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Business Ethics Index: Latin America

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Abstract

For almost 10 years, the Business Ethics Index (BEI) has measured consumers’ perceptions of business ethical behavior in the USA and numerous other countries. This article expands the BEI to five Latin American countries (Brazil, Bolivia, Mexico, Argentina, and Colombia). The BEI of Argentina and Bolivia were similar in magnitude to the USA, whereas those for Brazil, Colombia, and Mexico were distinctly higher. The component sub-indices showed divergent patterns. The major ethical concerns for Brazil and Bolivia concerned service, whereas Mexico and Argentina complained about overpricing.

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Notes

  1. There is solid empirical support for the old saying. One study showed that the number of years taken to recover pre-crisis levels of per capita GDP was only 2.5 years in industrialized nations compared with 6.9 years in Latin America. UN ECLAC (2008) Economic Survey of Latin America and the Caribbean, 2006–07 2008, 93.

  2. In Mexico, there was apparently some difficulty with the translation of the word “ethical” into Spanish. The word “honesty” (honestidad) was therefore substituted. Obviously, this is not quite synonymous since honesty (in Spanish or English) does not encompass all dimensions of ethical behavior. Although honesty is certainly a component of ethics, it is not broad enough to cover the concept. One might be an “honest crook” but it is hard to imagine an ethical one. It is difficult to know how this affected the BEI scores in Mexico. This narrow translation may account, to an unknown degree, for the relatively high BEI in Mexico.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Florida International University, Miami, FL, USA

    John Tsalikis, Bruce Seaton & Phillip L. Shepherd

Authors
  1. John Tsalikis
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  2. Bruce Seaton
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  3. Phillip L. Shepherd
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to John Tsalikis.

Appendix

Appendix

Latin America 2008 Questionnaire (English Version Translated into Spanish and Portuguese)

[READ INSTRUCTIONS TO THE RESPONDENT]

Even though ethical behavior can be defined in many ways, we are interested in YOUR perceptions of ethical behavior. However, please take note that merely not liking a product or service should not be considered unethical.

Q1

We’d like to hear your opinion of how ethically YOU feel businesses behaved in the PAST YEAR. Would you say very unethically, somewhat unethically, neither ethically nor unethically, somewhat ethically or very ethically? Let’s start with… [READ AND ROTATE ITEMS]

01

Very unethically

02

Somewhat unethically

03

Neither ethically nor unethically

04

Somewhat ethically

05

Very ethically

99

DON’T KNOW

 A.

Businesses you dealt with yourself as a consumer

 B.

Businesses you heard about from others or the media

Q2.

What particular unethical behavior did you personally experience or hear from others or the media? Anything else? [PROBE FULLY FOR SPECIFICS INCLUDING THE NAME OF THE COMPANY]

 

The next question will measure your expectations for the future:

Q3.

Based on [INSERT], do you expect businesses in the FUTURE to behave more unethically, about the same, or more ethically? [READ AND ROTATE ITEMS]

01

More unethically

02

About the same

03

More ethically

99

DON’T KNOW

 A.

Your OWN experiences as a consumer

 B.

What you heard from others or the media

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Tsalikis, J., Seaton, B. & Shepherd, P.L. Business Ethics Index: Latin America. J Bus Ethics 119, 209–218 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-012-1587-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-012-1587-9

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