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Marketing Education

Stand-Alone Ethics, Social Responsibility, and Sustainability Course Requirements : A Snapshot From
Australia and New Zealand
Sharyn R. Rundle-Thiele and Walter Wymer
Journal of Marketing Education 2010 32: 5 originally published online 14 September 2009
DOI: 10.1177/0273475309345002
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Stand-Alone Ethics, Social Responsibility,

and Sustainability Course Requirements

Journal of Marketing Education

Volume 32 Number 1
April 2010 5-12
2010 SAGE Publications
10.1177/0273475309345002
http://jmd.sagepub.com
hosted at
http://online.sagepub.com

A Snapshot From Australia and New Zealand

Sharyn R. Rundle-Thiele
Griffith University, Nathan, Queensland, Australia

Walter Wymer
University of Lethbridge, Canada
This article analyzes the extent to which Australian and New Zealand marketing educators use dedicated or stand-alone courses
to equip students with alternative views of business. A census of marketing programs in degree-granting universities was conducted. Program brochures were obtained via the Internet and were content analyzed. This study reports a lower proportion of
universities requiring students to take a course dedicated to society and environmental issues than previous studies have. Only
27% of universities in Australia required students to take a dedicated ethics, social responsibility, and/or sustainability course.
Only 8% of universities offered a dedicated core marketing ethical or social responsibility course. Previous sample estimates may
have overstated ethical, social responsibility, and sustainability course requirements. There is considerable room for improvement
in Australia and New Zealand if universities are to equip their students with the skills, knowledge, and ideas to benefit themselves,
the organizations they choose to work for, and society as a whole.
Keywords: ethics; sustainability; corporate social responsibility; program; marketing majors

odays managers face volatile economic forces, differences in organizational and cultural values, cultural
diversity among employees and customers, rapidly changing technology, environmental damage, and finite resources.
Through education we, as teachers, can inform our students of the global predicament that we are in and equip
our students with the skills, knowledge, and ideas to benefit themselves, the organizations for which they choose
work, and society at large. The Association to Advance
Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) noted that management education must prepare students to contribute to
organizations and the larger society and to grow personally
and professionally throughout their careers (2008, p. 1).
Standards such as those published by the Marketing and
Sales Standards Setting Body (MSSSB) suggest that a principal activity that marketers must undertake is to ensure
that an organizations strategies and policies are centered
upon customers and an organizations corporate social responsibilities (MSSSB, 2006, p. 5). Accrediting bodies such as
the European Quality Improvement System (EQUIS) suggest that learning environments should favor the development of students managerial and entrepreneurial skills, and
foster their sense of global responsibility (EQUIS, 2008,
p. 21). Universities seeking EQUIS accreditation must be
able to describe the means by which issues relating to

business ethics and corporate social responsibility are

integrated into personal development processes (EQUIS,
2008). The importance of educating for sustainability is
underscored by the United Nations declaration calling this
the Decade of Education for Sustainable Development
(UNESCO, 2004, p. 1).
Furthermore, the AACSB requires that accredited universities must establish expectations for ethical behavior
by... students (AACSB, 2008, p. 11). Additionally, the
AACSB asserted, Normally the curriculum management
process will result in an undergraduate program that includes
learning experiences in such general knowledge and skill
areas such as... ethical understanding and reasoning abilities (AACSB, 2008, p. 15). With regard to managementspecific knowledge and skills, AACSB stated that programs
should offer learning experiences in ethical and legal resp
onsibilities in organizations and society (AACSB, 2008,
p. 15). It is readily apparent that equipping students with
ethical and sustainability training and fostering a sense of
global responsibility are considered key educational requirements for marketing educators.
As noted by Clarke, Gray, and Mearman (2006), Under
standing the modern firm is a necessary part of any business
education (p. 193). Alternate views of the true purpose of
the firm and marketing (e.g., macromarketing) exist. Based
5

