
those who have 5 to 7 years of working experience (20 respondents or 22.7 percent).In
addition, 19.3 percent (17 respondents) had a working experience of 2 to 4 years while
15.9 percent (14 respondents) have a working experience of 8 to 10 years.
44

Table 4.5: Years of Working Experience of Respondent
Years of Working Frequency Percentage

Experience
2 to 4 years 17 19.3
5 to 7 years 20 22.7
8 to 10 years 14 15.9
10 years and above 37 42.0
Total 88 100%
4.2.6 Academic Qualifications of the Respondents
The result of respondents’ academic qualifications is shown in Table 4.6. The academic
qualifications of the respondents was categorized into three (3) namely Degree holder,
Master holder and PhD holder. The table shows that 50 percent (or 44 respondents) had a
master degree. On the other hand, 46.6 percent (41 respondents) hold a first degree
qualification. Only 3.4 percent (or 3 respondents) hold a PhD.
Table 4.6: Academic Qualification of Respondents
Academic Qualifications Frequency Percent

Degree 41 46.6
Master 44 50.0
PhD 3 3.4
Total 88 100%
45

4.3 Testing of the Hypothesis
This part presents the findings of the research. One way ANOVA and t-test were used to
determine the significant differences between demographic factors and academicians’
marketing ethics. Correlations analysis was used to test the relationship between personal
cultural value, professional value and the academicians’ marketing ethics.
4.3.1 Hypothesis testing for Demographic Variables
Hypothesis 1(a)
H01(a) = Marketing ethics do not differ between gender.
A t-test was conducted between gender and academicians’ marketing ethics and results
are shown in table 4.7 below. Data shows that the difference in the mean of 4.2183 and
4.1667 with standard deviation of 0.23015 and 0.26138 for both male and female on
academicians’ marketing ethics were insignificant. The level of significant which is at
0.604 is very much greater than the acceptable level of 0.05. Thus, we accept the above
mentioned null hypothesis (H01). Therefore, we can assume that gender does not make an
impact on male and female academicians’ marketing ethics.
46

Table 4.7: Independent samples test between gender and academicians’ marketing
ethics
N Mean Std Mean t Significance

Deviation Difference
Male 46 4.2183 0.23015 0.5167 0.986 0.604
Female 42 4.1667 0.26138
Hypothesis 1(b)
H01(b) = Academicians marketing ethics do not differ between ethnic group, age, years
of working experience and academic qualifications.
The one way ANOVA is used to test the above mentioned hypothesis. Table 4.7 reveals
the result of the test.
Ethic Group
In the case of race factor, the F value is 0.787 and the significant value is 0.459. The level
of significant, which is at 0.459, is very much greater than the acceptable value of 0.05.
Thus, this definitely reveals that there is no significant difference in the mean of race
factors towards the academicians’ marketing ethics.
47

Age
The age factor analysis shows the same result. The F value is at 1.462 with a significant
value of 0.231 which is much greater than the acceptable value of 0.05. Therefore, we
accept the null hypothesis which stated that there is no differ between age factor and the
marketing ethics of the academicians.
Years of Working Experience
As for years of working experiences, the F value is at 0.730 with a significant value of
0.537 and this concluded that hypothesis null is again accepted as the significant value is
higher that the acceptable value.
Academic Qualifications
Last but not least, analysis done on the academicians’ academic qualification further
approve that demographic factor make no differences towards the marketing ethics of
academicians with its F value of 0.415 and the significant value of 0.661 which is above
the acceptable value of 0.05. From these results, it can be said that all the demographic
factors were significantly different with academicians’ marketing ethics.
48

Table 4.8: One way ANOVA between race, age, years of working experience,
academic qualifications and academicians marketing ethics
F Significant
Ethnic Group 0.787 0.459
Age 1.462 0.231
Years of Working Experience 0.730 0.537
Academic Qualifications 0.415 0.661
Total 88 100%
4.3.2 Hypothesis testing Personal Cultural Values
Hypothesis 2
H02 = There is no significant relationship between collectivism and academicians’
marketing ethics
Since both variables involved in this study is interval, a Pearson Correlation analysis was
used to analyze and examine the relationship between collectivism and academicians’
marketing ethics. The results are shown in Table 4.8 where there is a significant negative
correlation between collectivism and academicians’ marketing ethics. The significant
value is 0.486 which is much higher than the acceptable value of 0.005. Hence, we do
reject the null hypothesis (H02). We can conclude that collectivism and academicians’
marketing ethics are related in a negative way with a very low relationship (r = -0.075)
49

Table 4.9: Correlations between Collectivism and Academicians’ Marketing Ethics
Pearson Correlation Significant

(r)
Collectivism -0.075 0.486
Table 4.9.1 below shows the correlations between Collectivism with the dimensions of
Academicians’ Marketing Ethics. The dimensions of Marketing Ethics include Price &
Distribution Norms, Information and Contract Norms, Product and Promotion Norms,
Obligation & Disclosure Norms and finally, General Honesty & Integrity.
Among the five dimensions of Marketing Ethics, Collectivism shows a positive but not a
very strong relationship with the Information and Contract Norms. Collectivism are
negatively correlated with Price & Distribution Norms (r = -0.032), Product & Promotion
Norms (r = -0.116), Obligation & Disclosure Norms (r = -0.017) and General Honesty &
Integrity (r = -0.061). Among these four dimensions that have negative relationship with
collectivism, Product & Promotion Norms shows a stronger relationship while the rest
possesses a weaker relationship.
50

Table 4.9.1: Correlations between Collectivism and dimensions of Academicians’
Marketing Ethics
Pearson Correlation (r)

