ABSTRACT
This study examined the determinants of unethical marketing behaviour and sales force orientation in food industries in Nigeria. The specific objectives were to: identify unethical issues in food industries in Nigeria; examine the effect of unethical marketing behavior on sales value; examine consumer/sales force awareness of unethical behaviours in food industries; ascertain factors influencing unethical marketing behavior in the study area. The data used in this study were primary data collected through the distribution of questionnaires. The Taro Yahmane method of sample size determination was used to select 100 sales force in the industry. The Statistical Packages for Social Sciences (SPSS 22.0) was deployed in running the analysis. Data obtained were analyzed using descriptive statistics. The results showed that the sales force are still very young, active and productive and literate with mean value of 12.7200. The result further showed that most of the sales force have work experience of not less than four years in the job with mean value of 4.6300 and has sales volume of 17852 per month. The result showed that majority of the respondents were aware of unethical behavior and its implications. The result showed that product, price, promotion and place/ distribution related issues have great impact on unethical behaviour. The result also showed that clarification, formal ethical codes/behaviours, ethical training, whistleblower policy, management support for ethical behaviours, maintenance of strong ethical behaviour were the means of creating awareness on the unethical behaviour in the organization thereby enhancing the establishment of good orientation of the sale force. The result showed that there was a negative correlation between unethical marketing behavior and sales volume. The result further showed that family background and personal experience from the individual variables, written rules, conduct of code, organizational objectives and targeting, positioning and segmentation, harsh business environment, economic situation/cycle corruption and regulatory system, were the factors influencing unethical marketing behavior in the study area. Based on the findings of the study, the researcher recommended that the government should set up programmes to enlighten the sales force on unethical marketing and the constraints they faced and also the government should set up policies on how to educate sales force agents on the use of new unethical marketing strategies.
TABLE OF CONTENT
Title
Page i
Declaration
page ii
Certification
Page iii
Dedication
iv
Acknowledgments v
Table of
Content vi
List of
Tables viii
Abstract ix
CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background to the Study 1
1.2 Statement of the Problem 4
1.3 Objectives
of the Study 5
1.4 RESEARCH QUESTIONS 5
1.5 Research Hypothesis 6
1.6 Significant of the Study 6
1.7 Scope
of the study 6
1.8 Limitations of the Study 7
1.9 Definition of Operational Terms 7
CHAPTER
TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK 9
2.1.1 Concept
of Marketing and Marketing Ethics 9
2.1.2 Unethical
Marketing Strategies 11
2.1.3 Marketing practices and ethical issues 12
2.1.4 Firm behaviour and purchase intention 14
2.1.5 Factors Affecting Marketing Ethics 15
2.2 CONCEPT OF UNETHICAL BEHAVIOUR 17
2.2.1 Ways to improve ethical standards in
workplace 19
2.3 CONCEPT OF FOOD INDUSTRY 22
2.4 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK 23
2.4.1 Theories of marketing ethics 23
2.4.2 Consequentialist theory 23
2.4.3 Deontological theory 24
CHAPTER
THREE: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
3.1 Research
Design 26
3.2
Area of the Study 26
3.3 Population of the Study 27
3.4 Sample
Size 28
3.5 Source
of Data 29
3.6 Method of Data Analysis 29
CHAPTER
FOUR: DATA ANALYSIS, RESULTS AND INTERPRETATION
4.1 Socio-Economic
Characteristic of Respondents 30
4.2 Awareness of Unethical Marketing Behavior
30
4.3 Likert
Scale Analysis of Unethical Issues. 32
4.4 Consumer/Sales Force Awareness of
Unethical Behaviours in Food Industries 33
Industries 34
4.5 Factors Influencing Unethical
Marketing Behavior in the Study Area 36
4.6 Relationship between unethical marketing
behavior/ Salesforce orientation
and
sales volume 38
CHAPTER
FIVE: SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION
5.1 Summary 39
5.2 Conclusion 40
5.3 Recommendations 41
REFERENCES 42
APPENDIX 45
LIST OF TABLES
Table 4.1 Socio-Economic
Characteristic of Respondents 30
Table 4.2 Awareness of Unethical Marketing
Behavior 31
Table 4.3 Likert
Scale Analysis of Unethical Issues. 33
Table
4.4 Consumer/Sales Force Awareness
of Unethical Behaviours in Food 35
Table 4.5 Factors Influencing Unethical
Marketing Behavior in the Study Area 36
Table 4.6 Relationship
between Unethical Marketing Behavior/Salesforce
Orientation
and Sales Volume. 38
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background to the Study
Culture is one of the important aspect of an
organization, it determines its scope and ethical behavior. However in recent,
unethical behavior has assumed a disturbing situation. In Nigeria, such
behavior is as old as the first formal established organization (Schiffman and Kanuk 1995).