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6 Journal of Marketing Education

on the seminal thoughts of Friedman (1962), there is a wellestablished view that argues that the sole legitimate purpose
of a firm is to increase shareholder wealth. This is the traditional ideology embedded in business curricula. In contrast,
there is an alternate perspective suggesting the true purposes
of corporations are to make societies better off and to create
societal wealth and not just wealth for shareholders (Cohan,
2002). Students should be equipped to assess critically the
very process and nature of the firm and be capable of discussing alternatives. If marketing educators are committed to
providing students with a worldview, programs need to present students with alternate viewpoints of the role of business
in society. Alternate views would allow graduates to make
their own free, autonomous choices about the life they will
lead (Bridges, 1992, quoted in Clarke etal., 2006).
The decision on whether to integrate ethics, social
responsibility, and sustainability into existing courses or
develop dedicated courses has been debated previously
(e.g., Christensen, Pierce, Hartman, Hoffman, & Carrier,
2007; Stubbs & Cocklin, 2008). We contend that attempts
to incorporate ethics training, promote sustainability, and
foster a sense of global responsibility into current course
offerings does little to sufficiently contrast the two views of
the firm. Dedicated coverage is required if the social
responsibility and sustainability ideologies are to have a
coherent place in a business education. Some definitions of
corporate social responsibility (e.g., Carroll, 1999, 1991)
consider Friedmans (1962) economic requirement a foundation, suggesting that legal, ethical, and philanthropic
considerations be held in secondary importance to the primary wealth-producing purpose of business. These views
of social responsibility are being challenged. More liberal
stances suggest the true purposes of corporations are to
make societies better off and to create societal wealth
(Cohan, 2002). This liberal stance is in stark contrast to
Friedmans view suggesting there is little benefit in making
a profit if it is not sustainable. The recent U.S. credit crunch
provides a case in point. With millions of U.S. families facing loan foreclosures and the threat of a collapse of the
financial sector, the U.S. government resumed control of
the two largest lenders in the United States (Freddie Mac
and Fannie Mae). Business practices involving extending
unsustainable levels of credit created chaos with significant
societal and economic implications for the United States
and other countries across the globe.
Given that program requirements reflect the skills, knowledge, and ideas valued by groups of marketing educators
(AACSB, 2008), the purpose of this article is to analyze all
marketing undergraduate degree programs in Australia and
New Zealand to consider the extent to which Australian and
New Zealand marketing educators seek to provide ethical
training, promote sustainability, and foster a sense of global
responsibility using dedicated courses.

Background
The concepts of corporate social responsibility (Carroll,
1999), ethics (Tsalikis & Fritzsche, 1989), and sustainability
(Tilbury, 1995) have received a considerable amount of
research attention and they have been previously defined by
other authors. There is limited research relating to the extent
that corporate social responsibility, ethics, and sustainability
are integrated into marketing curricula. These topics can
either be integrated into existing marketing courses or marketing educators can develop dedicated courses. This literature review focuses on research that considers dedicated
corporate social responsibility, ethics, and sustainability marketing courses. Bridges and Wilhelm (2008) provided examples of sustainability courses for universities in Germany, the
United Kingdom, and the United States. They suggested that
whereas some sustainability courses are offered in undergraduate programs, the main focus appears to be in graduate
programs. Furthermore, their study suggests that although it
is uncommon for sustainability to be incorporated into the
curriculum at all, of those programs that do teach these topics, it is more common for educators to incorporate elements
of sustainability into required courses rather than offer exclusive sustainability-focused courses.
The Beyond Grey Pinstripes (2007) survey conducted by
the Aspen Institute Centre for Business Education considered how well 112 MBA programs incorporated social and
environmental issues into the training of future business
leaders in 2007 and 2008. The results of their most recent
study suggest that the percentage of universities surveyed
that require students to take a MBA course dedicated to
business and society issues has increased dramatically over
time, from 34% in 2001 to 63% in 2007. Furthermore, the
number of elective MBA courses per school dedicated to
social and/or environmental content has increased 20%. In
another MBA-focused study, Christensen etal. (2007) personally interviewed deans and directors from the top 50
business schools according to the Financial Times ratings.
Their study reported that all programs in their sample
required one or more of (a) corporate social responsibility,
(b) ethics, and (c) sustainability be covered in their MBA
curriculum. Their findings revealed that one third of the
schools required coverage of all three topics as part of their
MBA curriculum. The Beyond Grey Pinstripes (2007) and
Christensen et al. (2007) studies contrast with Navarro
(2008), who accessed Web sites of the top 50 business
schools to determine the list of required core courses. Navarros
findings indicate that less than half (40%) of the top schools
require a dedicated course on corporate ethics, suggesting
that the incidence of dedicated courses may be lower than
studies based on survey data may suggest.
Compared to the number of studies on graduate business
curricula, far fewer studies were evident for undergraduate

