Abstract
Located at the crossroads of the Eastern and Western world, Turkey today is characterized by a demographically versatile and modernizing society as well as a rapidly developing economy. Currently, the country is negotiating its accession to the European Union. This article yields some factual grounding into the ongoing value-related debate concerning Turkey’s potential EU-membership. It describes a mixed-methodology study on moral reasoning in Austria and Turkey. In this study, the arguments given by individuals when evaluating ethically problematic situations in business were compared. Although there were major consistencies, a number of differences were found. These differences, however, were not in the substance (categories) of arguments used but in their relative frequency. Overall, our findings suggest that young, well-educated urban individuals from Western Christian and Eastern Islamic countries are highly consistent in their moral reasoning.
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Acknowledgements
The authors thank the two anonymous reviewers for their comments and suggestions, which helped to considerably improve this paper. We are also highly indebted to Sabine T. Koeszegi for her significant support as well as to Christof Paparella and Udo Wagner for their valuable input and challenging remarks on earlier versions of the manuscript.
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Katharina J. Srnka is Assistant Professor of Marketing at the University of Vienna, Austria, and has been teaching at different European universities and institutions. Dr. Srnka received her Ph.D. from University of Vienna for her work on cultural influences on ethical decision making in marketing. Her research interests concern qualitative and mixed research methods, consumer behavior, and cross-cultural marketing ethics.
A. Ercan Gegez is Associate Professor of Marketing at Marmara University in Istanbul, Turkey. Dr. Gegez holds a Ph.D. from Marmara University in the field of International Marketing. He is one of the founding members of The Turkish Marketing Association and he has served as a member of the supervisory board. His research interests include international marketing, marketing research and marketing ethics.
S. Burak Arzova is Associate Professor of Accounting at Marmara University in Istanbul, Turkey. Dr. Arzova holds a Ph.D. from Marmara University in the field of Accounting for his work on Activity Based Cost Management. His research interests comprise accounting ethics, cost management and international financial standards.
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Srnka, K.J., Gegez, A.E. & Arzova, S.B. Why Is It (Un-)ethical? Comparing Potential European Partners: A Western Christian and An Eastern Islamic Country – On Arguments Used in Explaining Ethical Judgments. J Bus Ethics 74, 101–118 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-006-9223-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-006-9223-1