How Do Unethical Salespeople Sleep at Night? The Role of Neutralizations in the Justification of Unethical Sales Intentions

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to propose and test a model illustrating the direct effects of five techniques of neutralizations (denial of responsibility, denial of injury, denial of victim, appeal to higher loyalties, and condemning the condemner) on the ethical intentions of salespeople. A sample consisting of 157 salespeople responded to an ethical case scenario survey to reveal that two neutralizations were predominant in influencing ethical intentions: denial of injury and appeal to higher loyalties. These relationships were tested in three sales behavioral settings: sales promoting, customer relationship building and maintenance, and sales organization. A post hoc test of moderation effects were included to shed additional light onhow some of the neutralizations interact with ethical judgment to impact salesperson ethical intentions. Implicationsfor research and practice are discussed as well as directions for further research.

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