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Rundle-Thiele, Wymer / Ethics, Responsibility, and Sustainability 7

curricula in general and the marketing curricula in particular. Buff and Yonkers (2004) collected data online for U.S.
universities listed in the AACSB member directory who
offered undergraduate marketing programs to understand
the extent to which U.S. universities were committed to
ethical education. Their data included the title(s) of all req
uired courses in the general education, business core, and
marketing curriculum. Consistent with Navarro (2008), their
study identified that 40.6% of AACSB-accredited universities in the U.S. require an ethics course for their marketing
degree. Interestingly, their study suggested that smaller colleges and universities were more likely to require an ethics
course. Finally, their study identified that only one (1% of
the sample) program had a required marketing ethics course
for its marketing major. Stringfellow, Ennis, Brennan, and
Harker (2006) considered marketing course offerings for the
top 50 universities that offered undergraduate marketing
programs, and 18% offered a course in marketing ethics.
Our literature review indicates that there have two been
major methods of collecting data on curricula content: (a)
surveys of program directors and (b) content analysis of
program publications (including Web sites). When compared with research that collects data by analyzing the
content of the courses offered from published materials,
research using surveys (e.g., Beyond Grey Pinstripes, 2007;
Christensen et al., 2007) appears to overestimate the proportion of dedicated courses offered. It is possible that
survey methods seeking to understand the extent to which
ethics, social responsibility, and sustainability are offered in
curricula may encourage respondents to answer in socially
desirable ways. Socially desirable responding suggests that
respondents have a tendency to answer researchers questions in ways that enable themselves to be perceived more
favorably (Mick, 1996). Consequently, survey respondents
overreport or underreport, depending on the situationa
phenomenon referred to as socially desirable responding
(Baumgartner & Steenkamp, 2005). An example of socially
desirable responding is given by Zinkhan and Carlson
(1995), who reported that although consumers are eager to
describe themselves as recyclers the incidence of recycling
in the community is not as widespread as self-report data
would indicate. It is possible that when surveyed on the
extent to which students are required to take dedicated
courses professors or administrators may report a more
favorable curriculum coverage of socially desirable content
than occurs in practice.
We would expect that socially desirable responding is
likely to arise in research relating to ethics, sustainability,
and corporate social responsibility. There may be strong
public opinion but research participants actual behavior
may be incongruent with these opinions (i.e., we all think
we should be equipping our students with ethical training
and that we should be fostering our students with a sense of
global responsibility, but we may not change curricula content or develop courses to achieve these goals). Consequently,

because of the potential for social responsibility bias and

nonresponse bias, we chose to collect data by content analyzing program information on university Web sites.
Although some researchers (Bridges & Wilhelm, 2008;
Buff & Yonkers, 2004; Stringfellow etal., 2006) have used
behavioral methods such as searching the Internet to observe
marketing courses offered, their research has not used a
census. Furthermore, the majority of prior research has been
restricted to investigating U.S. MBA programs and undergraduate marketing programs in AACSB-accredited universities in the United States. This special issue on marketing
education on marketing programs in Australia and New
Zealand provides an opportunity to expand researchers
knowledge on the extent to which undergraduate marketing
students in non-U.S. programs are required to take dedicated
ethics, sustainability, and corporate social responsibility
courses. A census of Australian and New Zealand universities was deemed most appropriate for the purposes of this
research.

