Ó Springer 2008
Journal of Business Ethics (2008) 82:919–928
DOI 10.1007/s10551-007-9602-2
Consumer Perceptions of Business Ethical
Behavior in Former Eastern Block
Countries
ABSTRACT. The Business Ethics Index (BEI), measuring consumer perceptions of ethical business behavior,
was extended to four ex-communist countries (Russia,
Poland, Romania, and Bulgaria). For Bulgaria, the two
past dimensions are on the negative side of the scale.
However, Bulgarians seem to be optimistic for the future
ethical behavior of businesses. The same optimism about
the future is observed for all four countries with Romania
having the highest scores. Three hypotheses are proposed
for the unusually high scores of the past ethical perceptions expressed by Russians.
KEY WORDS business ethics, consumer sentiments,
Business Ethics Index, BEI, Russia, Poland, Bulgaria,
Romania
Introduction
The fall of the Berlin wall in 1989 was the beginning
of the crumbling of the Soviet domination of Eastern
Europe, culminating in the 1991 dissolution of the
Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) and the
end of an era for geopolitical reality. As with all Soviet satellite countries, Russia embarked on a transformation from a planned economy to a Western
style free market economy. In reality, the Russian
experience has been characterized as an ‘‘epic struggle
between capitalism and kleptocracy’’ (Stewart, 2006).
The dissolution is believed to have brought a
decline in ethical behavior and moral values in
Russia (Deshpande et al., 2000). Neimanis (1997)
argued that in the former Soviet Union, years of
planned economy, where ‘‘everybody follows orders
and nobody bears individual responsibility for anything,’’ led to the ‘‘malnourishment’’ of business
ethics and hindered the economic development of
John Tsalikis
Bruce Seaton
the country (p. 357). As a Polish production manager remarked, the brake down of moral standards
was the result of ‘‘homo sovieticus’’ (Ryan, 2006).
Due to the novelty of the market reforms in
Russia, Ahmed et al. (2003) anticipated increased
ambiguity as to what constitutes ethical behavior in
the business setting. This ambiguity presents a unique opportunity to study the development of ethical
values in a transitional period. Toward that goal, we
initiated the measurement of consumer sentiments
toward business ethical behavior in four ex-communist countries (Russia, Poland, Romania, and
Bulgaria). The measurement of the Business Ethics
Index (BEI) in Russia is crucial because Russia, with
its vast natural resources of oil, natural gas, metals,
diamonds, and timber, has the potential to become a
major player in the world economy.
Historical context
In order to better understand the BEI, it needs to be
seen within the historical context of the region.
Pre-revolution Russian society was mainly comprised
of noble landlords and serves-peasants. As it is clear in
the classic Russian literature, the attitudes of both the
nobility and the peasantry were quite hostile toward
the merchant class. This disdain for entrepreneurs
continued after the October 1917 revolution with the
communists making ‘‘private entrepreneurial activity’’ one of the most serious crimes (Avtonomov,
2006). Similarly, Lewicka-Strzalecka (2006) argues
that in Polish ‘‘the word ‘business’ has some pejorative
connotations that hark back to the times of centrally
planned economy... the average Pole regards economic success with mixed suspicion and envy’’
920
John Tsalikis and Bruce Seaton
(p. 441). In a Polish national poll, businessmen were
ranked among the lowest of the professions
(Domanski, 2004, cited in Lewicka-Strzalecka, 2006).
Lewicka-Strzalecka argues that: ‘‘the fact that a businessman or a large company owner is less respected
socially than a cleaning lady, means that he is considered to be a beneficiary of the new system, who,
according to popular opinions, did nothing to deserve
his profit1’’ (p. 441).
Sexty (1998), reporting on the findings of an
‘‘Ethics in Transitional Economies’’ symposium,
quoted Bohata (1995) and Marcic and Starcher
(1995) that under the communist system ‘‘everything was forbidden unless it was expressly allowed,’’
while under the free market system ‘‘everything is
allowed unless expressly forbidden.’’ Sexty continues
that under years of central control ‘‘the moral fiber
of managers was eroded, and the religious foundation for ethical decision making crumbled (Marcic,
1995b). For example, stealing from one’s employer
was widespread and considered an acceptable, normal practice which was a part of an individual’s
compensation’’ (p. 1312). Other findings expressed
in the same symposium were: ‘‘ethics appear to be an
anathema in current business practice (Marcic and
Starcher, 1995); a feeling exists that there are now no
limits on behavior in place (Angelis, 1995); and
capitalism is being interpreted by some as freedom to
behave without restriction’’ (Sexty, 1998, p. 1313).
