Author

  • Yi-Hui Ho

    • Chang Jung Christian University, Taiwan
    • Taiwan, Province of China

Abstract

Purchasing professionals play a critical role in supporting the purchasing function. In addition to develop and maintain relationships with suppliers, they often serve as the communicator and negotiator to the external business community. It is essential to understand ethical decision-making of purchasing professionals for those who want to build reciprocal buyer-supplier relationships. This article aims to understand the trends and research opportunities of ethical decision-making of purchasing professionals based on a review of related literature. Some suggestions for future research are discussed.

Keywords

References

  • Ajzen, I. (1985). From intentions to actions: A theory of planned behavior. In J. Kuhl, & J. Beckmann (Eds.), Action control: From cognition to behavior (pp. 11-39). New York: Springer.
  • Badenhorst, J. A. (1994). Unethical behavior in procurement: A perspective on causes and solutions. Journal of Business Ethics, 13 (9), 739-745.
  • Bell, G. G., Oppenheimer, R. J. & Bastien, A. (2002). Trust deterioration in an international buyer-supplier relationship. Journal of Business Ethics, 36 (1/2), 65-78.
  • Browning, J. & Zabriskie, N. B. (1983). How ethical are industrial buyers? Industrial Marketing Management, 12 (4), 219-224.
  • Buchan, H. F. (2005). Ethical decision making in the public accounting profession: An extension of Ajzen’s theory of planned behavior. Journal of Business Ethics, 61 (2), 165-181.
  • Butterfield, K. D., Trevino, L. K. & Weaver, G. R. (2000). Moral awareness in business organizations: Influences of issue-related and social context factors. Human Relations, 53 (7), 981-1018.
  • Carter, C. R. (2000). Ethical issues in international buyer-supplier relationships: A dyadic examination. Journal of Operations Management, 8 (2), 191-208.
  • Carter, C. R. & Jennings, M. M. (2004). The role of purchasing in corporate social responsibility: A structural equation analysis. Journal of Business Logistics, 25 (1), 145-186.
  • Cooper, R. W., Frank, G. L. & Kemp, R. A. (1997). The ethical environment facing the profession of purchasing and materials management. International Journal of Purchasing and Materials Management, 33 (2), 2-11.
  • Duska, R. F. & Duska, B. S. (2003). Accounting ethics. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing.
  • Ford, J. B., LaTour, M. S. & Henthorne, T. L. (2000). Cognitive moral development and Japanese procurement executives: Implications for industrial marketers. Industrial Marketing Management , 29 (6), 589-600.
  • Ford, J. B., LaTour, M. S., Vitell, S. J. & French, W. A. (1997). Moral judgment and market negotiations: A comparison of Chinese and American managers. Journal of International Marketing, 5 (2), 57-76.
  • Forker, L. B. & Janson, R. L. (1990). Ethical practices in purchasing. Journal of Purchasing and Materials Management, 26 (1), 19-26.
  • Gonzalez-Padron, T., Hult, G. T. M. & Calantone, R. (2008). Exploiting innovative opportunities in global purchasing: An assessment of ethical climate and relationship performance. Industrial Marketing Management, 37 (1), 69-82.
  • Handfield, R. B. & Baumer, D. L. (2006). Managing conflict of interest issues in purchasing. Journal of Supply Chain Management, 42 (3), 41-50.
  • Hunt, S. D. & Vitell, S. (1986). A general theory of marketing ethics. Journal of Macro marketing, 6 (1), 5-16.
  • Jones, J., Massey, D. W. & Thorne, L. (2002). A review and synthesis of the empirical research on the ethical dimension of accountants' professional judgment. Paper presented at the meeting of American Accounting Association, Professionalism and Ethics Symposium, San Antonio, TX.
  • Jones, T. M. (1991). Ethical decision-making by individuals in organizations: An issue-contingent model. Academy of Management Review, 16 (2), 366-395.
  • Joyce, W. B. (2006). Accounting, purchasing and supply chain management. Supply Chain Management: An International Journal, 11 (3), 202-207.
  • Kohlberg, L. (1969). Stage and sequence: The cognitive developmental approach to socialization. In D. A. Goslin (Ed.), Handbook of socialization theory and research. (pp.347-480). Chicago: Rand-McNally.
  • Landeros, R. & Plank, R. E. (1996). How ethical are purchasing management professionals? Journal of Business Ethics, 15 (7), 789-803.
  • Lin, C. Y. (2009a). An empirical investigation of the moral judgment development of Taiwanese procurement executives. Social Behavior and Personality: An International Journal, 37 (1), 95-104.
  • Lin, C. Y. (2009b). Multicultural experiences and moral development: An empirical study of purchasing managers. Social Behavior and Personality: An International Journal, 37 (7), 889-894.