Method
Sample
There are a total of 39 Australian universities and 8 New
Zealand universities. A census was taken of these universities and data were collected in August 2008. The option to
major in marketing was available at all Australian and New
Zealand universities. Program information for students
seeking to major in marketing was publicly accessible on
all 47 universities Web sites. The data included the program of study requirements for a marketing degree and
information on the number of required core and elective
courses in the business core and marketing curriculum.
Course titles and descriptions were reviewed using key
search terms. The key terms included ethics (ethical), social
responsibility, society, values in society, moral(s), sustainability, environment, and current issues. When unclear cou
rses descriptions were obtained and a decision was later
made to ascertain whether a course appeared to be based on
ethics, sustainability, or social responsibility. Course titles
were obtained for 99 courses, and course descriptions were
not available online for 8 courses. Course descriptions were
available for 91 courses.

Data Analysis
Content analysis, an unobtrusive method of measurement
that is not reliant on perceptions or respondent bias (Harris,
2001), has been used previously to identify the focus of
curricula (see Bridges & Wilhelm, 2008; Buff & Yonkers,
2004; Stringfellow et al., 2006). Content analysis of program requirements can yield information on what universities are actually doing rather than what individual professors
perceive. The rationale for using content analysis in this

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8 Journal of Marketing Education

study was that content analysis can be used to record the

extent to which Australian and New Zealand marketing
educators are providing ethical training, promoting sustainability, and fostering a sense of global responsibility with
the least response bias of any market research methodology (Boote & Mathews, 1999, p. 20). By using content
analysis it is possible to record what educators actually do,
not what they claim to have done (Boote & Mathews,
1999, p. 20). Content analysis is an unobtrusive research
technique that allows objective, systematic, and quantitative description of human communications to be obtained
(Babbie, 2004). Content analysis was undertaken to establish the existence and frequency of standalone courses that
students majoring in marketing are required or may choose
to take to satisfy their program requirements.
The 91 course descriptions were analyzed to determine
whether a courses content contained coverage of ethics,
sustainability, or social responsibility. A coding system was
used in which each rater assigned a number according to
whether the course contained content on one or a combination of ethics, corporate social responsibility, and sustainability.
The investigators served as raters for our analysis. To
enhance reliability, investigators evaluated courses independently. The investigators ratings were then compared to
determine the interrater reliability coefficient. The interrater
reliability coefficient is the proportion of coding in which
there is unanimous agreement. The coefficient should be
greater than 70% (Harris, 2001). Where coding differed, the
investigators discussed the course descriptions collaboratively to arrive at an agreement, ensuring that consensus was
reached for all 91 course descriptions prior to the commencement of data analysis. The initial interrater reliability
of the coding was 91.7%, which exceeded the threshold
requirement of 0.70 (Harris, 2001). After the independent
rating, the investigators discussed courses they rated differently. The discussion of course descriptions on courses in
which different ratings were given initially were all resolved
to arrive at a consensus. A face validity check indicated that
the results appeared to be both reliable and valid.

Results
The number of courses required to complete a program
were first considered along with the numbers of core courses
required for the degree and marketing major. Core courses
represent the compulsory requirement for students to be
awarded a degree, and as such core courses represent the
skills and knowledge areas that are most valued by management and marketing educators. This is reported in Table 1.
On average, degrees in Australia and New Zealand
require students to complete 24 courses. Degree completion
for a full-time student can typically involve completing 4
courses per semester, with degree completion in six semesters and 3 years. Whereas the number of core courses varied

Table 1
Australian and New Zealand Program Requirements

Total

Average Number of

Australia New Zealand

M (SD)

Courses required to
24 (2.1) 24 (1.9)
complete program
Core courses
8 (2.2) 8 (1.8)
required for degree
Core courses required for 6 (2.7) 7 (2.6)
marketing major
Elective courses required 2 (2.2) 1 (1.5)
for marketing major

p
25 (2.8)

7 (3.6)

4 (1.8)

.01

4 (2.1)

.01

Table 2
Number of Dedicated Courses
Number of
Core courses
Elective courses
Business courses
Marketing courses