Taylor et al. (1997) cite one Russian entrepreneur as
saying: ‘‘It is difficult to live in a society where
people do not trust each other,’’ and another as
saying: ‘‘...to achieve success in business today, you
forget about ethics, it is bad but in our Russian situation, ethical business behavior is harmful’’ (p. 17).
The dire state of business ethics has been attributed to: cultural influences; history; insufficient
business law structure; and the totalitarian nature of
the communist regime (Puffer and McCarthy,
1996). Such ethical decline includes: businesses
being extorted by the Mafia (Coleman, 1997);
widespread bribery and corruption (Neimanis,
1997); and a plethora of financial pyramid schemes2.
Shaw and Barry (1989) argue that collectivist societies view bribery as a form of wealth redistribution
with the members of the collective. Hence the act is
not viewed as particularly unethical.
In Poland, laws that were enacted by the soviet
controlled communist party were viewed as
‘‘foreign’’ laws and were circumvented on a regular
basis (Ryan, 2006). In addition, laws did not equally
apply to members of the communist party creating a
general disregard for the law. Richter (2002) argued
that the ‘‘Enrons of Russia’’ (Gazprom, Lukoil,
Surgutneft, and Tatneft) defrauded thousand of
investors by siphoning off profits in fraudulent
accounting schemes some of which are not even
illegal in Russia. Neimanis (1997) argued that the
corruption and bribery remain a major problem in
modern Russia as they were in the Tsar and the
communist years.3 Zashev (2005) argues that with
the internationalization of Russian businesses into
countries such as Bulgaria there could be a ‘‘negative
business culture spill over.’’
The instrument
Given the primary focus of the BEI on longitudinal
knowledge of consumer ethical perceptions, the
same four items will be used in all subsequent
measurements (see Exhibit 1). The original English
version was back-translated by the contracted marketing research companies into Russian, Polish,
Romanian, and Bulgarian, respectively.
EXHIBIT 1
Questions comprising the BEI
Personal/past
Q1. Based on your own experiences as a consumer in the
past year, businesses you dealt with generally behaved:
very unethically somewhat unethically neither nor
somewhat ethically very ethically
Vicarious/past
Q2. Based on what you heard from others or the media in
the past year, businesses behaved:
very unethically
somewhat unethically
neither nor
somewhat ethically very ethically
Personal/future
Q3. Based on your own experiences as a consumer last
year, do you expect businesses in the coming year to
behave?
more unethically about the same more ethically
Vicarious/future
Q4. Based on what you heard from others or the media
last year, do you expect businesses in the coming year to
behave?
more unethically about the same more ethically
Consumer Perceptions of Business Ethical Behavior
Data gathering
The data for most of the previous BEIs were gathered using the computer-assisted telephone interviewing (CATI) method. This method is
appropriate and efficient in developed countries,
where home telephone penetration is high. In less
developed countries, the most common methodology is pen-and-paper (PAPI) or face-to-face interviews since telephone penetration in most areas
remains small. The PAPI methodology was also
deemed most appropriate for the four ex-communist
countries.
Sampling
In Russia, MASMI conducted an omnibus study of
3,650 respondents in 8 federal regions of Russia
using a three-stage random cluster procedure. In
Poland, TNS interviewed face-to-face1003 respondents using a multi-stage random route probability
sample. In Romania, IMAS conducted face-to-face,
in-home interviews of 1250 respondents using a
multi-strata, random sample of 225 sampling points
in 108 localities. In Bulgaria, GfK conducted faceto-face interviews of 1,019 respondents using a
random route sample in 170 sampling points.
Results
Respondent characteristics
In all four countries the distribution of males and
females was approximately equal. The respondents’
demographic characteristics are presented in Table I.
