Ethically Questionable Behavior in Sales Representatives — An Example from the Taiwanese Pharmaceutical Industry

• Published in: Journal of business ethics Vol. 88; no. Suppl 1; pp. 155 - 166
• Main Authors: Hsu, Ya-Hui, Fang, Wenchang, Lee, Yuanchung
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Dordrecht Springer 01.04.2009; Springer Netherlands; Springer Nature B.V
• Series: Journal of Business Ethics
• Subjects: Behavior; behavioral control type; Business and Management; Business Ethics; commission structure; Education; Employees; Ethical behavior; Ethics; frame pattern; Human resource management; Hypotheses; Management; Marketing; marketing norm perception; Modeling; Moral judgment; Perceptions; Pharmaceutical industry; Pharmaceutical preparations; Philosophy; Political ethics; Quality of Life Research; Sales; Sales management; Sales representatives; Salespeople; Studies; Taiwan; Taiwan; behavioral control type; pharmaceutical industry; marketing norm perception; frame pattern; commission structure; sales representatives
• ISSN: 0167-4544; 1573-0697
• DOI: 10.1007/s10551-008-9823-z

Recent corporate disgraces and corruption have heightened concerns about ethically questionable behavior in business. The construct of ethically questionable behavior is an under-portrayed area of management field research, and deserves further studying, especially in sales positions. This study uses four variables from the human resource management field to explain the ethically questionable behavior of sales representatives in the pharmaceutical industry. These variables include frame pattern, commission structure, behavior control type, and marketing norm perceptions. This work uses a 2  2  2  2 subject experimental design, and 328 fully completed questionnaires for logistic regression analysis. Results suggest that a medical representative in a loss frame (compared with a gain frame), in a high commission structure (compared with a low commission structure), in loose behavior control (compared with strict behavior control), and in a low perception of marketing norm (compared with a high perception of marketing norm), is more likely affected by heuristic biases and make an ethically questionable choice.