Retail buying behavior under varying ethical contexts in the Chinese market

The purpose of this study is to identify the factors that influence retail buying behavior within ethical contexts in China. Derived from Hunt and Vitell\u27s (1986-1993) general theory of marketing ethics, the major research questions in this study include to what extent do Chinese retail buyers rely on deontological evaluations and teleological evaluations in forming their ethical judgments; what are the components which constitute teleological evaluations; after ethical judgments have been formed, to what extent do Chinese retail buyers rely on ethical judgments and various teleological components in making their supplier choice decisions; and what are the factors that moderate the above relationships. An experimental design was employed in this study, and the data were collected using the format of a person-to-person interview with a randomly selected sample of the retail buyers in Beijing, China. The marketing literature has mainly focused on North American contexts, and most research does not integrate marketing ethics with organizational buying behavior. Given the unique economic, social, cultural, and political characteristics of the Chinese market, some findings in the literature may not be applicable to China. The results of this study suggest that teleological evaluations are the major factors in determining Chinese retail buyers\u27 ethical judgments. Among the teleological evaluations, organizational consequences have the greatest impact on Chinese retail buyers\u27 ethical decision-making, followed by personal consequences and friend\u27s consequences. Moreover, both organizational consequences and personal consequences are found to be multidimensional. Organizational commitment is found to be the strongest moderating effect in the model. The results also suggest that interpersonal relationships are very important in Chinese retail buyers\u27 ethical decision-making. This study adds knowledge to the literature on the issues of marketing ethics and retail buying behavior in the Chinese market. It also provides insights for domestic and foreign suppliers in understanding retail buying behavior in China, and help them to evaluate their marketing strategies