Research methods essay SA2

Introduction to ethics in marketing research

Ethics play an important role anywhere in business, it helps to establish trust
between parties and dealings. Ethics are set of rules, principles and norms of
conduct that distinguish between acceptable and unacceptable behaviour (Resnik,
2020). Ethics in research are moral principles that provide guidance when
conducting and analysing research to ensure authenticity and to make sure that
research is done without deception. Marketing research ethics is important as lack of
ethical behaviour can cause those involved in the research process. There are
several reasons why ethical research is important
This essay will discuss the importance of ethical principles in marketing research and
how these principles regulate, supervise and guide the behaviours of market
researchers.

Importance of ethics in market research

Why is market research so important?
It encourages and promotes the aims of the conducted research, such as
avoidance of error, knowledge and truth. Examples: promoting the truth & knowledge
and avoiding errors as well as prohibiting against misrepresenting, fabricating and
falsifying data collected from research
Ethical principles promote the values that are crucial to collaborative work, as
research involves substantial amounts of cooperation and coordination amidst
different people in different institutions and various disciplines. these standards are
mutual respect and trust between people, accountability and fairness. Example:
there are many ethical norms in research that are designed to protect intellectual
property interests such as copyright and patenting policies, guidelines for authorship,
data sharing policies as well as confidentiality rules in peer review.
Ethical principles make sure that researchers can be held accountable to the
public as researchers don’t want their work and ideas stolen, they do not want to
have their hard work disclosed prematurely. Researchers appreciate and want to
receive credit for their ideas and contributions. Example: ethical considerations that
protect the rights and welfare of human beings who participate in research as the
subjects of that research such as the Human subjects protections, Federal policies
on research misconduct, which is a policy that governs all federal funding agencies,
and many more like Conflicts of interest and animal care & use. These policies are
important, and they ensure that researchers who are funded by the public can be
held accountable to the public.
Ethical principles in research help build public support for research example,
people are more likely to support and fund a research project if they trust the quality
and integrity of research.
Ethical norms and principles in research promote and encourage moral and social
values such as human rights, compliance with the law, social responsibility, health
and wealth safety, and animal welfare. Ethical negligence in research can harm
humans, as well as animal subjects. Example, a researcher who fails to bear the
regulations and guidelines relating to biological and radiation safety may endanger
the health and safety of himself, his staff and students or participants. Or if a
researcher forges and fabricates data in a clinical history may cause harm to his
patients, he may even kill them.

How does research marketing ethics regulate and guide the behaviour of
marketing researchers
There are specific codes, rules, and policies relating to research ethics that have
been adopted and practiced by many different professional associations,
government agencies, and universities. These policies are important as they regulate
the behaviours of marketing researchers. The following are general aspects that
ethical policies should address as well as ethical standard practice by researchers.
Researchers should not distribute unpredictable conclusions – dissemination of
faulty conclusions, example, a researcher must not alter conclusion to favour an
outcome. As well misrepresenting any form of results/ research. researchers must
report findings honestly, ethically and correctly. And if errors occur during the
research, it should be disclosed. A researcher should adhere to the rights and
standards of a researcher. Researchers have obligations to the participants to keep
the research information confidential, as its not allowed to share this info with third
party. This is called protecting the right to privacy/ confidentiality. Researchers
must make sure that research is correct and not influenced by personal feelings or
opinions when representing facts, this is called objectivity of research.
Researchers should conduct research that is not done with the intention of fulfilling
personal/ other needs, they should not be covering failures or justifying bad
decisions.

Conclusions
There are ethics of conducting research that should be followed by researchers and
organisations, it is important to adhere to ethical policies in all aspects of research,
these policies should be developed by the organisations that will be used by the
researchers to guide them in terms of ethics in marketing research as well as ethical
behaviours. Ethical marketing research helps a business to avoid negative behavioural
responses from its respondents. Correct results means that the business can use this

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