Research Paper Instructions You will write a Research Paper on a topic relating to business ethics. Your paper must be 8–10 pages and double spaced, not including the title page, abstract, and references pages. You must include 8–10 scholarly references in addition to the course textbooks and the Bible. You must use your textbooks as sources; other acceptable sources are journal articles from peer-reviewed journals, theoretical texts, and the Bible. Citations must be in current APA format. As this is a Research Paper, it must be written in third person. You will choose a topic and write a rationale for that topic. Final approval must be received from your instructor. The Annotated Bibliography will not be part of the final Research Paper due in. The final Research Paper will have only the REGULAR references section AND in text citations WITH page numbers. Research topic: The influence of business ethics on purchase intention: Do consumers really careabout a firm’s behavior? Rationale: There has always been a lot of discussion about how firms should behave, and whetherthere should be repercussions for crossing certain lines in their professional conduct. This researchis aimed at discovering whether consumers really care about the actual behavior of firms, or justfor the products they give. References: Boulstridge, E., & Carrigan, M. (2000). Do consumers really care about corporate responsibility? Highlighting the attitude—behaviour gap. Journal of Communication Management, 4(4), 355-368. doi:10.1108/eb023532 This article investigates whether there is any truth in the assumption that clients are so interested in the behavior of the companies that they engage with that they adjust their purchasing behavior accordingly. It is a good pointer of the opinions held at an earlier age where there were questions cast on whether corporate reputation did any good towards a financial payoff for businesses. Through their reported findings from focus group research, Boulstridge and Carrigan will provide a back in the day analysis of the matter at hand, and this will be useful for making comparisons to much more current literature and opinions in my research. Brunk, K. H., & Bluemelhuber, C. (2010). The impact of un/ethical corporate conduct on consumers' ethical perceptions - a multidimensional framework. Advances in Consumer Research, 37, 368-373. Retrieved from http://www.acrwebsite.org/volumes/v37/acr_v37_15198.pdf Brunk and Bluemuelhuber look at how companies have grown, and how their influence is increasingly having a huge societal impact. As such, the two examine whether the abuse of these corporations’ positions, which has on occasion resulted in mass outrage, has had any effect on purchasing intention. This article helps my research in that it conceptualizes the various ways in which various business practices may actually lead to the formation of a negative consumer perception. It, therefore, provides insight into how understanding the format ...

1. Research Paper Instructions
You will write a Research Paper on a topic relating to business
ethics. Your paper must be 8–10 pages and double spaced, not
including the title page, abstract, and references pages. You
must include 8–10 scholarly references in addition to the course
textbooks and the Bible. You must use your textbooks as
sources; other acceptable sources are journal articles from peer-
reviewed journals, theoretical texts, and the Bible. Citations
must be in current APA format. As this is a Research Paper, it
must be written in third person.
You will choose a topic and write a rationale for that topic.
Final approval must be received from your instructor.
The Annotated Bibliography will not be part of the final
Research Paper due in. The final Research Paper will have only
the REGULAR references section AND in text citations WITH
page numbers.
Research topic: The influence of business ethics on purchase
intention: Do consumers really careabout a firm’s behavior?
Rationale: There has always been a lot of discussion about how
firms should behave, and whetherthere should be repercussions
for crossing certain lines in their professional conduct. This
researchis aimed at discovering whether consumers really care
about the actual behavior of firms, or justfor the products they
give.
References:
Boulstridge, E., & Carrigan, M. (2000). Do consumers really
care about corporate responsibility? Highlighting the attitude—
behaviour gap. Journal of Communication Management, 4(4),
355-368. doi:10.1108/eb023532

2. This article investigates whether there is any truth in the
assumption that clients are so interested in the behavior of the
companies that they engage with that they adjust their
purchasing behavior accordingly. It is a good pointer of the
opinions held at an earlier age where there were questions cast
on whether corporate reputation did any good towards a
financial payoff for businesses. Through their reported findings
from focus group research, Boulstridge and Carrigan will
provide a back in the day analysis of the matter at hand, and
this will be useful for making comparisons to much more
current literature and opinions in my research.
Brunk, K. H., & Bluemelhuber, C. (2010). The impact of
un/ethical corporate conduct on consumers' ethical perceptions -
a multidimensional framework. Advances in Consumer
Research, 37, 368-373. Retrieved from
http://www.acrwebsite.org/volumes/v37/acr_v37_15198.pdf
Brunk and Bluemuelhuber look at how companies have grown,
and how their influence is increasingly having a huge societal
impact. As such, the two examine whether the abuse of these
corporations’ positions, which has on occasion resulted in mass
outrage, has had any effect on purchasing intention. This article
helps my research in that it conceptualizes the various ways in
which various business practices may actually lead to the
formation of a negative consumer perception. It, therefore,
provides insight into how understanding the formation of
consumer perceived ethicality (CPE) may help companies
facilitate the consumerism they so much depend on.
Byrum, K. (2017). Boosting brand reputation and promoting
purchase intention through corporate social responsibility
communication: A test of source, formats and sentiment effects
in social media. Research Journal of the Institute for Public
Relations, 3(2). Retrieved from
http://www.instituteforpr.org/wp-content/uploads/Kristie-
Byrum-2.pdf
This article looks at the role that the public relations
professional plays today, and how effective the emerging