Dimension Price & Information & Product & Obligation General
Distribution Contract Promotion & Disclosure Honesty &
Norms Norms Norms Norms Integrity
Collectivism -0.032 0.053 -0.116 -0.017 -0.061
Hypothesis 3
H03 = There is no significant relationship between Uncertainty Avoidance and
academicians’ Marketing Ethics
Pearson Correlation test was conducted since both variables are interval. The results are
shown in Table 4.10. There is a significant positive correlation between uncertainty
avoidance and the academicians’ marketing ethics with a significant value of 0.000.
Hence, we do reject the null hypothesis (H03). In other words, uncertainty avoidance with
academicians’ marketing ethics are related with a moderate relationship (r = 0.402).
Table 4.10: Correlations between Uncertainty Avoidance and academicians’

marketing ethics

(r)
Uncertainty Avoidance 0.402** 0.000
** Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed)
51

Table 4.10.1 below shows the correlations between Uncertainty Avoidance with the
dimensions of Academicians’ Marketing Ethics.
Uncertainty Avoidance shows a positive relationship with all five dimensions of
Marketing Ethics. Uncertainty Avoidance are positively correlated with Price &
Distribution Norms (r = 0.258), Information & Contract Norms (r = 0.260), Product &
Promotion Norms (r = 0.262), Obligation & Disclosure Norms (r = 0.164) and General
Honesty & Integrity (r = 0.369). The Pearson Correlation value for Price & Distribution
Norms, Information & Contract Norms; Product & Promotion Norms are significant at
0.05 levels while the Pearson Correlation value for General Honesty & Integrity is
significant at 0.01 level.
Among all the five positively correlated dimensions, Uncertainty Avoidance has the
strongest relationship with General Honesty & Integrity (r = 0.369).
Table 4.10.1: Correlations between Uncertainty Avoidance and dimensions of

Academicians’ Marketing Ethics

Uncertainty 0.258* 0.260* 0.262* 0.164 0.369**
Avoidance
* Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed)
52

Hypothesis 4
H04 = There is no significant relationship between power distance and academicians’
marketing ethics
To test this hypothesis, the Pearson Correlations is once again being used as the variables
are interval. The result is shown in Table 4.11. It shows that there is a significant positive
correlation between Power Distance and academicians’ marketing ethics with a
significant value of 0.505. This value is very much higher than the acceptable value. We
can reject null hypothesis (H04). This results shows that both power distance and
academicians’ marketing ethics are related with a very weak relationships (r= 0.072)
Table 4.11: Correlations between Power Distance and Academicians’ Marketing

Ethics

(r)
Power Distance 0.072 0.505
Table 4.11.1 below shows the correlations between Power Distance with the dimensions
of Academicians’ Marketing Ethics.
Power Distance shows a mix relationship with all five dimensions of Marketing Ethics.
Power Distance are positively correlated with Price & Distribution Norms (r = 0.087),
Information & Contract Norms (r = 0.032), Obligation & Disclosure Norms (r = 0.200).
53

On the other hand, Power Distance has a negative correlation with Product & Promotion
Norms (r = -0.032) and General Honesty & Integrity (r = - 0.005).
Among the three positively correlated dimensions, Power Distance has the strongest
relationship with Obligation & Disclosure Norms. On the other hand, among the two
negatively correlated dimensions, Power Distance has a stronger relationship with
Product & Promotion Norms (r= -0.032).
Table 4.11.1: Correlations between Power Distance and dimensions of Academicians’

Marketing Ethics

Power 0.087 0.032 -0.032 0.200 -0.005
Distance
54

4.3.2 Hypothesis testing for Professional Values
Hypothesis 5
H05 = There are no significant relationship between professional values and academicians’
marketing ethics
Since both variables are interval, the Pearson Correlation test is conducted to determine
the relationship between professional value and academicians’ marketing ethics. The
result of the test is shown in Table 4.12. This result showed that there is a significant
positive correlation between professional value and academicians’ marketing ethics with
a significant value of 0.000. Hence, we do reject the above mentioned null hypothesis
(H05). We can say that both professional value and academicians’ marketing ethics are
related with a moderate relationship (r=0.387).
Table 4.12: Correlations between Professional Value and Academicians’ Marketing

Ethics
(r)
Professional Value 0.387 0.000
Professional Value shows a positive relationship with all five dimensions of Marketing
Ethics. Uncertainty Avoidance are positively correlated with Price & Distribution Norms
(r = 0.311), Information & Contract Norms (r = 0.213), Product & Promotion Norms (r =
55

0.236), Obligation & Disclosure Norms (r = 0.265) and General Honesty & Integrity (r =
0.197). The Pearson Correlation value for Price & Distribution Norms is significant at
0.01 level while Information & Contract Norms; Product & Promotion Norms;
Obligation & Disclosure Norms are significant at 0.05 level
Among all the five positively correlated dimensions, Professional Value has the strongest
relationship with Price & Distribution Norms (r = 0.311).
Table 4.12.1: Correlations between Professional Values and dimensions of

Academicians’ Marketing Ethics

Professional 0.311** 0.213* 0.236* 0.265* 0.197
Value
* Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed)
56

4.4 Regression Analysis of professional and personal value with academicians’
marketing ethics
The result of regressing four independent variables against marketing ethics can be seen
in Table 4.13. The ‘Model Summary’ showed that the four independent variables that are
entered into the regression model, the R (0.533), which is the correlation of the four
independent variables with the dependent variable. After all the inter-correlations among
the four variable has been taken into consideration, the R square is only 0.285. This
explained that only 28.5% of the four variables influence the dependent variable which is
the marketing ethics.
To further elaborate what is mean by the R-Square value is that 28.5% of the variance in
academicians’ marketing ethics has been significantly identified by the four independent
variables.
The Coefficients Table helps us to see which among the four independent variables plays
the most important role in explaining the variance of in academicians marketing ethics by
focusing on the ‘Standardized Coefficients’ with the ‘Beta’ value. It is seen that the
highest number in the column is 0.362 for uncertainty avoidance which is significant at
0.000 level followed by Professional value with a value of 0.313 and is significant at
0.002. This suggests that among the four variables, Both Uncertainty Avoidance and
57

