| The primary objective of this dissertation was to assimilate marketing ethics theories and research into the paradigm of services marketing. The study proposed that consumers form assessments of service marketers' ethical conduct, and that these assessments may be modified by various surrogate cues within the service environment. Furthermore, the degree of the surrogate cues' influence upon ethical assessments depends upon individual consumers' ethical sensitivity index, or the degree of importance an individual consumer places upon being treated ethically by others. It was also postulated that consumers' expectations, ethical and otherwise, may be modified during the service encounter.;In order to empirically test the hypotheses derived from the proposed model, an experimental design was developed which employed videotaped encounters between a customer and an automobile mechanic. The ethical expectations of the participants were measured at two different points in the experiment, in addition to measures of ethical assessments, satisfaction, involvement, knowledge, prior ethical experiences, and the ethical sensitivity index.;The findings of the experiment indicate that consumers' ethical expectations may be modified during the service encounter by various surrogate cues within the service environment. The degree of change in these expectations is influenced by the individual consumer's ESI. Further, consumers do form assessments of service marketers' ethical conduct. These assessments were shown to influence consumers' satisfaction with the service both independently, and in combination with overall expectations. It was also shown that while consumers attend to ethical cues within the service environment, unethical cues are more likely to be noticed and acted upon by consumers. |
