The moral theory of virtue ethics holds much promise for guiding the behavior of marketers. Although the origins of this theory can be traced back to Aristotle, it has not received as much emphasis as the teleological and deontological theories within marketing. In the ethics of virtue, traits such as compassion, fairness, loyalty, and openness shape a person's and an organization's vision. Several marketing situations confronted by Johnson & Johnson are used to illustrate the theory of virtue.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Advertising Age (1989). "Retail Code Worth the Price." 26 September.
2.
Beauchamp, Tom L. (1982). Philosophical Ethics: An Introduction to Moral Philosophy. New York: McGraw-Hill.
3.
Cavanagh, G. F. , D. J. Moberg, and M. Velasquez (1981). "The Ethics of Organizational Politics." Academy of Management Review, 6 (July): 363-374.
4.
Deveny, Kathleen (1990). "Painkiller Ads Strive to Give Foes Headaches."Wall Street Journal, 23 January: B1.
5.
Epstein, Edwin (1987). "The Corporate Social Policy Process: Beyond Business Ethics, Corporate Social Responsibility, and Corporate Social Responsiveness."California Management Review, 29 (Spring): 99-114.
6.
Ferrell, O. C. and L. Gresham (1985). "A Contingency Framework for Understanding Ethical Decision Making in Marketing."Journal of Marketing, 49 (Summer): 87-96.
7.
Ferrell, O. C. , L. G. Gresham, and J. Fraedrich (1989). "A Synthesis of Ethical Decision Models for Marketing."Journal of Macromarketing, 9 (Fall): 55-64.
8.
Frankena, William K. (1974). Ethics, 2d ed.Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
9.
Frederick, William (1986). "Toward CSR2: Why Ethical Analysis Is Indispensable and Unavoidable in Corporate Affairs."California Management Review, 28 (Winter): 126-141, 152-153.
10.
Fritzsche, D. and H. Becker (1984). "Linking Management Behavior to Ethical Philosophy—An Empirical Investigation."Academy of Management Journal, 27 (1): 166-175.
11.
Garrett, Thomas (1966). Business Ethics. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
12.
Gundlach, Gregory T. and Patrick E. Murphy (1990). "Ethical and Legal Foundations of Exchange." A paper presented to the Winter American Marketing Association Educators' Conference.
13.
Hunt, S. D. and S. Vitell (1986). "A General Theory of Marketing Ethics."Journal of Macromarketing, 6 (Spring): 5-16.
Kehoe, William J. (1985). "Ethics, Price Fixing, and the Management of Price Strategy." In Marketing Ethics: Guidelines for Managers, G. R. Laczniak and P. E. Murphy, eds. Lexington, MA: Lexington Books, pp. 71-83.
16.
Kimmel, Allan J. (1988). Ethics and Values in Applied Social Research. Beverly Hills: Sage.
17.
Kohlberg, L. (1969). "State and Sequence: The Cognitive Developmental Approach to Socialization." In Handbook of Socilization Theory and Research, D. A. Goslin, ed. Chicago: Rand McNally, pp. 347-480.
18.
Laczniak, G. R. (1983). "Frameworks for Analyzing Marketing Ethics."Journal of Macromarketing, 5 (Spring): 7-17.
19.
Lee, Kam Hon (1987). "The Informative and Persuasive Functions of Advertising: A Moral Appraisal—A Further Comment."Journal of Business Ethics, 6 (January): 55-57.
20.
Lipman, Joanne (1989). "Top Brands Rank Low in Study of Quality."Wall Street Journal, 6 June: B5.
21.
MacIntyre, Alasdair (1981). After Virtue. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press.
22.
May, William F. (1984). "The Virtues in a Professional Setting."Soundings, 67 (Fall): 245-266.
23.
Murphy, Patrick E. and Gene R. Laczniak (1981). "Marketing Ethics: A Review with Implications for Managers, Educators, and Researchers." In Review of Marketing, B. Enis and K. Roering, eds. Chicago: American Marketing Association, pp. 251-266.
24.
Murphy, Patrick E. and Dee Pridgen (1990). "Ethical and Legal Issues in Marketing."Advances in Marketing and Public Policy, forthcoming.
25.
Nash, Laura L. (1988). "Johnson & Johnson's Credo." In Corporate Ethics: A Prime Business Asset, The Business Roundtable, ed., February: 77-104.
26.
Piest, Oskar , ed. (1957). John Stewart Mill, Utilitarianism. New York: Macmillan.
27.
Rawls, John (1971). A Theory of Justice. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
28.
Rest, James R. (1986). Moral Development: Advances in Research and Theory. New York: Praeger.
29.
Robin Donald, Michael Giallourakis , Fred R. David, and Thomas E. Moritz (1989). Business Horizons. 32(January-February): 66-73.
30.
Robin, Donald P. and R. Eric Reidenbach (1987). "Social Responsibility, Ethics, and Marketing Strategy: Closing the Gap between Concept and Application."Journal of Marketing, 51 (January): 44-58.
31.
Robin, Donald P. and R. Eric Reidenbach (1988). "A Framework for Analyzing Ethical Issues in Marketing."Business and Professional Ethics Journal, 5 (2): 3-22.
32.
Ross, William David (1930). The Right and the Good. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
33.
Uttal, B. (1983). "The Corporate Culture Vultures."Fortune, 108 (October): 66-72.
34.
Williams, Oliver F. (1984). "Who Cast the First Stone?"Harvard Business Review, 62 (5): 151-160.
35.
Williams, Oliver F. (1986). "Can Business Ethics Be Theological? What Athens Can Learn from Jerusalem."Journal of Business Ethics, 5 (December): 473-484.
36.
Williams, Oliver R. and John W. Houck (1978). Full Value. San Francisco: Harper and Row.
37.
Wolff, Robert Paul , ed. (1985). Foundations of the Metaphysics of Morals, by Immanuel Kant. New York: Macmillan.