Australia

New Zealand

Total

10
63
69
4

3
15
17
1

13
78
86
5

between 0 and 13, on average one third of courses were

core degree requirements. Interestingly, the average number of core courses required for a marketing major in
Australia was significantly higher (p = .01) than that in
New Zealand. Students majoring in marketing in Australia
are typically required to complete 7 core or required courses
and 1 elective course and students majoring in marketing in
New Zealand are typically required to complete 4 marketing core and 4 marketing elective courses. The incidence of
dedicated courses in all three areasethics, corporate
social responsibility, and sustainabilityis reported in
Table 2.
Analysis at a program level indicates that only one qua
rter of the universities in Australia and New Zealand offer
dedicated courses. Of 47 universities in Australia and New
Zealand, 13 require students to take 1 dedicated course.
Another notable point of interest is that the overwhelming
majority of dedicated courses are offered outside of the
marketing discipline. Only 5 of the 91 courses identified
were dedicated marketing courses. Of further interest is that
only 1 course was a core requirement for students majoring in
marketing. Interestingly, although New Zealand universities
require fewer core courses from their students, they require
their students to take more dedicated corporate social resp
onsibility, ethics, and sustainability courses when compared
to their Australian counterparts.
Universities offered as few as no courses and as many as six
courses dedicated to ethical training, promoting sustainability,
and/or fostering a sense of social responsibility in students.
Ten universities (nine Australian, one New Zealand) do not
dedicate any courses to ethically training, promoting sustainability, and/or fostering a sense of social responsibility in

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Rundle-Thiele, Wymer / Ethics, Responsibility, and Sustainability 9

s tudents. Therefore, 78% of universities in our study offered at

least one stand alone course in the areas of interest.
The focus of courses was judged next. Using course desc
riptions from university Web sites, raters made assessments
about whether courses were focused on ethics, promoting sustainability, or social responsibility. Six courses were not dee
med to be dedicated courses focusing on one or a combination
of ethics, sustainability, and social responsibility, leaving 85
courses for analysis. The results are reported in Table 3 and
examples of course descriptions are reported in Table 4.
Dedicated courses focusing on sustainability were more
frequent than dedicated courses on ethical training or social
responsibility in Australia and New Zealand. There were
many instances in which courses focused on both ethical
training and fostering a sense of social responsibility. Many
of the sustainability courses were offered in the economics
(13 courses) and tourism (12 courses) disciplines, which
suggests that sustainability is considered to be an important
issue for Australian and New Zealand economics and tourism educators. Only 13 sustainability business and management courses were identified. Without tourism and economics,
sustainability would receive less coverage in Australia and
New Zealand.
To permit further analysis, courses focusing on ethical
training and corporate social responsibility were combined
into one group and courses focusing on sustainability were
kept in a separate category. The course types were analyzed
further to understand which course types were core (hence
required) courses and which were elective courses. This
analysis is reported next in Table 5.
According to chi-square testing, there were significant
differences between groups. Marketing educators currently
place a greater value on fostering a sense of responsibility
and ethical training than they do on promoting sustainability (p= .01). Course descriptions for stand-alone marketing
courses are presented in Table 6. Marketing educators were
also more likely to require students to take courses that
fostered a sense of global responsibility and ethical training
to satisfy the requirements of their degree. Although courses
focusing on sustainability were offered more frequently
when compared with courses focusing on ethics and social
responsibility, these were not required courses. Only one
university required a course in sustainability.
Next, the depth of university coverage of our target courses
was analyzed (Figure 1). Depth refers to the number of standalone courses offered by a single university in a single topic
area. Because there is variation in the number of courses
offered at the universities, it is of interest to better understand
how the depth of coverage varies. In our study, 10 universities did not have any courses of interest. On the corporate
social responsibility topic, 5 universities offered one course
and 1 university offered two courses. On the ethics topic, 18
universities offered one course on ethics, 2 universities
offered two courses on ethics, and 1 university offered three

Table 3
Types of Dedicated Courses
Course Focus
Sustainability
Ethical training
Social responsibility
Social responsibility
and ethical training

