Brand image is important in business as it determines the attitude of customers. Corporate entities require a constant influx of consumers to successfully develop. There are several factors motivating customers to choose a particular brand, which include the quality of products, the ethical principles that businesses follow, and corporate social responsibility. The relation between the products’ quality and customers’ attitude has been established to have a positive correlation. When it comes to the other two factors, there is limited research concerning them. Business ethics manifests itself in the companies’ methods, which can incorporate charity, treatment of the environment, stance on corporate corruption, bribery, and other issues that can harm society. Corporations can develop their social responsibility by such actions as customer privacy, feedback, and bonuses. Both are prevalent in defining consumer preferences. Yet there is no scientifically established viewpoint on what should take priority. The lack of available research into the relationship between customer conduct and companies’ ethics and corporate social responsibility, compelled a study of which of the two factors have a stronger impact on brand attitude.
The study is described in the article that is titled “Business ethics, corporate social responsibility, and brand attitudes: An exploratory study”. It was written by four American scholars: O.C. Ferrell, Dana E. Harrison, Linda Ferrell, and Joe F. Hair. The article was published in the Journal of Business Research in February 2019. It is a monthly academic journal, which gathers research of business in all its areas. The article can be accessed on pages 491-501 of the 95th volume. The journal does not use issue numbers, relying on theme sections to structure publications.
Preliminary Analysis
Due to the high degree of novelty in the study, the study is multi-layered, with different permutations of the phenomenon under investigation. The Ferrell et al. (2019) state that the aim of their research is “to determine the relative importance of business ethics and CSR in determining brand attitudes” (p. 492). The research objectives include identifying the relation between company behaviors, business ethics, corporate social responsibility, and brand attitudes. The research is exploratory in nature since it examines the subject matter from the perspective that had not been considered in the past. Regarding the theoretical framework, Ferrell et al. (2019) point out that “an artifact approach is used to identify and differentiate business ethics and social responsibility” (p. 493). The study refers to the artifacts as the possible results of decision making that are analyzed in four scenarios. The research concludes that business ethics is essential in preserving brand attitude. As a result, customers pay more attention to the performance, rather than activities done to ensure positive corporate image. Therefore, corporate social responsibility should not be prioritized to the detriment of brand quality.
Methods & Empirics
The study used a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods. To implement the qualitative aspect, “four scenarios were developed with each scenario consisting of both business ethics and CSR components” (Ferrell et al., 2019, p. 493). The authors used the material gathered from the interviews that had been conducted before the study as a basis for the four hypothesized variants of correlation between companies’ conduct and consumer’s attitude to brands. The examples of brands included an online retailer, an automobile company, an oil company and an international bank. All four entities “were based on real world organizations that had both positive and negative outcomes from their business conduct and CSR activities”, however, the authors used fictional titles in order to protect the identity of the actual organizations. (Ferrell et al., 2019, p. 493). As 400 respondents participated in the interviews, their answers were calculated and systematized, thus utilizing the quantitative research method. Subsequently, the scenarios were adapted into 6 hypotheses that were tested via data analysis software. Altogether, the authors used both numerical data and qualitative data in establishing the cause and effect link between corporate social responsibility, brand attitude, and business ethics.
The authors used self-administered questionnaires as the prime mode of data collection. A preliminary study was conducted to exclude the possibility of mistakes in the survey. “Following minor revisions to the instrument, the final questionnaire was administered through the use of a Qualtrics panel” (Ferrell et al., 2019, p. 494). The process itself took form of an online survey that required the participants to answer the set number of questions. The Qualtrics panel was used as the measuring instrument for the collected data. Such a tool has the benefit of preserving the confidentiality of respondents, however, the researchers were not able to clarify the possible misunderstandings of questions, thus leaving the possibility of corrupted data. The target population encompassed 400 consumers older than 18 years old living in the United States. Although the authors did not specifically identify the sampling technique, they used convenience sampling since the survey was restricted to the consumers that were available on the Internet. Overall, the majority of respondents belong to the middle-class and higher, while people with lower income are in the minority, which does not provide the objective assessment of the population.
In order to ensure reliability and validity of the study, the researchers relied on computer software and recommendations for its proper application in surveys, while trying to minimize common-method bias. “The SmartPLS 3 software was used for analysis. PLS-SEM is widely accepted across disciplines as a robust technique” (Ferrell et al., 2019, p. 495). This program is best suited for research projects that lack the theoretical background, as is the case with this study. SmartPLS 3 examined each scenario separately and computed “convergent validity”, which is a parameter that indicates the degree of relation between measures (Ferrell et al., 2019, p. 495). In the case of this study, scenarios serve as measures to be analyzed. The tools used for analyzing responses can create variations that are caused by the software itself, rather than respondents’ predispositions. For reducing such distortion that can be caused by common methods variance, the study utilized Harmon’s single factor method. However, the authors did not present the results of Harmon’s test, therefore raising the possibility of distortion in the final data. In summary, Jawa platform software analyzed data, with additional steps taken to ensure the lack of computer-generated error.
Critical Review
Altogether, the article is a high-quality piece that explores the issue of corporate ethics and social responsibility in depth. Ferrell et al. (2019) note that previous research had not addressed the difference between CSR and business ethics. “Researchers have not differentiated attitudes toward business ethics and CSR, especially in the development of scales to measure these two constructs” (Ferrell et al., 2019, p. 491). The authors reference sources that delve into the correlation between brand image and CSR, however, they are insufficient in comparison. Firstly, the previous articles focus on one particular effect rather than analyze their entire complexity. Secondly, the researchers fused the terms “business ethics” and “corporate social responsibility” in earlier works, thus blurring the understanding of these concepts. In contrast, Ferrell et al. (2019) took the multifaceted approach and established a clear distinction between the aforementioned terms. In my opinion, due to the novelty and comprehensive nature of the study, this article enhances the subject matter better than its predecessors.
The overall style of the article adheres to the academic standards. The authors divided the paper into six main sections with an appendix and a reference list. The first part is introduction, which provides an overview of the incomplete scientific understanding of business ethics and corporate social responsibility. The second section includes the review of literature, which underscores the deficit of previous sources concerning the article’s issue. The next part is dedicated to hypothesis development, where the authors propose four scenarios, explaining the variations of relationship between consumer expectations and brand attitude. The forth section analyzes the data collected in the previous part and tests the scenarios. The final section contains results of analysis and the conclusion that “business ethics has more impact on brand attitude than CSR activities” (Ferrell et al., 2019, p. 499). The reference list is comprised of 72 entries, formatted in APA-style. In summary, the article provides new insight into business research, which is supported by a study incorporating qualitative and quantitative methods.
Reference
Ferrell, O. C., Harrison, D. E., Ferrell, L., & Hair, J. F. (2019). Business ethics, corporate social responsibility, and brand attitudes: An exploratory study.Journal of Business Research, 95, 491-501. Web.