Differences in Perception of Wholesalers About Retailers Ethical Behaviour

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to explore empirically the demographic differences in the perceptions of wholesalers about the ethical retail practices. The study is based upon the data obtained from randomly selected seventy wholesale firms from a northern Indian city by conducting in depth interviews through a specific designed schedule. All the demographic variables viz. age, qualification, experience and types of products depict insignificant mean differences in the perceptions of wholesalers regarding the ethical retail practices. Wholesalers viewed retailers unethical in terms of not making payments on time and not paying exact amount on credit sales, which create serious problems for the wholesalers who are liable to manufacturers. The study is confined to Indian and the future study can cover more countries. A comparative study of different stakeholders’ perceptions about retail ethics can also be conducted. Retailers depends upon wholesalers as the latter provide the regular and uninterrupted supply of merchandise to the former even on credit basis. The retailers are expected to maintain sound relations on the basis of ethical practices with them. In the extant literature there is not even a single study on demographic differences in the perceptions of wholesalers about ethical retail practices in Indian context. This study thus fills the gap in literature on retailing ethics.

Keywords: Ethics, Wholesalers, Retailers, Demographics, Merchandise

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