The academic-corporate ethics gap, informed consent in the digital age, surveillance capitalism, landmark case studies (Facebook, Microsoft Tay, Cambridge Analytica, Clearview AI), AI-specific ethical challenges, and building an ethical research framework.
Topics and managerial frameworks covered in Ethics in Marketing Research:
Students manipulate these interactive visual simulations directly inside the chapter reading before answering gated check-in questions:
Two sliders — Scientific value and Participant distress — drive a live IRB verdict lamp (APPROVE / REVISE / REJECT) with a one-line rationale. A "Burger redesign" button animates Milgram's original study (high value, high distress -> REJECT) sliding to Burg...
Teaches: you don't trade away the question to be ethical — you re-engineer the METHOD to cut harm while keeping the knowledge. The ethical move is design, not abandonment. (Verdict logic deliberately lets distress dominate.)
Present real-ish marketing research scenarios. Students choose Ethical / Unethical / It Depends, then see expert analysis with the key tensions.
A phone-style feed shows one call/email/survey opener at a time. The student judges each as GENUINE RESEARCH or SALES/FUNDRAISING IN DISGUISE.
Teaches: sugging (selling under the guise of research) and frugging (fundraising under the guise of research) are subtle — the tell is the ask at the end or a "sponsor" that's really a seller — and they poison response rates for EVERYONE, which is why professional codes treat them as cardinal sins.
Present research activities. Student decides whether it would require IRB approval at a university, then sees what a company would actually do (the gap).