Professional Values play a very significant role in influencing the academicians’
marketing ethics. The VIF value indicates that the variables were not effect by multi
colinearity and the values of Durbin-Watson also shows that the variables were not
affected by the autocorrelation.
Table 4.13: Multiple Regression Analysis
Model Summary
Model R R Square Durbin-Watson
1 0.533 0.285 2.059
Coefficients
Model B Beta t Significant VIF
Constant 2.444 6.189 0.000
Collectivism - -0.234 -1.237 0.220 1.174
0.065
Power Distance 0.206 0.362 3.785 0.000 1.064
Uncertainty 0.046 0.118 1.203 0.232 1.121
Avoidance
Professional Value 0.237 0.313 3.272 0.002 1.060
58

4.5 Summary
The five hypothesis tested earlier were tested. Using a sample of 88 respondents, data
was obtained from the INTI International College Penang’s lecturer. The primary purpose
of this study is to determine the factors that influence academicians’ marketing ethics.
Two level of statistical analysis were conducted with two different steps. The first level
of analysis uses the basic of descriptive statistics. This analysis was not intended for
testing the hypothesis, but rather allows us to have a look of the basic statistic and
characteristic of the data we had obtained. The second level of statistical analysis
involved two kind of analysis, mainly the analysis of difference which consists of the t-
test and one way ANOVA and another one, the analysis of relationship and influences
which consists of Correlation and Regression analysis.
T-test conducted shows that marketing ethics does not differ within gender. ANOVA test
conducted signifies that marketing ethics do not differ between races, age, years of
working experience and academic qualifications. Correlations test conducted on
hypothesis two (2), three (3), four (4) and five (5) proves that all the variables has
relationship with marketing ethics at all sorts of level (low, moderate and high).
Regression test conducted shows that 28.5% of the independent variables influence the
dependant variables.
59

As a conclusion, the results showed from the analysis indicate that two variables, namely
Uncertainly Avoidance and Professional Values were important in determining the
factors that influences the academicians’ marketing ethics.
60

CHAPTER 5
DISCUSSION, RECOMMENDATIONS AND CONCLUSION
This chapter will discuss, summarize and conclude the result of this research and at the
same time propose some recommendation for future research. This chapter consists of
four parts: One (1): Summary of the Study, Two (2): Summary of the Findings and
Discussions, Three (3): Conclusions, Four (4): Implication and Recommendation of the
Study.
Part One (1), Summary of the Study, presents a brief overview of the study. Part
Two (2), Summary of Findings and Discussions, summaries the major results of the
research. Part Three (3), Conclusions, gives the concluding part of the study. Part Four
(4), Implications and Recommendations of the Study, explains how the findings can have
impact on the marketing ethics of academicians on the theoretical level and applied level.
It also provides some suggestions and recommendation for the study as a whole in near
future.
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5.1 Summary of the Study
The main purpose of this study was to investigate the academicians’ perception towards
marketing ethics. This study extends the view of two previous researches, one is from
Yoo, Donthu’s (2002) research titled “The effects of Marketing Education and Individual
Cultural values on Marketing Ethics of Students” and another one is from Singhapakdi,
Rallapalli, Pao and Vitell’s (1995) research titled “Personal and professional values
underlying ethical decisions – A comparison of American and Thai marketers”.
Academicians from INTI International College Penang were selected and were
requested to provide their perceptions towards marketing ethics according to the personal
cultural values and professional values possessed by them. The personal cultural values
consist of 15 items which is divided in to three (3) dimensions: Collectivism (6 items),
Uncertainty Avoidance (4 items) and Power Distance (5 items). In assessing the
academicians’ marketing ethics, a combination of questionnaire by Yoo et.al (2001),
Singhapakdi & Vitell (1993) and Vitell et.al (1993) were used in the study.
The study investigated the differences in perception of marketing ethics between
demographic variables: ethnic group, age, gender, academic qualifications and years of
working experiences. It also examined the relationship of personal cultural values, which
62

consists of collectivism, uncertainty avoidance, and power distance and also the
dimension of professional value towards the marketing ethics of academician.
The sample consisted of 88 academicians from INTI International College Penang
with the age ranging from 25 years old to 40 years old and above. Majority (52.3%) of
the respondents were male academicians while 47.7 percent or 42 respondents are female.
In terms of race, majority of the respondents (47.7% or 42 respondents) were Chinese
followed by Indian 28.4 percent (25 respondents) and finally Malay 23.9 percent or 21
respondents. Most of the respondents (34.1%) age within 36 to 40 years old followed by
those fell in 31 to 35 years old age group which make up 27.3 percent (24 respondents)
out of total respondents. The balance were make up by those age between 25 to 30 and
those above 40 years old with 14 and 20 respondents (22.7 percent and 15.9 percent)
respectively. In terms of working experience and academic qualifications, most of the
respondents (42.7%) has a working experience of over 10 years and half (50%) of the
respondents possesses a Master Degree followed by 46.6 percent or 41 respondents who
owns a degree. As for PhD, it makes up of 3 persons which cover 3.4 percent of total
respondents.
Statistical tools used in the analysis were frequency counts, percentages, means, t-
test, One-Way ANOVA, and Pearson Correlations. Analysis was set at 0.05 level of
significant using the SPSS for Windows (Version 12) computer software.
63