For comparison reasons the population and GDP
data for the four countries are presented in Table II.
Computation of the BEI
All BEIs were calculated using the same formula
used in the calculation of the 2006 US BEI (Tsalikis
and Seaton 2006). The BEIs for all four countries are
presented in Table III. In addition, for comparison
reasons, the US 2006 BEI is also presented:4 Russia
has the highest BEI (135.8) followed by Romania
921
(120.9) and Poland (117.1) while Bulgaria had the
least BEI score (105.0).5 It is note worthy that all
four countries had BEI scores higher than the US
2006 BEI.
Analysis of the individual index components
In order to provide a more detailed picture of the
consumer sentiments, each of the four components of
the BEI are reviewed separately. A BEI Component
score was calculated for each of the four BEI components. The results for the four countries and the 2006
US BEIs are presented in Table III and in Graph 1.
For Bulgaria, the two past dimensions (personal and
vicarious) are on the negative side of the scale (below
100). However, Bulgarians seem to be optimistic for
the future ethical behavior of businesses. The same
optimism about the future is observed for all four
countries with Romania having the highest scores.
The most intriguing finding was the exorbitantly
high scores for the past ethical perceptions of Russians.
In the measurement of the BEI of 13 different countries, we have never observed such a high BEI score
for the past ethical behavior component. These high
scores are also suspect given the low score in the
Corruption Perception Index (2.4 – the lowest of the
four countries), and all the history of ethical malpractice presented in the literature review. Suspecting
a mistake, we contacted the marketing research
company in Russia (MASMI) and attempted to
eliminate any of the obvious mistakes (mistranslation,
miscoding, misentering of data). We also hired an
independent translator in the U.S. The translation
showed no problems, and the coding and data entering were also eliminated as culprits of the anomaly. In
addition, the same pattern is true for all 8 Russian
regions. A plausible explanation for these high scores is
‘‘fear.’’ The principle author of this article remembers
his friends and family being terrified of talking about
controversial matters (including politics) because in
recent history people were decapitated for expressing
their opinion in public.
Effects of demographic variables on index components
None of the measured demographic significant
variables had a significant effect on the BEI.
John Tsalikis and Bruce Seaton
922
TABLE I
Demographic characteristics
Russia
Gender
Male
Female
Age
15–19
20–29
30–39
40–49
50–59
60+
Education
Elementary
High school
College
Graduate
Incomea: Russia
Less than $178
$79–$357
$358–$717
$718–$895
$896–$1,074
$1,075+
Incomea: Romania
Less $189
$190–$473
$474–$954
$955–$1,437
$1,438–$1,918
$1,919+
Poland
Romania
Bulgaria
47.5%
52.5%
47.8%
52.2%
48.5%
51.5%
48.2%
51.8%
9.6%
24.7%
20.0%
22.0%
18.3%
5.4%
9.0%
20.1%
16.1%
17.2%
17.1%
20.5%
7.1%
17.1%
17.8%
14.0%
16.9%
27.1%
8.0%
17.1%
15.9%
16.6%
16.0%
26.4%
6.8%
57.7%
34.9%
0.6%
16.9%
66.0%
17.2%
41.3%
43.0%
15.7%
32.3%
50.0%
17.7%
Income: Poland
Less than $349
$350–$592
$593–$808
$809–$1,078
$1,079–$1,618
$1,619+
Income: Bulgaria
Less than $368
$369–$736
$737–$1,107
$1,108–$1,614
$1,615–$1,844
$1,845+
2.4%
15.5%
54.1%
22.4%
5.0%
0.6%
11.3%
25.8%
29.1%
16.0%
8.9%
8.9%
4.3%
15.4%
20.3%
21.1%
24.2%
14.7%
26.2%
28.9%
22.9%
12.1%
7.2%
2.9%
a
Family income per month. Incomes were measured in the respective local currencies but are reported above in the USD
equivalence as measured by the Purchasing Power Parity method.
TABLE II
Economic/demographic characteristics
Country
Population (in millions)
GDPa (in millions)
GDP/Capitaa
CPIb
Russia
Poland
Romania
Bulgaria
USA
143
39
22
7
301
$1,575,561
$495,885
$190,760
$71,235
$12,277,583
$11,041
$12,994
$8,785
$9,223
$41,399
2.4
3.4
3.0
4.0
7.6
a
PPP, International Dollars (2005).
