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A comprehensive project for the Advanced Selling course that has been tested at three universities is introduced. After selecting an industry and a company, students engage in a complete industry analysis, a company sales analysis, a sales-specific SWOT analysis, complete a ride day with a salesperson in that firm, then present their findings in a classroom oral presentation. Implications wish and suggestions for researchers and sales managers are provided as well as guidance for instructors who to use the project in their course.

A new interactive computer simulation designed to teach sales ethics is described. Simulation learner objectives include gaining a better understanding of legal issues in selling; realizing that ethical dilemmas do arise in selling; realizing the need to be honest when selling; seeing that there are conflicting demands from a salesperson's company, customers, and colleagues; and experiencing some of the challenges of selling. Assessment results suggest each objective was met, for both males and females. A description of how this and other simulations can be effectively used in sales courses is provided.

As a marketing analyst, Eric is faced with several ethical dilemmas. When asked to engage in unethical and illegal behavior, Eric must decide whether to obey his boss and fudge the numbers (the counts of product purchased in order to get reimbursed more from the manufacturer during special sales) or take the ethical route. The case consists of two parts, with the second part revealing how Eric's dilemma took an unexpected turn for the worst when one manufacturer discovers the discrepancies. The case is based on a real situation in the real world and the teaching note (available online) provides details on what happened in the end.

Marketing educators bear some responsibility for teaching ethics and legal issues to their students. Visits to white-collar criminals in a federal prison camp are one method of achieving this task. This article develops and empirically assesses ten objectives for such a visit by MBA and undergraduate marketing classes. Undergraduates rated the experience higher on "helped me see that I am vulnerable to temptation to do the wrong thing" and "encouraged me to avoid making poor ethical decisions" than graduate students, while graduate students rated "helped make the course more relevant" higher. Also, students with less work experience gained a greater appreciation for the importance of business ethics as a result of the visit. There were no differences in terms of age or gender. Implications of the findings, future research suggestions, and implementation guidelines for those interested in taking their students on a prison visit are provided. Appended are: (1) Students' Open-Ended Comments Related to Prison-Visit Objectives. (Contains 3 tables and 1 note.)

This true account provides a summary of a firm and its CEO caught up in the housing market frenzy that occurred in the mid to late 2000s. Although confronted with a number of economic, strategic management, human resource, ethical, and legal challenges, the owners make decisions that cause the firm to grow at an exponential rate. The case documents the eventual results of many of those decisions. Readers are challenged to identify ethics issues involved and the business decisions that precipitated those ethical issues. Some issues include working with business partners who have different ethical stances from your own, whistle blowing for illegal actions, the impact of problem employees on ethical and legal issues, and being transparent and honest when informing the board of directors about business conditions. Teaching notes include lessons learned by the CEO. Ways to avoid similar mistakes in the future are provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When consumers are re-interviewed about their attitudinal beliefs towards different brands, such as whether it "tastes nice" or is "good value for money", only about half give the same response as before. This great variability of consumers' expressed attitude does not seem to reflect any systematic erosion of their liking of the brand, but merely a degree of as-if-random or stochastic variation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]