5.2 Summary of the Findings and Discussion
5.2 (a) Discussions
5.2 (a) (i) Hypothesis Testing Demographic
Research by Yoo and Donthu (2002) agrees that age is indirectly associated with the level
of marketing ethics because it positively affects cognitive moral development.
Kohlberg’s (1984) rational theory of cognitive development insisted that people progress
through a sequence of six stages of moral development once they are matured. The model
predicted that people progress step by step to learn and use a higher moral standard
without regressing to the previous stage.
With the understanding of the model in mind, we can conclude that older people
express moral values more than younger people, and younger people are morally lower
than the older people or lag behind older people. However, in this study, the results
obtained from the findings revealed that there are no significant differences between ages
with the academicians’ marketing ethics. Yoo and Donthu (2002) tested age as a variable
which compare the older students has a higher level of marketing ethics than younger
students and it shows significant differences between ages of students which is being
influence by the marketing education of the school. In this survey, the respondents are the
64

academicians which has been having years of marketing educations and it make no
differences in terms of age.
Apart from age, race, working experience, academic qualifications of the
respondents were also examined whether these factors have significant effect toward
academicians’ marketing ethics. The ANOVA test results shows that race have a F value
of 0.787 with insignificant at level 0.459, working experience factor with 0.730 F value
and insignificant at 0.537, academic qualification factor at 0.415 F value and 0.661
insignificant. All these results indicate that the demographic factor does not have any
effect on academicians’ marketing ethics.
5.2 (a) (ii) Hypothesis Testing Personal Culture Value and Professional Value
This study has identified personal culture value and professional value as factors
that affect academicians’ marketing ethics. The personal culture value consist of 3 sub
item namely collectivism, uncertainty avoidance and power distance. Together with
professional values, these three items were tested to examine the correlation of these
variables with the academicians’ marketing ethics.
65

In the correlations analysis, Uncertainty Avoidance is positively and moderately
(correlation coefficient = 0.402) correlated towards academicians’ marketing ethics. This
finding was support by the findings which Yoo and Donthu (2002) had done. Both of
them explained that people with strong uncertainty avoidance may perceive norms as
courses of action when facing ethical situations. Following such norms may be a way for
people of strong uncertainty avoidance to avoid uncertain risky consequences that may
result from violating the norms. Their study also reveals that among all the factors
influencing marketing ethics, uncertainty avoidance showed the strongest relationship
with marketing ethics. The mentioned scenario is exactly the same as the result shown in
this study.
Professional values are also found to have positive and moderate relationship
(correlation coefficient = 0.387) towards the marketing ethics of academicians. This
dimension examines the professionalism possesses by the academician towards the
marketing ethics. According to social learning theory, an individual would develop
behaviors, values and norms for a profession through professional socialization. Hence,
this explains that professional value possesses by the academicians especially marketing
lecturers, plays as an important determinant towards the marketing ethics of the
academicians.
66

The result also stated that Power Distance is positively correlated (correlation
coefficient = 0.072) towards the marketing ethics of academicians. However, the
relationship between both power distance and marketing ethics of academicians is very
low. This result indicates that the academicians do not see power distance as an influence
for their ethical behavior in marketing. Thus, Power Distance might not be a very
important factor that influences INTI International College Penang’s academicians
marketing ethics.
The Collectivism factor, as being stated in the previous chapter, is negatively
correlated (correlation coefficient = -0.075) towards the marketing ethics of academicians.
The relationship between both Collectivism and Marketing Ethics of academicians is
very weak. This result indicates that the collectivism factors do not influences INTI
International College Penang academicians’ ethical behavior in marketing. Hence, we
can conclude that Collectivism does not play an important role in affecting academicians’
marketing ethics.
Finally, according to the regression analysis, 28.5 percent of INTI International
College Penang academicians’ marketing ethics was explained by the Personal Culture
Values such as Collectivism, Power Distance, Uncertainty Avoidance and another value
which is the Professional Values. The other 71.5 percent was explained by other factors
which influences the academicians’ marketing ethics which has yet to be identified.
67

Among the four independent variables, (Collectivism, Power Distance,
Uncertainty Avoidance and Professional Values), it is found that Power Distance are the
most important factors that influences the marketing ethics of academicians. Both Power
Distance and Marketing Ethics show strong relationships towards each and another in the
correlations test followed by Professional Values, which shows similar impact on
marketing ethics of academicians. Power Distance shows the beta of 0.362 with
significant level at 0.000 while Professional Values shows the beta of 0.313 with
significant level at 0.002. Hence, this indicates that both Power Distance and Professional
Values were the strongest factors influencing marketing ethics of academician.
68

5.2 (b) Summary of the Findings
The study revealed that:
1. There were statistically no significant differences between marketing ethics and
the age of the respondents.
the gender of the respondents
the ethnic group of the respondents
the academic qualifications of the academicians
the years of working experience of academicians.
6. There were statistically significant differences between each of sub dimension of
personal cultural value namely Collectivism, Uncertainty Avoidance and Power
Distance with Marketing Ethics.
69