Corruption Perception Index (10 point scale where 10 is least corrupt).
b
Consumer Perceptions of Business Ethical Behavior
923
TABLE III
BEI scores for the five countries
Russia
Poland
Romania
Bulgaria
US 2006
135.8
149.4
144.1
125.0
124.7
117.1
118.6
98.5
126.3
125.1
120.9
102.2
95.8
142.2
143.5
105.0
94.8
66.6
130.1
128.5
102.6
126.1
87.3
100.4
96.7
BEI
BEIpersonal/past
BEIvicarious/past
BEIpersonal/future
BEIvicarious/future
BEIs over 100 indicate positive consumer sentiments while BEIs under 100 indicate negative consumer sentiments.
What particular ethical or unethical behavior did you
personally experience or hear from others or the
media?
160
150
140
130
2006 US
RUSSIA
POLAND
ROMANIA
BULGARIA
Open-ended question
Conclusions
In addition to the four main questions comprising
the BEI, an open-ended question was asked:
Despite the dire economic situation in all four
countries6, only the Bulgarians have a problem with
BEI score
For gender, Russian women not only are granted
equal rights to men by the constitution, they are also
esteemed as the foundation of social and moral values (Puffer, 1996). However, no significant gender
effect was observed for the Russian sample.
For age, older Polish workers are having a difficult
time adjusting to the new realities of the free market
system. Under the old system a worker was able to
fill their government established quota and then do
nothing (Ryan, 2006). Similarly, older Russians are
accustomed in putting their fate in the hands of the
government (Neimanis, 1997). However, in all four
countries age did not significantly affect the BEI.
Subsequently, two follow up questions were asked
to confirm whether the comment was referring to an
ethical or unethical act, and whether the comment
was based on personal experience or external sources.
The results are presented in Table IVa–d. In the
mentions about ethical behavior personally experienced, Russians and Romanians mentioned the
‘‘quality of the product,’’ while Poles and Bulgarians
mentioned the ‘‘good service.’’ Similar results were
obtained when the ethical experience was vicarious.
However, for Poland and Bulgaria the mentions were
quite few to make any conclusions.
As with previous results, the unethical mentions
were far more numerous than the ethical mentions.
For Russians, the most frequent complaint was with
‘‘defective products,’’ while for Romanians and
Bulgarians it was ‘‘overcharging.’’ For Poles, there
was a tie between ‘‘rudeness’’ and ‘‘overcharging.’’
Similar results were observed for the vicarious
unethical experience for Russia, Romania and
Bulgaria. The only difference is that with Romania,
‘‘poor treatment of employees’’ was a strong second
after ‘‘overcharging.’’ For Poland the results changed
completely from the personal to the vicarious
experience. For the vicarious unethical situation
Poles mentioned ‘‘poor treatment of employees’’ as
their main concern, followed by ‘‘unsafe products.’’
120
110
100
90
80
70
ut
ur
e
ica
r io
V
Pe
rs
o
na
l/
us
/F
Fu
tu
re
as
t
us
/P
ica
r io
V
Pe
rs
o
na
l/P
as
t
60
BEI component
Graph 1. BEI scores.
