针对灰色营销进行道德培训的实验效果

本文以道德培训为操纵变量,以工商管理专业的大学生为实验对象,研究了灰色营销的道德培训对人们灰色营销道德判断和行为倾向的影响.结果发现:第一,针对灰色营销的短期道德培训能够显著改进被培训者针对灰色营销的道义论评价和目的论评价,但是不能降低其灰色营销行为倾向;第二,尽管针对灰色营销的短期道德培训能够改进人们针对灰色营销的道义论评价和目的论评价,并且后者对人们的灰色营销行为倾向也有显著影响,但是它们不能中介短期道德培训对灰色营销行为倾向的影响.本文最后讨论了研究结果的理论贡献与实际应用.

Experimental Effect of Ethics Training in the View of Gray Marketing

Gray marketing is the ethically problematic selling practices in which salespersons sell products by providing purchasers with some "gray" benefits such as buying meals, paying for entertainment, giving expensive gifts, or offering kickbacks. It is problematic in ethics at both sides of the exchange and prevalent in China business. Although previous studies tested the impact of ethics training on trainees' ethical decision making, they did so only in view of one sided unethical behaviors. No study has been found exploring the impact of ethics training on trainees' ethical decision making in the perspective of two sided unethical behaviors such as gray marketing. Based on the theories of business and marketing ethics and using the scenario approach to collect data from the undergraduate students majoring in business and management, this paper investigates the impact of the short-term ethics training in the view of gray marketing on the trainees' ethical judgment and behavioral intention of gray marketing. It is found that, firstly, the shortterm ethics training program improved significantly the trainees' deonlogical and teleological evaluation on gray marketing, but it did not reduce the trainees' behavioral intention to practice pray marketing. Secondly, although the short-term ethics training program could improve the trainees' deonlogical and teleological evaluation on gray marketing and the trainees' ethical evaluation had significant impact on their behavioral intention to practice pray marketing, its mediate effect on the relationship between ethical judgment and behavioral intention was not significant. Theoretically, this paper explores the impact of ethics training on the trainees' ethical judgment (deonlogical and teleological evaluation) and behavioral intention with the scenarios of two sided unethical marketing practices in Chinese cultural and ethical environment. Practically, its findings may help firms, schools, and governmental departments to improve trainees' ethical judgment by providing the trainees with more specified or focused training programs.