7. There were statistically significant differences between Collectivism and
Marketing Ethics. Both dimensions have a negative relationship.
8. From the five (5) dimensions of Marketing Ethics namely Price & Distribution
Norms, Information & Contract Norms, Product & Promotion Norms, Obligation
& Disclosure norms and finally General Honesty & Integrity, Collectivism has the
strongest relationship with the Product & Promotion Norms. Both dimension
related in a negative way.
9. There were statistically significant differences between Uncertainty Avoidance
and Marketing Ethics. Both dimensions have a positive relationship
10. From the five (5) dimensions of Marketing Ethics, Uncertainty Avoidance has the
strongest relationship with General Honesty & Integrity. Both dimension related
in a positive way.
11. There were statistically significant differences between Power Distance and
Marketing Ethics. Both dimensions have a positive relationship.
12. From the five (5) dimensions of Marketing Ethics, Power Distance has the
strongest relationship with Obligation & Disclosure Norms. Both dimension
related in a positive way.
70

13. There were statistically significant differences between Professional Values and
Marketing Ethics. Both dimensions have a positive relationship.
14. From the five (5) dimensions of Marketing Ethics, Professional Values has the
strongest relationship with Price & Distribution Norms. Both dimension related in
a positive way.
15. From the three (3) sub-dimension of Personal Cultural Value, Power Distance is
the most important factor in explaining the Marketing Ethics of academicians
followed by the dimension of Professional Values.
71

5.3 Conclusion
Both Personal Culture Values and Professional Values play an important role in
influencing the marketing ethics of the academicians in INTI International College
Penang. The findings of this research showed that both Personal Cultural Value and
Professional Value play important roles in influencing the Marketing Ethics of the
academicians in INTI International College Penang. This research supports the findings
of previous researcher such as Yoo (2001) and Rallapalli et.al (1993). This study also
reveals that Collectivism, Uncertainty Avoidance, Power Distance and perceived
professional values are related with marketing ethics either in a positive (Uncertainty
Avoidance, Power Distance, Professional Values) or a negative relationship
(Collectivism).
Finally, as a conclusion, the researcher would like to highlight again the objective
of this study which is to determine the main factor that influences the marketing ethics of
academicians in INTI International College Penang. Among the factor that is being
examine (Personal Culture Values, Professional Values and demographic factors),
demographic factors such as gender, age, years of working experiences, academic
qualifications were found not to have any effect on the marketing ethics of academicians.
72

Two main factors that make an impact on academicians’ marketing ethics had been
identified namely the Power Distance dimensions and the Professional Values
dimensions.
From Pearson Correlation analysis, it can be seen that 3 factors which are the
Uncertainty avoidance, Power Distance and Professional Values are positively related to
marketing ethics while collectivism are negatively related to marketing ethics. Among
these four variables, only uncertainty avoidance and professional value are moderately
and positively related to marketing ethics. Power distance is positively related to
marketing ethics but with a very weak relationship while collectivism is negatively
related to marketing ethics but similar to power distance, it has a very weak relationship.
The regression analysis indicates that 28.5 percent of marketing ethics are
explained by the independent variables namely Professional Values and Personal Cultural
Values which consist of Collectivism, Uncertainty Avoidance and Power Distance. This
means that there are still other factors that influences the academicians Marketing Ethics
which might not yet been identified. Further study should looks into other possible
factors that might be influencing the academicians Marketing Ethics on top of Personal
Cultural Values and Professional Values.
73

5.4 Implications and Recommendations of the Study
(a) General Implications
The findings of this study are significant on both theoretical and applied level. On a
theoretical level, they add to our knowledge of relative importance of various dimensions
of values that influences the marketing ethics of academicians (e.g Personal Cultural
Values and Professional Values in this study). Yoo et. al (2001) has documented the
correlation of cultural values that operates on individual level (also known as Personal
Cultural Values) with marketing ethics though the respondent of the study is on students
rather than academicians. Singhapakdi and Vitell (1993) on the other hand, identified the
importance of Professional Values towards the ethical decision making processes. The
result of this study indicates that both Personal Cultural Values and Professional Values
play a role in influencing the academicians’ marketing ethics.
On the applied level, the results provide information on whether an academicians’
will posses and behave ethically when they are involve in marketing activities such as
helping their respective college in marketing the college brands and programmes.
The result on this study shows that the Power Distance values play an important
role in determining the marketing ethics of academicians. Management, under this
74

circumstance, should be able to use this factor as a tool to ensure that the academician
possesses a positive and good marketing ethics. With a strong relationship between
Power Distance and Marketing Ethics, this reveals the culture of Academicians still
willing to follow the instructions of their immediate superior or the top management.
With this in mind, once the top management drafted an ethical marketing decision, the
academicians will be following on this decision and this will ensure that the academicians
are behaving ethically.
Another factor that influences the Marketing Ethics of academicians is the
Professional Values possesses by the academicians. This study indirectly reveals that
academicians do understand the profession that they are in hence it creates awareness
towards the academicians that they should behave professionally. The level of education
possessed by the academicians lead them to understand the professional value better and
this will definitely influences their ethical behavior and decision making. The
management should have cultivate a positive professionalism within all academicians and
thus created academicians that has a good marketing ethics and are able to make an
ethical decision whenever there is conflict arises.
75

(b) Implication on Management
The result of this study brought implication towards the management of education
institution. Since both Power Distance and Professional Values are influencing the
marketing ethics of academicians, the management should play a role in cultivating
positive professional values within the institutions to ensure that the academicians
practices good marketing ethics whenever they involves in marketing activities such as
road shows or education fairs to promote their institution.
Power Distance is related to marketing ethics in the sense that if Power Distance
is high within the education institution, the management can play a role in influencing the
academicians to practice a good marketing ethics and pro-long the good marketing
practices in business and marketing ethics related subjects to the students.
In the future study, it is suggested that studies to be conducted should focus be put
on researching few colleges and universities instead of one. Future research can focuses
on academicians that are totally from education background and have no industrial
experiences. Likewise, INTI International College is a private education center; future
research might be interested to put the focus on the government education center such as
public universities, polytechnics and colleges.
76

