There is a growing interest in understanding consumer ethical actions in relation to their dealings with firms. This paper examines whether there are differences between Northern and Southern European Union (EU) consumers'' perceptions of ethical consumer behaviour using Muncy and Vitell''s (1992) Consumer Ethics Scale (CES). The study samples 962 university students across four Northern EU countries (Germany, Denmark, Scotland, The Netherlands) and four Southern EU countries (Portugal, Spain, Italy, Greece). Some differences are identified between the two samples, which might (...) question the ability of organisations to consider the EU as one homogeneous market. (shrink)

The increased usage of questionable environmental marketing claims has become an issue of concern for academics, policy makers and consumers. Much of the research to date, has focused on the accuracy of environmental claims in advertisements, with the information on product packaging being largely ignored. This study uses a content analysis to examine the environmental information on packaging. More specifically it examines the packaging of the population of dishwashing liquid bottles available in grocery stores in a large city in Australia. (...) Evaluation criteria are developed to classify the various types of information and the degree to which the information is "misleading". Seven different informational categories and four accuracy categories are developed. These criteria are developed based on the existing environmental advertising literature and environmental marketing regulations in the U.S. and Australia. It was found that a majority of the packaging information can be classified as being not accurate. (shrink)

Student research projects involving human intervention are being utilised in more and more business subjects. It therefore is essential that students understand the various ethical issues and implications related to undertaking such projects. As such academics need to integrate an ethical evaluation of student projects. While there are many attempts to "teach" ethics, the literature does not address the issue of including ethics in student research projects. A process by which this can be applied is suggested, which is based on (...) a formal ethics approval process used at one Australian university. While the focus of this paper is student based research projects, the process described could be applied to staff research with minimal modifications, which are identified throughout the paper. (shrink)