The role of moral intensity and personal moral philosophies in the ethical decision making of marketers: A cross-cultural comparison of China and the United States

Abstract

This study uses cross-cultural samples from the United States and China to replicate previous empirical findings regarding the relationship among moral philosophies, moral intensity, and ethical decision making. The authors use a two-step structural equations modeling approach to analyze the measurement and structural models. The findings partially replicate those from previous studies and provide evidence that the measurement model is somewhat invariant across the two groups studied but the structural model is not. In addition, there is evidence that the relationship between personal moral philosophies (mainly relativism) and moral intensity varies across the two cultures. That is, whereas relativism is a significant predictor of moral intensity for the Chinese sample, it is not for the U.S. sample. However, idealism is a significant predictor of perceived moral intensity for both samples of marketing practitioners. Finally, perceived moral intensity is a significant, direct predictor of ethical judgments, and ethical judgments are a significant, direct predictor of behavioral intentions in both instances. © 2007, American Marketing Association.