1. Ethics in Business Research
Chapter 2
Ethics in Business Research
This chapter explains the ethical issues faced by researchers.

2. Learning Objectives
Understand . . .
What issues are covered in research ethics.
The goal of “no harm” for all research activities and what constitutes no harm for participant, researcher, and research sponsor.

3. Learning Objectives
Understand . . .
Differing ethical dilemmas and responsibilities of researchers, sponsors, and research assistants.
Role of ethical codes of conduct in professional associations.

4. Pull Quote Angelique Carson, CIPP/US,
“Today, it would be remiss to say that the privacy profession is anything but flourishing. Companies are increasingly hiring privacy officers and even elevating them to C-suite positions; the European Commission has proposed a statute in its amended data protection framework that would require data protection officers at certain organizations, and, at the International Association of Privacy Professionals (IAPP) membership recently hit 10,000 worldwide.”
Angelique Carson, CIPP/US,
International Association of Privacy Professionals

5. Ethics are norms or standards of behavior that guide moral choices about our behavior and our relationships with others.
The goal of ethics in research is to ensure that no one is harmed or suffers adverse consequences from research activities.
Unethical activities are pervasive and include many types of activities.
Think: what is the difference between legal and ethical?

6. Ethical Issues and the Research Process

7. Types of Ethical Violations
Violating
disclosure
agreements
Misrepresenting
results
Breaking
confidentiality
Deceiving
participants
Ethics are norms or standards of behavior that guide moral choices about our behavior and our relationships with others. The goal of ethics in research is to ensure that no one is harmed or suffers adverse consequences from research activities.
Unethical activities are pervasive and include many types of activities. Some of these are listed in the slide.
For some researchers, ethical and legal norms are the same. The text authors feel that legal constraints are the minimum standard but not the ideal.
Padded
invoices
Avoiding
legal liability

8. Ethical Codes of Conduct
These organizations offering codes specifically for researchers. Some of the logos in the slide are linked to the respective organization’s website where you can view the codes of ethics.

9. Ethical Treatment of Participants
Do no harm
Explain study benefits
Explain participant rights and protections
Research must be designed so that a participant does not suffer physical harm, discomfort, pain, embarrassment, or loss of privacy. This slide lists the three guidelines researchers should follow to protect participants.
When discussing benefits, the researcher should be careful not to overstate or understate the benefits.
Informed consent means that the participant has given full consent to participation after receiving full disclosure of the procedures of the proposed study.
Obtain informed consent

10. Components of Informed Consent
Researcher Intro
Describe Survey Topic
Describe geographic sample
Reveal sponsor
Describe purpose
Good Faith Time Estimate
Anonymity & confidentiality
Research must be designed so that a participant does not suffer physical harm, discomfort, pain, embarrassment, or loss of privacy. This slide lists the three guidelines researchers should follow to protect participants.
When discussing benefits, the researcher should be careful not to overstate or understate the benefits.
Informed consent means that the participant has given full consent to participation after receiving full disclosure of the procedures of the proposed study.
Voluntary Participation
Item nonresponse acceptable
Permission to begin

11. Characteristics of Informed Consent
Competent to
Give Consent
Elements
Knowledge
of Risks
Voluntary
Consent
Since 1966, all projects with federal funding are required to be reviewed by an Institutional Review Board (IRB). An IRB evaluates the risks and benefits of proposed research. The review requirement may be more relaxed for projects that are unlikely to be risky – such as marketing research projects. Many institutions require that all research – whether funded or unfunded by the federal government – be reviewed by a local IRB.
The IRBs concentrate on two areas. First is the guarantee of obtaining complete, informed consent from participants. The second is the risk assessment and benefit analysis review.
Complete informed consent has four characteristics and these are named in the slide.
The participant must be competent to give consent.
Consent must be voluntary, and free from coercion.
Participants must be adequately informed to make a decision.
Participants should know the possible risks or outcomes associated with the research.
Adequately Informed

12. Ethical Responsibilities
Special guidelines apply to children!
Informed consent means parental approval.
Special consideration is necessary when researching the behavior and attitudes of children. Besides providing informed consent, parents are often interviewed during the selection process to ensure that the child is mature enough and has the verbal and physical capabilities necessary.

13. Deception Disguising non-research activities Camouflaging
true research
objectives
 Deception occurs when participants are told only part of the truth or when the truth is fully compromised.
Deception occurs when the participants are only told part of the truth or when the truth is fully compromised. Deception can take two forms. One form relates to disguising nonresearch activities as opinion or business research. For instance, research might be used to collect data that are used to sell merchandise. Personal information could be collected for illegal purposes.
Sometimes researchers use deception as part of a research design. It involves camouflaging the true research objects or the identity of the sponsor. This form of deception is used to prevent biasing respondents or to protect the confidentiality of a third party.
Some researchers believe that deception should never occur. It is generally accepted in the industry that the benefits to be gained by appropriate research design-based deception should be balanced against the risks to the participants.