Total

Australia

New Zealand

42
27
8
8

33
20
6
8

9
7
2
0

Table 4
Sample Course Descriptions
Ethics
The subject examines three major approaches to ethics and defends
one as preferable. This is then applied to cases in contemporary
business and professional life that present concrete ethical
dilemmas. Topics include conflict of interest, privacy and
confidentiality, bribes, insider trading; deceptive advertising; fraud;
whistle blowing; employee rights and duties; and differences in
international business culture and practice.
Charles Sturt University, MGT230
Corporate social responsibility
The focus of this course is on the role of corporations and their
accountability, accounting, and reporting issues in the context of
sustainability and social justice. Corporate social responsibility
accountability, accounting, and reporting is concerned with
communicating the social and environmental effects of a
corporations economic actions to particular stakeholders and to
society at large. This extends the corporations accountability beyond
the traditional financial disclosures to shareholders and is predicated
on the assumption that corporations have, as a consequence of implied
social contracting or ethical dimensions, social responsibilities that
are much broader than generating shareholder wealth.
Australian National University, BUSN3017
Sustainability
Key environmental debates are explored to identify the challenges
of understanding underlying scientific principles and effective
environmental management. Case studies highlight the complexity
of environmental problems and the difficult task of integrating
science, knowledge and values in their resolution.
University of Auckland, ENVSCI101

Table 5
Dedicated Course Requirements

Course Focus
Sustainability
Social responsibility
and ethical training

Core
Course

Elective
Course

Business

Marketing

1
13

41
30

42
37

0
4

ethics courses. Some courses were a combination of ethics

and corporate social responsibility. Five universities offered
one of these combination courses and 1 university offered two
combination courses. Finally, on the sustainability topic, 13

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10 Journal of Marketing Education

Table 6
Stand-Alone Marketing Course Descriptions

Figure 1
Depth of Course Coverage

Examines the relationships between marketing, ethical norms, and

social and environmental values; raises awareness of legal issues.
University of Otago, MART305
This unit focuses on the role of ethics in organisations. It introduces
the conceptual and analytical skills required to identify and evaluate
the ethical dimension of business activites in specific areas such as
human resource management, marketing, accounting and international business. The question of how ethics might be managed
effectively within organisations is also canvassed. The unit does not
aim to provide conclusive answers to a set of ethical questions,
rather, it aims to introduce a way of thinking and talking about ethical issues in an organisational context.
University of New England, MM322
This course focuses on the study and discussion of basic ethical theory and its practical application by analyzing a wide selection of
classical and contemporary narrative. The student will explore the
implications and consequences of their ethical decisions and the
impact it has in the students lives. After introducing the student to
the ethical methodologies the course contemplates the application of
this to business and marketing.
Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, MKTG2086
Focuses on dilemmas which arise out of the potential conflicts
between the economic performance and the social performance of
an organisation. The unit aims to assist students to acquire and
develop the critical thinking skills required for the successful practice of management within the framework of societal values. These
skills include the ability to think clearly, argue cogently, give reasons for actions and decisions, and make rational choices and recommendations in ethically sensitive situations commonly
encountered by contemporary managers.
University of Tasmania, BMA391

universities offered one course, 8 universities offered two

courses, 3 universities offered three courses, and 1 university
offered four courses on sustainability. Overall, our analysis
shows that sustainability received the deepest coverage in
universities in Australia and New Zealand.
We next examined the breadth of coverage of our topics
of interest, asking the question, How many universities are
including all the topics of interest? We found that 10 universities included none of our topics of interest in their curricula,
18 universities provided at least one course in one topic, and
17 universities offered courses on two topics. Only 1 university, the University of New England, offered courses covering all three topic areas: corporate social responsibility, ethics,
and sustainability.
Finally, we sought to understand whether there were differences between accredited universities and their nonaccredited
counterparts. Chi-square analysis was conducted to determine
if there were any relationships between accreditation and the
number of dedicated courses offered within each topic area
and coverage of topic areas. We considered universities
with AACSB accreditation, EQUIS accreditation, and both
AACSB and EQUIS accreditation. Universities with AACSB

