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Introduction
In industrial marketing, ethics is important (Anaza et al., 2015; Anwer et al., 2020; Chou and Chen, 2018; Elahee and Brooks, 2004; Ha and Nam, 2016; Indounas, 2008; Lei et al., 2020; Low and Davenport, 2009; Lu and Yan, 2016; Miller et al., 2021; Munoz and Mallin, 2019; Murli, 2011; Schwepker, 2016; Schwepker and Ingram, 2016; Schwepker and Good, 2013; Schwepker, 2003; Trawick and Swan, 1988; Zanini and Musante, 2013; Zarkada-Fraser and Fraser, 2001). Browning and Zabriskie (1983, p. 219) contend that “an industrial market exists when a buyer and a seller trust each other enough to create a transaction.” They add that “ethical behaviour is defined as the use of recognized social principles involving justice and fairness in situations that are part of business relationships” (1983, p. 219). These relationships must be away from unethical practices like mishandling confidential information, telling half-truths for gain, slandering by innuendo, failure to keep promises, taking credit for someone else’s work, breaking or avoiding appointments with vendors for arbitrary or personal reasons, accepting vendor favors such as entertainment, tickets and gifts using false information to extract concessions from vendors, and divulging confidential company information to vendors (Browning and Zabriskie, 1983).
Ethical marketing constitutes “practices that emphasize transparent, trustworthy, and responsible personal and/or organizational marketing policies and actions that exhibit integrity as well as fairness to consumers and other stakeholders” (Murphy et al., 2005, p. xviii). Industrial marketers [1] frequently face moral complexity during the development of ethical marketing policies and the deliberation of appropriate actions. Industrial marketers may have to judge the moral appropriateness of marketing policies and actions either based on the consequences for various stakeholders or on the inherent rightness or wrongness of such policies and actions (Murphy et al., 2005, p. xviii). The former approach to decision-making draws from the principles of consequentialism (Albert et al., 2015; Bowen, 2004; Chakrabarty and Bass, 2015; Hunt and Vitell, 1986; Kujala and Pietiläinen, 2004) and the latter from deontology (Carter et al., 2017; Hunt and Vitell, 1986; Micewski and Troy, 2007; Piercy and Lane, 2007).
Sometimes, industrial marketers may use both “deontological and teleological evaluations in resolving their ethical problems” (Hunt and Vitell, 1986, p. 15; Hunt and Vitell,...