14. Protect confidentiality
Reasons for Deception
Prevent biasing
participants
Protect confidentiality
of the sponsor
 Deception occurs when participants are told only part of the truth or when the truth is fully compromised.
Deception occurs when the participants are only told part of the truth or when the truth is fully compromised. Deception can take two forms. One form relates to disguising nonresearch activities as opinion or business research. For instance, research might be used to collect data that are used to sell merchandise. Personal information could be collected for illegal purposes.
Sometimes researchers use deception as part of a research design. It involves camouflaging the true research objects or the identity of the sponsor. This form of deception is used to prevent biasing respondents or to protect the confidentiality of a third party.
Some researchers believe that deception should never occur. It is generally accepted in the industry that the benefits to be gained by appropriate research design-based deception should be balanced against the risks to the participants.

15. Describe hypothesis, goal or purpose
Debriefing
Explain any deception
Describe hypothesis, goal or purpose
Share results
In situations where participants are intentionally or accidentally deceived, they should be debriefed once the research is complete. Debriefing describes the goals of the research, as well as the truth and reasons for any deception. Results are shared after the study is complete. Participants who require any medical or psychological follow-up attention will receive it during the debriefing process.
Provide follow-up

16. Protect Participant Confidentiality
Obtain signed
nondisclosure
Non-
disclosure of data subsets
Restrict access to ID
All individuals have a right to privacy, and researchers must respect that right.
Once a guarantee of confidentiality is given, protecting that confidentiality is essential. Researchers protect participant confidentiality in several ways.
Obtaining signed nondisclosure documents – only researchers who have signed nondisclosure forms should be allowed access to the data.
Restricting access to participant identification.
Revealing participant information only with written consent.
Restricting access to data instruments where the participant is identified.
Nondisclosure of data subsets.
Methods 2-5 deal with minimizing the chance for a participant to identified and matched with his or her responses. Links between data and identifying information must be minimized. Interview response sheets should be inaccessible to everyone except the editors and data entry personnel. Data collection instruments may be destroyed once data are in a data file. For very small groups, data should not be made available if it would be easy to pinpoint a person in the group.
Minimize instruments requiring ID
Reveal only with written consent

17. Prior permission to interview
Right to Privacy
Right to refuse
Prior permission to interview
For researchers to fully address participants’ right to privacy, they must also 1) inform participants of their right to refuse to answer any questions or participate in the study; 2) obtain prior permission to interview or observe participants; and 3) limit the time required for participation to limit the amount of information collected to only that which is deemed critical.
Limit time required

18. Sponsor Confidentiality
Sponsor Nondisclosure
Purpose Nondisclosure
Some sponsors wish to undertake research without revealing themselves. They have a right to several types of confidentiality.
Sponsor nondisclosure is used when the sponsor of the research restricts revealing the sponsorship. In this case, the sponsor may hire an outside firm to complete the research projects.
Purpose nondisclosure is used when the sponsor camouflages the true research objective of the study.
Findings nondisclosure is used when the sponsor restricts the researcher from discussing the findings of the research project.
Findings Nondisclosure

19. Unethical Behavior to Avoid
Violating participant confidentiality
Changing data
Creating false data
Changing data presentation
Changing data interpretations
Injecting bias in interpretations
Research must be designed so that a participant does not suffer physical harm, discomfort, pain, embarrassment, or loss of privacy. This slide lists the three guidelines researchers should follow to protect participants.
When discussing benefits, the researcher should be careful not to overstate or understate the benefits.
Informed consent means that the participant has given full consent to participation after receiving full disclosure of the procedures of the proposed study.
Omitting sections of data
Making recommendations beyond scope of data

20. What To Do If Coerced? Educate Explain on problems purpose Emphasize
fact-finding
role
Occasionally, researchers may be asked by sponsors to participate in unethical behavior. What can the researcher do to remain ethical? There are four suggestions provided in the slide. The researcher can attempt to
educate the sponsor to the purpose of the research,
explain the researcher’s role as a fact-finder,
explain how distorting the truth or breaking faith will lead to future problems, and
if the others fail, terminate the relationship.
Terminate
Relationship

21. Principles of Effective Codes of Ethics
Enforceable
Regulate
Protect
Many organizations have codes of ethics. A code of ethics is an organization’s codified set of norms or standards of behavior that guide moral choices about research behavior. Effective codes are those that 1) are regulative, 2) protect the public interest and the interests of the profession served by the code, 3) are behavior-specific, and 4) are enforceable.
Exhibit 2-5 provides additional sources for ethics resources.
Specify Behavior

22. Key Terms Code of ethics Nondisclosure Confidentiality Debriefing
Deception
Ethics
Informed consent
Nondisclosure
Findings
Purpose
Sponsor
Right to privacy
Right to quality
Right to safety

23. Snapshot: Location Based Services
Know data collection, sharing procedures
Appoint privacy trained personnel to ensure privacy
Treat LBS as sensitive information
Demonstrate informed consent
Sensitive to parent expectations
Stay current on privacy developments

24. Snapshot: Ethics of Mobile Surveys
Recruiting
Financial Disadvantage
Privacy & Intrusion
Tracking Behavior

25. Ethical Approaches Deontology Teleology (Ethical Relativism) Ethical
standards
There is no single approach to ethics.
Deontology advocates that ethical behavior should be directed by duties regardless of the positive circumstances that might result from behavior that is in contradiction to the duty. An example might be “Do not lie,” even when lying might result in a positive outcome. Another approach is that of ethical relativism. Ethical relativism is based on an individual’s sense of morality. Therefore, each person decides for his or herself what is ethical behavior. A middle ground is necessary and provided through ethical standards of behavior for researchers.