Note: CSR = corporate social responsibility.

accreditation (2(3) = 7.89, p < .05), EQUIS accreditation

(2(3)= 8.36, p< .05), and both AACSB and EQUIS accreditation (2(3)= 10.49, p< .05) were more likely to offer dedicated
ethics courses than their nonaccredited counterparts were.
There was no (statistically significant) relationship between
accreditation and the offering of dedicated sustainability and
corporate social responsibility courses. Universities with
EQUIS accreditation (2(3)= 8.18, p< .05) and both AACSB
and EQUIS accreditation (2(3)= 7.22, p< .05) covered more
topic areas than their nonaccredited counterparts did. This may
suggest that universities seeking accreditation see the offering
of a dedicated course as an accreditation requirement.

Discussion and Implications

The intent of this research was to gain a better understanding of the incidence of dedicated ethics, social responsibility,
and sustainability courses that are currently offered to students majoring in marketing in Australian and New Zealand
universities. Standards and accreditation policies require educators to teach social responsibility (EQUIS, 2008), establish
expectations for ethical behavior (AACSB, 2008), and educate for sustainable management (UNESCO, 2004) demonstrating the importance of these key concepts to the marketing
profession. By limiting the scope of our study to Australia
and New Zealand, our results may not be representative of
business schools in other countries. Future research using a
census to examine marketing curricula in other parts of the
world would add to the knowledge in this area.
The results indicate that ethics, social responsibility, and
sustainability courses are largely not required in a marketing
degree program of study. Only 27% of universities in
Australia and New Zealand presently require marketing
students to take a dedicated ethics, social responsibility, or

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Rundle-Thiele, Wymer / Ethics, Responsibility, and Sustainability 11

sustainability course. Buff and Yonkers (2004) found that

41% of AACSB-accredited U.S. universities required students to take an ethics course. Our results suggest that
requirements for ethics courses in nonaccredited universities
may be lower than in their accredited counterparts.
Taken together with previous studies, the results of this
research suggest that requirements for an MBA may be higher
than requirements for undergraduate marketing students. This
confirms Bridges and Wilhelm (2008), who suggested that
whereas some sustainability courses are offered in undergraduate programs sustainability courses are more likely to
be offered in graduate MBA programs. The Beyond Grey
Pinstripes (2007) study reported that 63% of universities1
required students to take an MBA course dedicated to business and society issues; Navarro (2008) reported that 40%
of MBA graduates in the top 50 U.S. business schools must
take a corporate ethics or social responsibility core course.
The Buff and Yonkers (2004) study found that 40% of
AACSB-accredited U.S. universities required undergraduate students to complete an ethics course; it also found that
only 27% of universities in Australia and New Zealand
required students majoring in marketing to take one or more
dedicated ethics, social responsibility, and/or sustainability
courses. Given that both graduating business and MBA students seek employment in business, this result suggests there
is considerable room for improvement in undergraduate marketing programs in Australia and New Zealand. If a marketing degree program does not require a business ethics course,
how will the profession ensure that marketing graduates are
prepared to act ethically? More importantly, will their exposure to ethical issues be sufficient for them to act ethically
when faced with a complex moral decision?
Despite the acknowledged importance of ethics, social
responsibility, and sustainability in a business education, 10
universities (21%) in Australia and New Zealand did not
offer a course dedicated to business and society issues. Only
one university was graduating marketing students who had
been required to take a sustainability course. Dedicated coverage is requisite if the social responsibility and sustainability ideologies are to permeate the business world. Friedmans
(1962) view that the sole legitimate purpose of the firm is to
create shareholder wealth currently prevails in a business edu
cation. Some definitions of corporate social responsibility
(e.g., Carroll, 1991, 1999) consider Friedmans economic
requirement a foundation and suggest that legal, ethical, and
philanthropic considerations be emphasized once the economic responsibility is fulfilled. (This implies that societal
responsibilities are secondary to fiduciary responsibilities.)
These older, establishment views of social responsibility
are being challenged. More liberal stances suggest the true
purpose of corporations is to make societies better off and
to create societal wealth (Cohan, 2002). This liberal stance
is in stark contrast to the Friedman view, which suggests
that there is little benefit in making a profit if the profit