3. consumer communicator is. It is important for my research
because it presents survey evidence that points to what methods
have been found effective in promoting the reputation of
corporate brands and, consequently, in stimulating consumer
purchase intention. The article looks at some of the methods
used by corporations such as news release advertisements and
articles, as well as advertising, and proceeds to illustrate which
are more effective. This information is useful for showing
corporations what, if any, method to use to convey their social
responsibility and promote their brand, hopefully with the result
being increased sales.
Carrigan, M., & Attalla, A. (2001). The myth of the ethical
consumer - do ethics matter in purchase behaviour? Journal of
Consumer Marketing`, 18(7), 560 - 578. Retrieved from
http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/07363760110410263
Carrigan and Attalla consider the question of whether or not
customers care about firms exhibiting ethical behavior at a time
when social responsibility and marketing ethics are coming are
topics that are beleaguered with controversy. The effects of
good and bad ethical behaviors are investigated here, and the
conclusion drawn gives my research topic an interesting and
diverse perspective. The article finds that consumers do not
necessarily care much about how ethical or unethical businesses
are, and concludes that some action may need to be taken by
marketers so that consumers can be encouraged to buy more
from ethically sound firms.
Eshra, N., & Beshir, N. (2017). Impact of corporate social
responsibility on consumer buying behavior in Egypt. World
Review of Business Research, 7(1), 32-44. Retrieved from
http://www.wrbrpapers.com/static/documents/March/2017/3.%2
0Noha.pdf
Eshra and Beshir argue that organizations today must not only
take care of their employees and their families but also the
community and society at large. Their article seeks to consider
CSR from the consumers’ perspectives so that we may learn
what they perceive about this business activity, and whether it

4. influences them. I also chose this article for the reason that it
focuses on Egypt, a country that is not in the Western sphere.
The article should ideally confirm whether consumer behavior
in a foreign country is influenced by CSR or, in fact, whether
consumers are even aware of the CSR concept, and how this
awareness translates into their purchasing behavior.
Hosmer, L. T. (2011). The Ethics of Management: A
multidisciplinary approach (7th Ed.). New York, NY: McGraw
Hill/Irwin. ISBN: 9780073530543. Retrieved
from https://bookshelf.vitalsource.com/#/books/0077470206/
Hosmer in The Ethics of Management looks at the growing
significance of Ethics in management at a time when the global
economy is appears to be getting more complex and
competitive. As pressure piles on organizations to increase sales
and thus their financial return, the decisions that they make in
the process may harm their social performance which,
admittedly, is difficult to measure. The book insists that
organizations now have a greater need to learn how to
convincingly sell their proposed solutions to the ethical
problems that face them so that they do not lose out on the
benefits of a good corporate reputation.
Kaur, P. (2013). The effect of CSR on consumer’s buying
behavior. International Journal of Innovative Research &
Development, 2(11), 317-323. Retrieved from
http://www.ijird.com/index.php/ijird/article/viewFile/41215/328
13
This article points out that growing understanding on the part of
consumers about the role and responsibilities that organizations
ought to have in the society and towards the environment has
had some impact on their purchasing patterns. It, therefore,
aims to find out how CSR has impacted the trust of consumers,
and whether this trust has, on the other hand, been essential to
making purchasing decisions. Kaur’s findings indicate that there
does exist a relationship between trust and purchasing intent,
and gives recommendations useful for my research as useful
lessons that managers and businesses ought to learn from, and

5. which, if ignored, may result in consumer boycotts and
criticism.
Madar, A., Huang, H. H., & Tseng, T. H. (2013). Do ethical
purchase intentions really lead to ethical purchase behavior? A
case of animal-testing issues in shampoo. International Business
Research, 6(7), 102-110. Retrieved from
http://www.ccsenet.org/journal/index.php/ibr/article/download/2
8395/17001
The scholars in this article use surveys to investigate what
impact, if any, the buying intentions of consumers have on
purchasing behavior. It finds that for consumers to have ethical
buying intentions, they must first be aware of a brand’s general
corporate social responsibility undertakings. It is only in the
circumstances where the customers are in the know about such
activities can they be said to have had ethical purchasing
intentions when considering whether or not to buy from a
particular brand. As such, this article would be useful for
pointing out that awareness of corporate behavior must first be
present in the mind of the consumer if it is to factor in
considering whether or not to make a purchase.
Servaes, H., & Tamayo, A. (2013). The impact of corporate
social responsibility on firm value: The role of customer
awareness. Management Science, 59(5), 1045 - 1061. Retrieved
from http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.1120.1630
In this article, Servaes and Tamayo seek to find out whether
firm value and corporate social responsibility really do impact
consumer preferences for goods. It shows that for those with
high customer awareness, benefits are reaped when they engage
in CSR, but that firms with a low customer awareness there is
either negative or insignificant value realized for partaking in
such activities. More importantly, however, is the fact that the
article shows that CSR activities do not always add value to
organizations. This is particularly so for those that may have
had a poor reputation in the time before they engaged
themselves in these activities.
Viriyavidhayavongs, V., & Yothmontree, S. (2002). The impact

6. of ethical considerations in purchase behavior: A propaedeutic
to further research. ABAC Journal, 22(3), 1-15. Retrieved from
http://www.abacjournal.au.edu/2002/sep02/abacjournal_article0
1_sep02.pdf
This article investigates the attitudes consumers hold about the
ethics of corporate organizations in relation to their employees,
suppliers, and other stakeholders. It looks at the willingness of
customers to reward the ethical behavior exhibited by
businesses through their purchase decisions, as well as the
impact that their attitudes have on firm behavior. Its conclusion
that consumers do care about the behavior exhibited by firms
contributes in a fundamental manner to the research topic that I
have chosen to work on, as it is indicative of the fact that
ethical firms may indeed have a significant marketplace
advantage over the rest.