924
John Tsalikis and Bruce Seaton
TABLE IV
Open-ended question results
Russia
(a) Ethical behavior – Personal
Service
Good service
Courteous/nice/polite
Corrected mistakes/problems
Good quality work
Professional/serious
Good/prompt delivery
Product
Good/quality product
Good warranty
Delivered what was promised
Good labels/user guides
Good product selection
Price
Fair/good prices
Better sales/discounts/gifts
Accurate billing
Advertising
Good/accurate information
Selling
Explained product
Helped choose product
Labor/management
Good labor practices
Good management practices
Social contribution
General
Law abiding
No discrimination of customers
Cares for customer needs
Honestly (unspecified)
Other
Total
(b) Ethical behavior – Vicarious
Service
Good service
Courteous/nice/polite
Corrected mistakes/problems
Professional/serious
Product
Good/quality product
Good warranty
Good product selection
Poland
Bulgaria
8.3%
3.3%
3.3%
0.6%
2.2%
3.3%
37.1%
19.6%
8.2%
78.1%
3.8%
7.2%
2.1%
3.0%
20.4%
2.2%
5.0%
0.6%
0.6%
3.0%
7.6%
1.5%
11.6%
2.2%
9.4%
3.1%
1.0%
1.5%
0.6%
17.4%
0.8%
59.1%
3.0%
Romania
0.6%
3.1%
2.1%
10.5%
1.0%
1.0%
6.2%
1.0%
2.8%
3.9%
2.3%
0.8%
132
1.1%
0.6%
0.6%
2.2%
12.2%
5.0%
181
6.5%
5.3%
3.2%
2.6%
2.6%
38.7%
25.8%
18.4%
2.6%
1.0%
5.2%
3.1%
97
2.8%
105
12.5%
18.8%
6.3%
18.8%
70.5%
18.8%
17.6%
5.8%
Consumer Perceptions of Business Ethical Behavior
925
TABLE IV
continued
Price
Fair/good prices
Better sales/discounts/gifts
Advertising
Good/accurate information
Labor/management
Provided employment
Good labor practices
Social contribution
General
Law abiding
Honestly (unspecified)
Other
Total
(c) Unethical behavior – Personal
Service
Poor service
Rudeness/discourteousness
Did not correct problems
Poor quality work
Late delivery
Not professional/serious
Product
Defective/low quality products
Fake/expired products
Did not honor warranties
Less product
Unsafe product
Misrepresented product
Lack of information
Price
Overcharging/Price gouging
Bad sales
Inaccurate billing
Bait & switch
Advertising
False advertising
Selling
Sales pressure
Labor/management
Bad management policies
No social contribution
Poor treatment of employees
Fraud/problems with law
Discrimination/prejudice/bias
Ask for bribe/corruption
Russia
Romania
9.7%
13.2%
2.6%
Poland
Bulgaria
6.3%
5.8%
2.6%
16.1%
31
5.3%
5.3%
2.6%
2.6%
15.8%
18.4%
38
18.8%
16
17
9.9%
0.8%
0.8%
2.3%
2.3%
0.8%
4.0%
0.6%
0.6%
0.6%
1.2%
0.2%
4.8%
11.2%
2.7%
1.1%
2.7%
1.3%
4.9%
29.8%
17.6%
3.8%
3.1%
9.9%
9.2%
1.6%
1.6%
1.6%
1.0%
0.2%
0.2%
8.0%
6.4%
5.9%
1.6%
1.6%
2.1%
0.5%
12.4%
2.9%
38.4%
11.8%
21.3%
3.6%
0.4%
2.7%
0.5%
0.6%
0.8%
3.1%
3.4%
6.4%
0.2%
2.1%
1.8%
0.8%
7.0%
2.4%
0.4%
2.0%
0.5%
1.6%
5.9%
2.7%
1.1%
3.2%
5.3%
2.3%
0.6%
3.6%
0.3%
1.3%
3.6%
4.6%
1.3%
926
John Tsalikis and Bruce Seaton
TABLE IV
continued
Russia
Bureaucracy
General
Does not care for customer
Dishonesty (unspecified)
Other
Total
(d) Unethical behavior – Vicarious
Service
Poor service
Rudeness/discourteousness
Poor quality work
Late delivery
Product
Low quality products
Fake/expired products
Did not honor warranties
Less product
Unsafe product
Misrepresented product
Price
Overcharging/Price gouging
Inaccurate billing
Bait & switch
Advertising
False advertising
Selling
Sales pressure/hard sell.
