RT Article
T1 “What’s the Harm in Being Unethical? These Strangers are Rich Anyway!” Exploring Underlying Factors of Double Standards
JF Journal of business ethics
VO 112
IS 2
SP 225
OP 240
A1 De Bock, Tine
A1 Vermeir, Iris
A1 Van Kenhove, Patrick
A2 Vermeir, Iris
A2 Van Kenhove, Patrick
LA English
YR 2013
UL https://ixtheo.de/Record/1785646591
AB Previous studies show evidence of double standards in terms of individuals being more tolerant of questionable consumer practices than of similar business practices. However, whether these double standards are necessarily due to the fact that one party is a business company while the other is a consumer was not addressed. The results of our two experimental studies, conducted among 277 (Study 1) and 264 (Study 2) participants from a Western European country by means of an anonymous self-administered online survey, demonstrate that the respondents were not only harsher in their judgments of unethical business (vs. consumer) behavior, but also harsher in their judgments of unethical behavior by prosperous (vs. non-prosperous) consumers and prosperous (vs. non-prosperous) business companies (Study 1). Further, they were also less tolerant of unethical behavior by consumers (vs. one’s best friend) and business companies with which they have a less than good (vs. a good) relationship (Study 2). These results indicate that double standards are due to differences in perceived wealth between subjects and in the individual’s relationship with subjects. These two factors imply that double standards are not strictly reserved to consumer–business relations, but might also be used in business–business and consumer–consumer relations. Further, these results indicate that companies need to be aware of the fact that good financial figures may backfire as they might lead individuals to be more critical of a company’s deceptive practices. Moreover, these findings point to the importance of businesses investing resources—and to keep investing resources—in developing a good relationship with stakeholders as these good relationships lead to stakeholders being less prone to make moral condemnations.
K1 Wealth
K1 Relationship
K1 Moral hypocrisy
K1 marketing ethics
K1 ethical beliefs
K1 double standards
K1 Business Ethics
K1 Consumer ethics
DO 10.1007/s10551-012-1244-3