Future research can also focus on having various location of study. It is said that
in Malaysia, the perceived cultural value between communities and regions are not the
same as being explained earlier. Future researcher might be interested to look into how
the academicians from different location perceived themselves on marketing ethics. The
outcome might be not same for different location and a comparison can be done from
there.
This research focuses on lecturers from private institutions, a survey conducted to
the lecturers from the government institutions might bring different results as the working
environment for private and government institutions are slightly different from one
another.
77

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NO
College of Business
Sir/Madam
Congratulation on behalf of the selection to answer this survey sheet. This survey sheet was prepared for learning
purposes only. Thank you once again for spending some your precious time to asnwer the questionnaire and would be
glad that dear Sirs/Madams provide your sincere answers. Your kind cooperation is highly appreciated.
PART A: BACKGROUND OF THE RESPONDENT
1. Gender: Male/Female
2. Race: Malay/ Chinese / Indian / Others: ________________(Please state)
3. Age: ___________
4. Years of Working Experience: _________________
5. Academic Qualification: PhD / Master / Degree
PART B :
[Note: Please circle the answer that is most precisely describe the response for the statement mentioned below according
to the given scale]
-1-
Scale: 1 = Strongly Disagree 2 = Disagree 3 = Not sure 4 = Agree 5 = strongly agree
1. Individual should have

sacrifice personal interest for the sake of group
interest. 1 2 3 4 5
2. Individual should have stick with his group when

facing hardship 1 2 3 4 5
3. Group wealfare is more important than individual rewards 1 2 3 4 5
4. Group success is more important that individual success 1 2 3 4 5
5. Individual should pursue their goals after considering the welfare of the group 1 2 3 4 5
6. Group loyalty should be encouraged even if individual goals suffer 1 2 3 4 5
7. It is important to have instruction spelled out in detail so that i always know

I am expected to do 1 2 3 4 5
8. Rules/regulations are important because they inform me of what is

expected of me 1 2 3 4 5
9. Law and regulation is important because it elaborate what is being

demanded from me. 1 2 3 4 5
10. Standardized work procedures are helpful 1 2 3 4 5
11. Instruction for operations are important 1 2 3 4 5
12. People in higher position should make most decision without consulting
People in lower position 1 2 3 4 5
-2-
Scale: 1 = Strongly Disagree 2 = Disagree 3 = Not sure 4 = Agree 5 = strongly agree
13. People in higher position should not ask the opinions of people in lower
position too frequently 1 2 3 4 5
14. People in higher position should avoid interaction with people in lower
position 1 2 3 4 5
15. People in higher position should not delegate important task to people in
lower position 1 2 3 4 5
16. People in lower position should not disagree with decision made by people
in higher position 1 2 3 4 5
17. The marketer’s professional conduct must be guided by the adherence

to all applicable laws and regulations 1 2 3 4 5
18. Being honest in serving consumers, clients, employees, suppliers, distributors

and the public 1 2 3 4 5
19. Participants in the marketing exchange process should be able to expect

that products and services offered are safe and fit for their intended uses 1 2 3 4 5
20. Participants in the marketing exchange process should be able to expect

that communications about offered products and services are not deceptive 1 2 3 4 5
21. All parties intend to discharge their obligations, financial and otherwise,
in good faith 1 2 3 4 5
22. Rejection of high pressure manipulations, or misleading sales tactics 1 2 3 4 5
23. Not manipulating the availability of a product for purpose of exploitation 1 2 3 4 5
24. Meet obligations and responsibilities in contracts and mutual agreements

in a timely manner 1 2 3 4 5
-3-
Scale: 1 = Not very important 2 = Not Important 3 = Not sure 4 = Important 5 = Very Important
25. Avoid manipulation to take advantage of situations to maximize personal

welfare in a way that unfairly deprives or damages the organization or others. 1 2 3 4 5
26. All extra-cost added features should be identified 1 2 3 4 5
27. One should not manipulate the availability of a product for the
Purpose of exploitation 1 2 3 4 5
28. Undue influence should not be exerted over the resellers’s choice
to handle a product 1 2 3 4 5
29. One should not engange in price fixing 1 2 3 4 5
30. Information regarding all substancial risks associated with product

or service usage should be disclosed 1 2 3 4 5
31. Any product component substitution that might materially change the
product or impact the buyer’s purchase decision should be disclosed 1 2 3 4 5
32. Outside clients and suppliers should be treated fairly 1 2 3 4 5
33. Confidentality and anonymity in professional relationships should be

maintained with regard to privileged information 1 2 3 4 5
34. Obligations and responsibilities in contracts and mutual agreements

should be met in a timely manner 1 2 3 4 5
35. The practice and promotion of a professional code of ethics must be

actively supported 1 2 3 4 5
36. Products and services offered should be safe and fit for their intended
uses 1 2 3 4 5
37. Communications about products and services offered should not be

deceptive 1 2 3 4 5
-4-
Scale: 1 = Not very important 2 = Not Important 3 = Not sure 4 = Important 5 = Very Important
38. False and misleading advertising should be avoided 1 2 3 4 5
39. High pressure manipulations or misleading sales tactics should be avoided 1 2 3 4 5
40. Sales promotion that use deception or manipulation should be avoided 1 2 3 4 5
41. One should discharge one’s obligations, financial and otherwise,

in good faith 1 2 3 4 5
42. The full price associated with any purchase should be disclosed 1 2 3 4 5
43. Selling or fund-raising under the guise of conducting research should be

avoided 1 2 3 4 5
44. Research integrity should be maintained by avoiding the misrepresentation

