Marketing Research

Marketing Research: Ethical Issues

Dr. Zafer Erdogan

Ethical Issues in MR

• They are Philosophical questions

• Societal norms-codes of behaviour adopted by

a group

• Codes of behavior-suggest what a member of

group should do under given circumstances

Three Parties involved in MR

Subject’s Rights

Subject’s Rights Client’s Rights

Client’s Obligations

ClientResearcher

Client’s Obligations

Subject

Subject’s Obligations

Researcher’s Rights

Researcher’s Obligations

Researcher’s Obligations

Researcher’s Rights

Rights and Obligations of the Respondent

• The obligation to be truthful

• Privacy

• Deception

• The right to be informed

Rights and Obligations of the Researcher

• The purpose of research is research

• Objectivity

• Misrepresenting research

• Protect the right to confidentiality of both subjects and clients

• Dissemination of faulty conclusions

• Competing research proposals

Rights and Obligations of the Client Sponsor (User)

• Ethics between buyer and seller

• An open relationship with research suppliers

• An open relationship with interested parties

• Privacy

• Commitment to research

• Pseudo-pilot studies

Advocacy Research

• Research to support a specific legal claim

A Final Note

• No question that there are unethical researchers

• Sometimes good researchers take short cuts

• As most business people, researchers are generally ethical people