1、 Marketing with integrity: ethics and the service-dominant logic for marketing Andrew V. Abela & Patrick E. Murphy Received: 28 June 2007 / Accepted: 2 July 2007 / Published online: 21 August 2007 # Academy of Marketing Science 2007 Abstract This paper examines a tendency within existingmarketing sc
2、holarship to compartmentalize ethical issues. Italso shows how this tendency can cause ethical tensionsand conflicts in marketing practice. The emerging servicedominant(S-D) logic for marketing, as proposed by Vargoand Lusch, is explored as an example of an approach tomarketing that overcomes this t
3、endency. The S-D logic isfound to be a positive development for marketing ethicsbecause it facilitates the seamless integration of ethicalaccountability into marketing decision-making. Specificrecommendations are made for improving the ethicalclimate in marketing using marketing performance measurem
4、enttheory and practice. Keywords Ethical violations . Ethics . Integrity.Marketing ethics . Marketing performance measurement . Service-dominant logic Introduction Despite extensive and thoughtful effort devoted to marketingethics scholarship over the past several decades, theincidence of ethical vi
5、olations in marketing practiceremains high. The effectiveness of current approaches tomarketing scholarship may be limited by the prevailingapproach to marketing ethics, which tends to separateethical analysis from marketing by overlaying such analysison top of existing marketing theory, rather than
6、 integratingit. Such an approach, in the context of the fragmentednature of contemporary marketing theory, can causenormative tensions for marketing managers that in turnresult in ethical violations. The service-dominant (S-D)logic, as proposed by Vargo and Lusch (2004a, b, 2006；hereafter VL), provi
7、des a more integrated approach tomarketing theory that reduces these tensions, enabling amore ethical foundation for marketing.Marketing ethics to dateMarketing ethics is the systematic study of how moralstandards are applied to marketing decisions, behaviors andinstitutions (Murphy et al. 2005, p.
8、xvii). According to amajor review article examining the marketing ethicsliterature during the 1960s and 70s, the main topicscovered included marketing research and managerial issues(e.g., purchasing； the four Ps) and to a lesser extenttheoretical and consumer concerns (Murphy and Laczniak1981). Thes
9、e earlier approaches tended to take a normativeperspective, developing guidelines or rules to assistmarketers in their efforts to behave in an ethical fashion(Hunt and Vitell 1986, p. 6). Subsequently, development oftheoretical models of marketers ethical decision-makinginaugurated a descriptive str
10、eam of research (Ferrell andGresham 1985； Ferrell et al. 1989； Hunt and Vitell 1986).More recently, marketing ethics has built on both of thesestreams, applying normative guidance from moral andpolitical philosophy (such as deontology, social contractstheory, and virtue theory) to the more complex u
11、nderstandingof the marketing ethics decision-making processprovided by descriptive research (Dunfee et al. 1999；Murphy 1999； Smith and Cooper-Martin 1997； Takala andUusitalo 1996).The persistence of ethicalof ethical issuesNevertheless, issues such as misleading advertising, unsafeand harmful produc
12、ts, abuse of distribution channel power,and promotion of materialism, which were the main ethicaconcerns of the 1950s, are still serious problems today, halfa century later (Kotler 2004； citing Bowen 1953). Newissues are regularly added to this list, including stealthmarketing, predatory lending, pr
13、omotion of off-label usesof pharmaceuticals, and online privacy (Karpatkin 1999；Murphy et al. 2005).One important cause of the persistence of such issues isthe tendency in current marketing theory to compartmentalizeethical issues. In general, theoretical developmentsin marketing are introduced with
14、out explicit considerationof ethics by their proponents, apparently on the assumptionthat such consideration can be separated from thebusiness issues. For example, the concepts of targetmarketing, service quality, and brand equity were allaccepted marketing practices long before ethical issuesassoci
15、ated with them were analyzed (Abela 2003； Davis1996； Smith and Cooper-Martin 1997). Even the S-Dlogic, which is proposed in this paper as a stronger ethicalfoundation for marketing, made no explicit reference toethics in its initial formulation (Vargo and Lusch 2004a).As we will note below, there ar
16、e ethical considerationsimplicit in the S-D logic, but we believe that they need tobe made more explicit for marketing to have a firmerethical foundation. The problem of compartmentalizationThis separation or compartmentalization of business andethics is problematic both theoretically and practicall