  • Lin, C. Y. & Ho, Y. H. (2009). Cultural influences on moral reasoning capacities of purchasing managers: A comparison across the Taiwan Strait. Social Behavior and Personality: An International Journal, 37 (2), 203-208.
  • Loe, T. W., Ferrell, L. & Mansfield, P. (2000). A review of empirical studies assessing ethical decision making in business. Journal of Business Ethics, 25 (3), 185–204.
  • Motwani, J., Kumar, A. & Mohamed, Z. (1998). Ethical behavior of Indian purchasing managers. Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, 34 (2), 161-168.
  • Petric, J. A. & Quinn, J. F. (2000). The integrity capacity construct and moral progress in business. Journal of Business Ethics, 23 (1), 3-18.
  • Plank, R. E., Landeros, R. & Plank, L. F. (1994). Values driving decisions in questionable purchasing situations. International Journal of Purchasing and Materials Management, 30 (4), 44-53.
  • Razzaque, M. A. & Hwee, T. P. (2002). Ethics and purchasing dilemma: A Singaporean view. Journal of Business Ethics, 35 (4), 307-326.
  • Rest, J. R. (1986). Moral development: Advances in research and theory. New York, NY: Praeger Publishers.
  • Robertson, D. C. & Rymon, T. (2001). Purchasing agents’ deceptive behavior: a randomized response technique study. Business Ethics Quarterly, 11 (3), 455-479.
  • Salam, A. M. (2009). Corporate social responsibility in purchasing and supply chain. Journal of Business Ethics, 8 5(2), 353-370.
  • Svensson, G. & Wood, G. (2008). A model of business ethics. Journal of Business Ethics, 77 (3), 303-322.
  • Spekman, R. E. & Carraway, R. (2006). Making the transition to collaborative buyer-seller relationships: An emerging framework. Industrial Marketing Management, 35 (1), 10-19.
  • Tadepalli, R., Moreno, A. & Trevino, S. (1999). Do American and Mexican purchasing managers perceive ethical situations differently? An empirical investigation. Industrial Marketing Management, 28 (4), 369-380.
  • Trawick, I. F., Swan, J. E. & Rink, D. (1989). Industrial buyer evaluation of the ethics of salesperson gift giving; value of the gift and customer vs. prospect status. Journal of Personal Selling and Sales Management, 9 (1), 31-37.
  • Trevino, L. K. (1986). Ethical decision-making in organizations: A person-situation interactionist model. Academy of Management Review, 11 (3), 601-617.
  • Trevino, L. K., Weaver, G. R. & Reynolds, S. J. (2006). Behavioral ethics in organizations: A review. Journal of Management, 32 (6), 951-990.
  • Turner, G. B., Taylor, G. S. & Hartley, M. F. (1994). Ethics policies and gratuity acceptance by purchasers. International Journal of Purchasing and Materials Management, 30 (3), 42-47.
  • Turner, G. B., Taylor, G. S. & Hartley, M. F. (1995). Ethics, gratuities, and professionalization of the purchasing function. Journal of Business Ethics, 14 (9), 751-760.
  • Ward, S. P., Ward, D. R. & Deck, A. B. (1993). Certified public accountants: Ethical perception skills and attitudes on ethics education. Journal of Business Ethics, 12 (8), 601-610.
  • Wood, G. (1995). Ethics in purchasing: The practitioner's experience. Business Ethics: A European Review, 4 (1), 95-101.

Downloads

No downloads have been recorded for this article yet. Figures appear here once readers begin downloading the full text.

How to Cite

Ho, Y.-H. (2012). A Review of Research on Ethical Decision-Making of Purchasing Professionals. Information Management and Business Review, 4(2), 72-78. https://doi.org/10.22610/imbr.v4i2.966

Share this article

License

Copyright (c) 2012 Yi-Hui Ho (Author)

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Author (s) should affirm that the material has not been published previously. It has not been submitted and it is not under consideration by any other journal. At the same time author (s) need to execute a publication permission agreement to assume the responsibility of the submitted content and any omissions and errors therein. After submission of revised paper in the light of suggestions of the reviewers, the editorial team  edits and formats manuscripts to bring uniformity and standardization in published material.

This work will be licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) and under condition of the license, users are free to read, copy, remix, transform, redistribute, download, print, search or link to the full texts of articles and even build upon their work as long as they credit the author for the original work. Moreover, as per journal policy author (s) hold and retain copyrights without any restrictions.

Keywords

Section

Research Paper

Published in

Vol. 4 No. 2 (2012) Team Design, Outsourcing & Risk Management View issue contents

Published

2012-02-15

Submissions

Have research to publish? Information Management and Business Review welcomes submissions.

Make a Submission