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19.4.2011

ETHICS IN MARKETING RESEARCH(CH 7)

What are research ethics? Norms of behavior that guide moral choices
about research behavior

-violating NDC, breaking confidentiality ,misrepresenting results,

deceiveing participants or sponsors , invoicing for time, personnel,
expenses not used on project, avoiding legal liability are some of the
violations

Legal constraints are the minimum standard for ethical behavior in

research

Ethical treatment of participants : Follow three guide lines

 Explain study benefits-the need for concealing objectives(to avoid

bias) leads to problem of deception.

1. Compile list for fund raising

2. Espionage

3. Collect personal information for illegal purposes

4. Camouflaging the sponsor-to prevent bias, confidentiality of

sponsor

 Explain participant rights and protections

 Obtain informed consent-

1. Participant competent to give consent

2. Voluntary
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3. Adequately informed

4. Should know possible risks or outcomes

Debriefing participants following collection of data:

 Explain any deception

 Description of hypothesis

 Poststudy sharing of results

 Poststudy followup

Deception is an ethically thorny issue and to be addressed with concern

for research

Right to privacy : RTI

The privacy guarantee is important not only to retain validity of the

research but also to protect participants

Some unethical marketers still think research is legitimate avenue to

build a list of sales leads (sugging-sales under the guise of research)

Confidentiality-a privacy guarantee to retain validity of the research

and protect participants. Confidentiality is protected by :

 NDC

 Restrict access to participant identification

 Revealing participant information with written consent

 Restricting access to data instruments where the participant is

identified
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 NDC of data subsets

Right to privacy-the participants right to refuse to be interviewed or

answer specific questions in an interview

 Inform right to refuse

 Obtain prior permission

 Preschedule interviews

 Restrict observation to public behavior in public places

 Limit the time required for participation

Data collection in cyber space : data mine the information collected

-smart cards, biometrics, electronic monitoring, global

surveillance,genetic identification are osme of the tools

Data mining ethics :

Smart cards imbed personal information on a computer chip which is

then matched to purchase, employment or other data

Sponsor NDC when the sponsor of the research restricts revealing of

its sponsorship

Purpose NDC-protecting the purpose of the study-camouflages the true

research purpose of the project

Findings NDC-sponsor restricts the researcher from discussiong the

findings of the research project

Right to quality research : the sponsors right to an appropriate, value

laden research design and data handling and reporting techniques
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 Appropriate research design

 Maximize value

 Provide data handling and reporting techniques appropriate for

the data collected

It is the researchers responsibility to prevent statistically distorted

information. The ethical researcher always follows the analytical rules
and conditions for generating valid results. Reports findings in ways
that minimize the drawing of false conclusions. The data is presented
objectively.

Design based ethical issues :

 Violating participant confidentiality

 Tweaking to meet desired objective

 Changing interpretations

 Interpreting data from biased perspective

 Omitting data

 Recommend beyond scope

What is the ethical course :

 Educate the sponsor

 Explain the researchers role

 Explain impact of distorting information on future problems

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 Failing above terminate relationship

Researchers and team members :

Safety : right of participants to be protected from any threat of physical

or psychological harm

Protection of anonymity :

Each researcher handling data should be required to sign a

confidentiality and NDC

END OF PART I