17、y. Atthe theoretical level, the separation between economic andethical analysis weakens the quality of scholarly investigation,with negative consequences for both economic andethical analysis (Freeman 1994； Sen 1987). For example,Kotlers societal marketing concept (SMC), introduced inthe third editi
18、on (1976) of his marketing management text,proposes that all marketing decisions be made for the benefitof the consumer, the firm, and society as a whole. However,the formulation of the various marketing strategies andtactics presented in this text is not materially different fromthat of other autho
19、rs who do not propose the SMC. TheSMC, while a laudable notion, has not seen extensiveimplementation in marketing (Crane and Desmond 2002).Furthermore, compartmentalization of ethical issues leaves scholars free to develop apparently amoral theories, whichcan have the potential to signal to students
20、 of suchtheories that they are free from a sense of moral responsibility(Ghoshal 2005). On a more positive note,social and environmental issues appear to be gainingserious attention recently with Michael Porter and othersfocusing on a more strategic use of corporate responsibilityand sustainable mar
21、keting (Murphy et al. 2005； Porter andKramer 2006).At a practical level, the compartmentalization of marketingethics makes ethical issues more likely to be ignored.According to descriptive research in marketing ethics,marketers deal with ethical issues through a multi-stagereasoning process (Ferrell
22、 et al. 1989； Hunt and Vitell1986). Two critical steps in such a process are recognizing the presence of an ethical issue and invoking an ethical evaluation. Based on this understanding, marketing ethics scholars have developed frameworks for helping marketersidentify and then evaluate ethical issue
23、s.Yet these models are mostly developed as an add-on tothe rest of marketing scholarship: one is supposed to put the decisions arising from ones marketing analysis throughone or more of these frameworks. As a result, they may be viewed as optional. For example, Laczniak (1983) proposed a framework o
24、f fourteen questions that a marketer should ask, including: Is the intent of a particular action evil? Are any major evils likely to result from this action? Smiths (1993) Consumer Sovereignty Test requires marketers to apply three tests to their marketing decisions: capability of the consumer, avai
25、lability and quality of information, and opportunity for choice/switching. The problem with these frameworks is that in each case there is a separation between the marketing analysis and the ethical analysis. Robin and Reidenbach (1987) advocated parallel planning systems for integrating ethical and
26、 socially responsible plans into strategic marketing planning (p. 52). Although this method avoids the clearer separation of the other two, it still requires marketers to take additional steps to address ethical considerations. At worst, though, such frameworks become merely a routine ethics check.
27、In the hectic conditions of contemporary marketing decision-making, isnt it likely that such ethical considerations can be and sometimes are accidentally or intentionally ignored? What is needed is an approach to marketing ethics that does not require a separate process every time an ethical issue i
28、s identified, but instead allows such issues to be dealt with as part of the normal course of marketing decision-making. Limitations and implications for research and education Our proposal is a departure from previous approaches to marketing ethics. Hence, it should not be surprising if there are s
29、everal limitations that still need to be addressed. First, the idea that marketing strategy sometimes involves attempts to reduce competition is not completely resolved here. Occasions could arise where opportunism is profitable, such as when firms are successful in creating legal anti-competitive b
30、arriers to entry through technology or channel arrangements. Tragedy of the commons issues (Shultz and Holbrook 1999) arent entirely addressed either. Measurement of the ethical tensions is not attempted； an important next step is operationalizing them. Also, despite major strides in measuring non-f
31、inancial assets, the methodologies discussed above are not universally employed or calculated in the same way. Several areas for further research are suggested by this paper. & A theoretical argument is advanced to support the proposition that the S-D logic reduces the number of ethical tensions in marketing； this proposition can be empirically tested, e.g. by measuring whether the level of marketing managers agreement with the tenets of the S-D logic correlate with fewer