The employee’s unethical practices is rooted in the activities of colonialists
whom Nigerian employees modelled after. In practice, ethical behavior is what is
acceptable as "good” and “right” as opposed to “bad” or “wrong” in the
context of the governing moral code of any given industry (Chaloupka, 1987). Business Ethics consist a set of moral
principles and values (Johns-Parker-Bos,
2005) that governs the behaviours of the organization with respect what is
right and wrong (Boadiou, 2001, Seglin,2003).it also contains the prohibitory
actions at the workplace (Collier-Esteban,2007, Duska, 1999).
Almost every aspect of
the organization has ethical and unethical behavior peculiar to them, these
mirrors the way they were seen outsiders. Such behaviours are subject of
organizational culture that permeate in the organizational. From the point or
perspective of psychology or organizational culture, Unethical behavior are
those behavior that neglect the organization’s code of conduct which in turn
brings harm to the organization. Marketing ethics implies those practices that
seeks to create value for customers and build strong customer relationship in
order to capture value from customer in return Kotler and Armstrong (2011). By
creating value, an organization can reap value from consumers in return
(Armstrong and Kotler 2011).
Unethical behavior are those practices and act
that result to evils and the violation of (basic human) right (Garrect, 1966). For
instance, reducing the essential ingredients of food is unethical because it
causes harm to human health. Also, the decision to market a product known to be
harmful would be unethical even if legal because such act violate the general
principle in respect to human right. Although there is a legal component to
ethical behavior, it does not simply mean that because an action is not illegal
that it is necessarily ethical. Ethical consideration goes beyond the legality
of act, it extends to personal values – the underlying beliefs and attitudes
that help determine individual behavior (Ogbuehi, 1998).
Opinion
differs among people on what constitutes ethical and unethical practices. This
is as a result of differences in perception, culture and environment
(Chaloupka,1987). This mean that interpretation of what constitutes ethical
behavior is subjective. Unethical marketing behaviour can occur as a result of
organization's external and internal stakeholders trying to achieve their
goals. The quest to achieve organizational goals (especially profitability) in
addition to coping with harsh business environment in Nigeria has covertly
propelled some Nigerian companies into adopting Unethical marketing practices.
Also measuring employee performance on the basis of end without considering how
ethical the means of achieving these results promote unethical behaviour
(Haron, Ishmail and Razak, 2011).
One department in the organization that is
mostly mentioned in the context of (un)ethical dilemmas is the marketing
department. This is mainly due to its scope of operation, Marketing department
is the eye of the organization before the public, and as such what it portray
reflects the general disposition of the people towards the organization. These
unethical practices in marketing occur at all levels of the marketing mix such
as in the designing of products, packaging, pricing, promotion schemes and the
distribution effort of numerous business enterprises (Schiffman and Kanuk
1995). This has several implications on how consumers and other organizations
perceive marketing, their products/services and institution.
Naturally, organizations and individual
interest conflicts between means and goals. This could have effect on ethical
consumptions at that material time. This behavior is
mostly seen in sales unit of the organization from the perspective of
marketing, the idea of selling is to convert product into money. This involve
aggressive selling technique (Kotler & Armstrong, 2013), which most time
leads to sharp practices. Sales ethics research is continuously expanding both
in terms of volume and importance (Ferrell et
al., 2007). At this level of accomplishment, the field needs assessment of
existing research in order to create understanding of the past and to give
directions for future research. Past reviews of McClaren (2013) can enhance our
understanding about the role of individual and organizational factors on
ethical decision making of sales force. However, selling demands interaction
with several internal and external stakeholders (Laczniak & Murphy, 1993).
They do not operate alone but are vulnerable to various influences from the
firm’s internal and external stakeholders in the sales environment (Murphy et al., 2005). Therefore, exploring
unethical practices of all key stakeholders involved in the sales environment
could provide valuable theoretical and practical insights.
Government
response in addressing the challenges of unethical behavior introduced some
which includes clarification of ethical behaviour, ethics
training, whistleblower protection; management support for ethical behaviour;
and maintenance of strong ethical cultures which has helped in curbing the
numerous issues associated with unethical behaviour and sales orientation.
1.2 Statement of the
Problem
Many
businesses have gain a bad reputation just by being in business (Carr,1999). To
some people businesses are interested in making money and that is their
priority (Solomon, 1993). Making money itself
is not wrong but the manner in which some businesses conduct themselves
is what brings up the question of ethical behaviour (Maitland,1994).for
instance some food producing firms produce food of low nutritional value by
reducing the essential ingredients of the food and still term it high quality food. While some claim that
their products (food) offer greater satisfaction (superior) than competitor’s
hence, raising the price of their products.
