Marketing Ethics across Cultures: Decision-Making Guidelines and the Emergence of Dialogic Idealism

This article extends the macromarketing literature by discussing the relevance of culture to marketing ethics and by proposing decision-making guidelines for multifaceted, cross-cultural contexts. American and European cultural influences and perspectives are examined and used as illustrations. The intent is to provide fresh insights on the ethnocentrism versus cultural relativism debate by offering contemporary translations to some classic arguments and by discussing contemporary European philosophical perspectives. Dialogic idealism is introduced as an ethical theory that combines deontological and teleological elements for the purpose of framing managerial decisions in international and cross-cultural settings in which various stakeholders may have conflicting values.