Making Student Research More Ethical: a Preliminary Examination

Marketing academics are attempting to provide their students with more "real world" learning experiences. One method used to provide this real world experience is the assignment of a student project. These projects usually are designed such that students apply the theory to a real or hypothetical marketing problem. In some universities students are actually "hired" out to firms to assist them with a given marketing problem. While student projects are extremely useful learning and teaching tools there are some new problems which may arise. One particularly important issue that is usually not comprehensively addressed is the appropriate ethical behaviour associated with interacting with consumers and firms in student projects