And omission of pertinent research data 1 2 3 4 5
45. One honesty should always adhere to all applicable laws and regulations 1 2 3 4 5
46. One should always accurately represent one’s education, training and
experience 1 2 3 4 5
47. One must always be honest in serving consumers, clients, employees, suppliers,
distributors, and the public 1 2 3 4 5
48. One should not knowingly participate in a conflict of interest without prior
notice to all parties involved 1 2 3 4 5
-5-

Reliability
Collectivism
Reliability Statistics
Cronbach's
Alpha Based
on
Cronbach's Standardized
Alpha Items N of Items
.906 .907 6
Item-Total Statistics
Scale Corrected Squared Cronbach's

Scale Mean if Variance if Item-Total Multiple Alpha if Item
Item Deleted Item Deleted Correlation Correlation Deleted
Collect1 14.05 28.997 .766 .608 .888
Collect2 13.45 28.261 .728 .598 .891
Collect3 13.15 25.503 .794 .700 .882
Collect4 13.05 25.839 .779 .638 .884
Collect5 13.70 26.642 .827 .695 .876
Collect6 14.35 30.661 .575 .402 .911
Cronbach's
Alpha Based
on
.735 .744 4

UAv1 8.60 8.358 .573 .413 .649
UAv2 8.55 8.892 .560 .373 .661
UAv3 8.30 7.589 .485 .274 .713
UAv4 8.30 8.642 .516 .318 .681
Power Distance
Cronbach's
Alpha Based
on
.901 .903 5

PDist1 14.90 16.726 .746 .588 .881
PDist2 14.60 17.305 .704 .525 .890
PDist3 14.75 14.724 .757 .600 .880
PDist4 14.90 15.253 .813 .676 .865
PDist5 15.05 15.208 .770 .622 .875
Professional Value
Cronbach's
Alpha Based
on
.725 .707 9

PsVa1 31.30 13.274 .610 .816 .662
PsVa2 31.20 14.589 .409 .526 .700
PsVa3 31.05 13.629 .552 .389 .673
PsVa4 31.55 14.471 .401 .494 .701
PsVa5 31.25 10.934 .823 .800 .600
PsVa6 31.05 15.103 .338 .658 .711
PsVa7 31.20 14.905 .275 .513 .725
PsVa8 31.25 17.461 -.055 .505 .768
PsVa9 30.95 15.629 .253 .320 .724
Price and Distribution norms
Cronbach's
Alpha Based
on
.754 .754 5

PrDis1 16.95 3.313 .636 .413 .667
PrDis2 16.95 3.945 .335 .249 .774
PrDis3 16.70 3.589 .460 .224 .733
PrDis4 16.90 3.147 .677 .571 .649
PrDis5 16.70 3.695 .518 .510 .712
Information and Contract Norms
Cronbach's
Alpha Based
on
.708 .668 6

InCon1 21.50 3.947 .605 .525 .613
InCon2 21.65 4.345 .416 .328 .677
InCon3 21.40 5.621 .035 .079 .763
InCon4 21.55 3.734 .618 .534 .604
InCon5 21.45 3.313 .770 .646 .538
InCon6 21.45 5.313 .180 .280 .732
Product and Promotion norms
Cronbach's
Alpha Based
on
.749 .730 5

PrPr1 16.35 4.661 .581 .494 .679
PrPr2 16.50 5.316 .549 .412 .696
PrPr3 16.35 4.450 .653 .481 .648
PrPr4 16.20 6.905 .180 .177 .790
PrPr5 16.40 4.253 .611 .546 .668
Obligation and Disclosure norms
Cronbach's
Alpha Based
on
.708 .708 4

ObDis1 11.95 3.629 .522 .277 .629
ObDis2 12.00 4.000 .356 .129 .724
ObDis3 11.70 3.484 .552 .332 .610
ObDis4 11.90 3.253 .556 .339 .604
General Honesty and Reliability
Cronbach's
Alpha Based
on
.712 .695 4

GenHI1 12.50 2.895 .685 .548 .532
GenHI2 12.70 2.116 .705 .576 .504
GenHI3 12.45 3.629 .415 .195 .696
GenHI4 12.45 4.366 .263 .083 .759

Ethnic Group
ANOVA
Marketing_Ethics
Sum of
Squares df Mean Square F Sig.
Between Groups .095 2 .048 .787 .459
Within Groups 5.148 85 .061
Total 5.244 87
Age
ANOVA
Marketing_Ethics
Sum of
Between Groups .260 3 .087 1.462 .231
Total 5.244 87
Working Experience
ANOVA
Marketing_Ethics
Sum of
Between Groups .133 3 .044 .730 .537
Total 5.244 87
Academic Qualifications
ANOVA
Marketing_Ethics
Sum of
Between Groups .051 2 .025 .415 .661
Total 5.244 87
Frequencies
Statistics
Gender Race Age WorkEx AcaQua

N Valid 88 88 88 88 88
Missin
0 0 0 0 0
g
Frequency Table
Gender
Cumulative
Frequency Percent Valid Percent Percent
Valid Male 46 52.3 52.3 52.3
Female 42 47.7 47.7 100.0
Total 88 100.0 100.0
Race
Cumulative
Valid Malay 21 23.9 23.9 23.9
Chinese 42 47.7 47.7 71.6
Indian 25 28.4 28.4 100.0
Total 88 100.0 100.0
Age
Cumulative
Valid 25 to 30 14 15.9 15.9 15.9
31 to 35 24 27.3 27.3 43.2
36 to 40 30 34.1 34.1 77.3
40 and
20 22.7 22.7 100.0
above
Total 88 100.0 100.0
WorkEx
Cumulative
Valid 2 to 4 years 17 19.3 19.3 19.3
5 to 7 years 20 22.7 22.7 42.0
8 to 10 years 14 15.9 15.9 58.0
More than 10
37 42.0 42.0 100.0
years
Total 88 100.0 100.0
AcaQua
Cumulative
Valid Degree 41 46.6 46.6 46.6
Master 44 50.0 50.0 96.6
PhD 3 3.4 3.4 100.0
Total 88 100.0 100.0
Explore

