Developing a measure to capture marketing facultyʹs perceptions of unethical behavior

The study explores the factor structure of the Sirgy et al. [Sirgy MJ, Johar JS, Gao T. Toward a code of ethics for marketing educators. Journal of Business Ethics 2006; 63(1): 1–20] measure of marketing facultyʹs perceptions of unethical behavior and tests its predictive validity. We surveyed members of the Academy of Marketing Science regarding their perceptions of acceptability of 142 behaviors that marketing faculty may encounter in their roles as teacher, researcher, administrator, consultant, professional colleague, and college professor. We used exploratory factor analyses to reveal the factor structures of the items grouped by four faculty roles: teaching, research, administrative service, and professional service. We then tested the measureʹs predictive validity by testing for demographic differences (gender, age, rank, tenure, and level of education) with respect to the 23 types of unethical faculty behaviors. The final measure can be used by marketing-related associations to gauge the norms of faculty conduct, which in turn can help them develop their own academic code of ethics.