The
successful market oriented company discovers and meet the desires and needs of
its customers through its product mix. Thus by creating value a company capture
value in return from customers (Kotler and Armstrong 2011). It is commonly seen
in most organizations today that rather than creating value for the customers
which will in turn enhance in the promotion of their image, they employ sharp
practices (Unthical pratices). These practice go a long way in determining how
an organization will be perceived by the
society which create bad impression in the mind of their customers hence reduce
the level of their market share. According to Kotler And Armstrong (2013) this
has adverse effect on sales growth long term survival.
According to Cooper and Frank intense
competition in the industry force the employee to focus on bottom-line. As a
result most organizations set unrealistic target for their employee. Also
measuring employee’s performance on the basis of the end results without
considering how ethical the means of achieving these results were (Haron,
Ishmail and Razak 2011).This exposes them to lots of unethical practices with
severe consequences on organization's image.
Although some authors have examined
the issue of unethical behavior, not much work has been carried out on study
area recently. Also the differences in ethical components which makes it difficult
to determine exactly what should stand generally as ethical codes in every
organization, this cause the employees to practice unethical behaviour without
even knowing since what right in one organization may be wrong in another
organization. This provides gap which the current study seek to bridge.
1.3 Objectives of the Study
The main objective of
this work is to assess the determinants of unethical marketing behaviour and sales
orientation in Nigeria food industries. The specific objectives include to:
i.
identify unethical issues in food industries in Nigeria.
ii.
examine the effect of unethical marketing behavior on sales value.
iii.
examine consumer/sales force awareness of unethical behaviours in food
industries.
iv.
ascertain factors influencing unethical marketing behavior in the
study area.
1.4 Research Questions
This Research work is
guided by the following questions:
i.
What are the unethical issues in food industries in Nigeria?
ii.
What are the effects of unethical marketing behavior on sales volume?
iii.
What are the consumer/sales force awareness of unethical behaviours in
food industries?
iv.
What are factors influencing unethical marketing behavior in the study
area?
1.5 Research Hypotheses
The following null
Hypothesis will form the thrust of this research work:
H01: There
is no unethical issues in food industries in Nigeria.
H02:
Unethical marketing behavior has no effects on sales volume.
H03: There
is no consumer/sales force awareness of unethical behaviours in food
industries.
H04: There
are no factors influencing unethical marketing behavior in the study area
1.6 Significant of the
Study
This work will be
beneficial to key players in the food industries in Nigeria and students of
marketing who might find this research work useful. It is expected that this
study will also contribute to the body of knowledge as the work is expected to
contribute greatly to literature that will assist in enhancing the promotion of
ethical behaviour through sales orientation in the industry. This work will
also be of great benefit to the academia through the provision of data and
information for further studies in near future towards the sustainability of
food industries in Nigeria.
1.7 Scope of the study
This study is mainly concerned with the determinants of unethical marketing behaviour
and sales orientation in Nigeria food industry (a study of Golden Penny
Company).
1.8 Limitations of the Study
The researcher encountered the following
limitations in the process of carrying out this research work:
i.
The
researcher faced administrative challenge trying to convinced the Managers to
allow her distribute questionnaire to the sales force of their companies.
ii.
Geographical
location: The researcher faced challenges
traveling to and fro in a bit to locate the companies used for the study.
iii.
Analytical
tool used: The researcher encountered challenge in
the analysis stage due to lack of experience in the analytical tool used.
iv.
Time Constraints: The
limited time involved for carrying out the research and meeting up with the
approved academic calendar for the completion of the programme was not enough
v.
Financial Constraints: Due
to limited resources at the disposal of the researcher, we encountered
financial constraints which militate against possible access to all the
required information for the study.
1.9 Definition of
Operational Terms
Behaviour: is the range of actions and mannerisms made by individuals, organisms, systems,
or artificial entities in conjunction with themselves or their environment,
which includes the other systems or organisms around as well as the (inanimate)
physical environment.
Unethical
behavior: Is an action that falls outside of what is
considered morally right or proper for a person, a profession or an industry.
Individuals can behave unethically, as can businesses, professionals and
politicians.
Marketing: is defined as the activity, set of institutions, and
processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings
that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large.
It includes the coordination of four elements called the 4 P's of marketing:
identification, selection and development of a product, determination of its
price, selection of a distribution channel to reach the customer's place, and
development and implementation of a promotional strategy.
Salesforce Orientation: This is the belief or information or training the sales
representatives of a company has about selling.
Food Industry: The food industry is a complex,
global collective of diverse businesses that supplies most of the food consumed by the world
population.
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