Case Processing Summary
Cases
Valid Missing Total
N Percent N Percent N Percent
Marketing_Ethics 88 100.0% 0 .0% 88 100.0%
Collectivism 88 100.0% 0 .0% 88 100.0%
Uncertainty_Avoidance 88 100.0% 0 .0% 88 100.0%
Power_Distance 88 100.0% 0 .0% 88 100.0%
Professional_Value 88 100.0% 0 .0% 88 100.0%
Descriptives
Statistic Std. Error

Marketing_Ethics Mean 4.1937 .02617
95% Confidence Lower Bound
4.1417
Interval for Mean
Upper Bound
4.2457
5% Trimmed Mean 4.1826

Median 4.1739
Variance .060
Std. Deviation .24550
Minimum 3.65
Maximum 5.00
Range 1.35
Interquartile Range .26
Skewness .812 .257
Kurtosis 1.639 .508
Collectivism Mean 3.6837 .05047
3.5834
Interval for Mean
Upper Bound
3.7840

Median 3.6667
Variance .224
Minimum 2.00
Maximum 4.83
Range 2.83
Skewness -.768 .257
Kurtosis 1.698 .508
Uncertainty_Avoidance Mean 4.1023 .04601
4.0108
Interval for Mean
Upper Bound
4.1937

Median 4.0000
Variance .186
Minimum 2.75
Maximum 5.00
Range 2.25
Skewness -.124 .257
Kurtosis .543 .508
Power_Distance Mean 3.8432 .06707
3.7099
Interval for Mean
Upper Bound
3.9765

Median 4.0000
Variance .396
Minimum 2.20
Maximum 5.00
Range 2.80
Skewness -.821 .257
Kurtosis .715 .508
Professional_Value Mean 4.0619 .03449
3.9933
Interval for Mean
Upper Bound
4.1304

Median 4.0000
Variance .105
Minimum 3.22
Maximum 5.00
Range 1.78
Skewness .621 .257
Kurtosis 1.333 .508

Tests of Normality
Kolmogorov-Smirnov(a) Shapiro-Wilk
Statistic df Sig. Statistic df Sig.
Marketing_Ethics .099 88 .034 .955 88 .004
Collectivism .112 88 .009 .948 88 .001
Uncertainty_Avoidance .156 88 .000 .957 88 .006
Power_Distance .189 88 .000 .918 88 .000
Professional_Value .155 88 .000 .949 88 .002
a Lilliefors Significance Correction

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THE EFFECTS OF PERSONAL CULTURAL VALUES AND

PROFESSIONAL VALUES TOWARDS THE MARKETING

CHUAH CHIN WEI

UNIVERSITI UTARA MALAYSIA

PROFESSIONAL VALUES TOWARDS THE MARKETING

A thesis submitted to the Graduate School in partial

Chuah Chin Wei

© Chuah Chin Wei, 2009 All rights reserved

In presenting this thesis in partial fulfillment of the requirements for a postgraduate

of any material of my thesis.

or in part, should be addressed to:

Assistant Vice Chancellor

I would like to express my sincere, heartfelt appreciation to those involved in the

CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION

1.1 Chapter Overview 1

CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Chapter Overview 17

3.1 Chapter Overview 31

CHAPTER FOUR: FINDINGS

4.1 Chapter Overview 41

CHAPTER FIVE: DISCUSSION, RECOMMENDATIONS AND CONCLUSIONS

5.1 Chapter Overview 61

Table 3.1 Summary of part of the Questionnaire 37

1.1 Chapter Overview

Terms, (8) Limitation and Scope

definition of terms and scope and limitation of the study.

Vitell and Hunt (1990).

professional values across culture (Rallapalli et.al, 2000).

business professionals’ and academicians’ marketing ethics. It is to be said that

nonstudent marketing practitioners and academicians are likely to behave differently

(Sparks and Hunt, 1998).

ethics which is the professional cultural value as being identified by Singhapakdi,

Rallapalli, Pao and Vitell (1995).

1.4 Research Questions and Objectives

(a) Research Questions

1. Will collectivism influences academicians marketing ethics?

2. Will uncertainty avoidance influences academicians marketing ethics?

3. Will power distance make an impact on academicians marketing ethics?

4. Will professional values influence academicians marketing ethics?

(b) Research Objectives

The specific objectives of this research are as follows:

i. To determine whether collectivism influence the extent to which

academician’s marketing ethics

ii. To determine whether uncertainty avoidance influence the extent to which

academician’s marketing ethics

academician’s marketing ethics

iv. To determine whether professional values influence the extent to which

academician’s marketing ethics

1.5 Theoretical Framework

Sekaran (2004) defines theoretical framework as a conceptual model of how one

identified as important to the problem. Theoretical framework discusses the relationship

situations that is being investigated. The developments of the framework contribute in

incorporated in any theoretical framework which is listed as following:

labelled in the discussions.

to exist among these variables.

discussion as to whether the relationships would be positive or negative.

iv) There should be a clear explanation of why we would expect these

relationships to exist. The arguments could be drawn from the previous

v) A schematic diagram of the theoretical framework should be given so that the

reader can see and easily comprehend the theorized relationships

ethics and vice versa.

independent variable which result an increase or decrease in the dependant variables.