c annot be sustained (e.g., the collapse of the U.S. financial

system in 2008) or if the profit bears a considerable societal
cost (e.g., Nike sweatshop scandal). The recent U.S. credit
crunch provides an ideal case in point. Business practices
involving extending unsustainable levels of credit created
chaos with significant economic implications for the country, not to mention the impact on the millions of families
faced with loan foreclosures.
In 2007 Hunt stated, Marketing graduates must be liberally educated, not just technically competent and socially
responsible (p. 278). If a marketing degree program does not
require a social responsibility or sustainability course, how
can it position marketing graduates to make the difficult decisions given to the next generation of business leaders? Can
token coverage in an existing course equip students to critically assess the very process and nature of the firm? Without
a balanced view, will students be capable of discussing alternatives? The definition of marketing was revised by the American
Marketing Association (AMA) in 2008 to expand marketers
responsibilities to society at large. As Hunt (2007) noted,
Universities owe society graduates who are ethically responsible. Graduates need to understand that they have responsibilities not only to themselves and their companies but also to
other important societal stakeholders (p. 278). If marketing
educators are committed to developing socially responsible
graduates, surely programs would require courses offering
students both liberal and neoclassical views of firms.
This article observes the number and types of courses
dedicated to ethics, sustainability, and social responsibility.
Future research is required to observe the number of
courses where these topics are integrated into the curriculum. This would require obtaining course outlines. In addition to observing the assessment required for each course,
researchers would count the number of course learning
goals or objectives and classes that are dedicated to these
topics. Based on the understanding that assessment defines
the curriculum from a students point of view (Ramsden,
2003) and that what is measured gets done, assessment
would indicate a stronger commitment to ethics, sustainability, and social responsibility by individual educators when
compared to stated course aims and objectives or classes ded
icated to these topics.
Our study encompassed three areas, namely ethics, sustainability, and social responsibility. All are complex topics
that warrant future research attention. Research focusing on
each topic area is recommended to examine the topic and
its role in the curriculum in greater detail. For example,
research focusing on business ethics could start by defining
what ethics meanslooking at AACSB International definition and 4 areas of consideration). The philosophy and
focus of each business program with respect to business
ethics could then be reviewed. Research could also consider how these programs are measuring their successful
delivery of this content and their impact on students.

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12 Journal of Marketing Education

We are living in a time, worldwide, when organizations

and employees are attempting to understand what went
wrong in organizational ethics and compliance systems that
contributed to the worldwide financial crisis. Society expects
universities to produce responsible managers. Many may
have thought that topics such as business ethics were nothing
more than a fad brought about by Enron, Worldcom, and
other notable corporate scandals. Clearly, that is not the case,
and having a clear understanding of how universities are
teaching these important topics is noteworthy. The real positive contribution of this study is its ability to add to researchers understanding of the current state of business education
in Australia and New Zealand. Further research is required to
understand why ethics and related courses are or are not
taught as dedicated courses. The AACSB International
addresses many of these issues through its ethics education
resource center (www.aacsb.edu/eerc). Some barriers suggested include (a) not enough shelf space, (b) a lack of inhouse expertise on the subject, (c) a perception that ethics is
a flavor of the month and not something that can actually be
taught in a college of business or MBA program, and so
forth. The AACSB International does not require a freestanding course on business ethics or related topics. Instead,
in their accreditation process they look for effective ethics
education. Further research is required to understand how
and where ethics, social responsibility, and sustainability
should be taught.

Acknowledgments
The authors thank the three anonymous reviewers for their helpful
comments on an earlier version of this article.

Note
1. Three quarters of the universities in the Beyond Grey Pinstripes
(2007) sample were North American. Aside from one Australian, one
Singapore, and one South African university, the balance of the sample
was from the United Kingdom and Europe.

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