Labor/management
Bad management policies
No social contribution
Poor treatment of employees
Fraud/problems with law
Ask for bribe/corruption
General
Does not care for customer
Dishonesty (general)
Other
Total
Romania
Poland
0.6%
Bulgaria
0.9%
0.8%
4.6%
2.3%
131
4.4%
4.2%
7.6%
498
1.6%
2.1%
8.4%
187
37.3%
2.6%
305
7.5%
1.9%
1.9%
1.9%
1.6%
1.5%
0.5%
0.5%
3.5%
0.7%
0.5%
30.2%
18.9%
1.9%
1.9%
13.2%
3.3%
3.3%
2.2%
16.2%
4.2%
1.1%
1.1%
3.5%
11.9%
3.0%
0.5%
16.3%
1.0%
5.7%
19.7%
0.5%
0.5%
7.9%
0.5%
0.5%
35.2%
0.7%
7.5%
0.7%
0.7%
3.5%
0.5%
5.7%
1.9%
53
the past ethical behavior of businesses. Also noticeable is that all four countries exhibit significant
optimism about the future.
For Russia, the high scores in the past ethical
behavior components are suspect. The proposed
‘‘fear’’ hypothesis is supported by works like Taylor
et al. (1997). Taylor, citing Pipes (1990), argues that
2.2%
0.5%
17.5%
9.8%
8.2%
5.9%
20.3%
5.9%
1.0%
7.7%
9.8%
2.8%
1.6%
4.9%
21.1%
183
0.5%
3.5%
11.4%
202
11.9%
5.6%
142
‘‘the best hope of surviving [in Russia] lay in making
oneself as inconspicuous as possible, which meant
abandoning any thought of independent public
activity’’ (p. 838). Taylor also quotes the Marquis de
Custine observing that in 1839 Russia: ‘‘only silence
and fear reign.’’ In a similar vein, according to Su and
Richelieu (1999), the Soviet influence in Romania
Consumer Perceptions of Business Ethical Behavior
927
created an environment of fear and intimidation,
where the state rewarded people who acted as spies on
their fellow citizens reporting anyone who engaged in
‘‘inappropriate’’ behavior. In addition, the prevailing
entrepreneurial philosophy in Russia is ‘‘predatory
entrepreneurship’’ (success by any means including
‘‘mafia’’ connections) (Hisrich et al., 2003). This
mafia association might lead to a trepidation in
expressing dissatisfaction with unethical behavior.
Another possible explanation of the high scores in
the Russian sample might be the degree of collectivism. The communist party in Russia promoted
collectivism (Elenkov, 1997). The Russian church
also advocated the supremacy of the common good
over personal interests (Beekun et al., 2005). Even
after the fall of the communist party, Russians still
exhibit a high degree of collectivism (Latova and
Latov, 2003). This collectivism might inhibit the
degree that consumers are willing to criticize the
collective (including businesses).
A third possible explanation might be the blurring
of ‘‘the line between the permitted and the forbidden, the acceptable and the unacceptable... stripping
cheating, theft and dishonesty of their moral repulsiveness’’ (Taylor et al., 1997, p. 11, citing Dimitov,
1992). This explanation argues that Russians have
been desensitized to unethical behavior. All the
above possible explanations are highly speculative
and need to be empirically verified.
Western managers should make an effort to understand the ethical challenges they will face in postcommunist countries (Rhey et al., 2000). The results
from the open-ended question should provide valuable
information about consumers’ perceptions in these four
countries. The Russians were exclusively focused on
the product’s quality. Romanians were more concerned about price gouging. Poles appreciated the good
service and were concerned about high prices.
Bulgarians perceived companies providing good
service as ethical while they were mainly concerned
about price gouging. Finally, Poles along with
Romanians were the only ones that showed a concern about the poor treatment of employees.
While the ‘‘fear’’ hypothesis might have same prima
facie validity, further study is necessary.
Limitations
References
In addition the usual sampling limitations, the major
limitation of this study lies with the Russian results.
Ahmed, M. M., K. Y. Chung and J. W. Eichenseher:
2003, ‘Business Students’ Perception of Ethics and
Future direction of the BEI
Despite the apparent inability to collect ‘‘trustworthy’’ data in Russia, the fact remains that Russia is an
extremely important economic power not to measure the BEI in. To add to this importance, is the fact
that there a unique historical opportunity to measure
an ethical culture in its inception. Efforts are on the
way to find alternative methodologies to gather the
BEI data in Russia.
Notes
1
During the economic transition, the system of
‘‘political capitalism’’ transferred the costs of the ‘‘privatized’’ corporations to the state while transferring the
benefits to the individuals that controlled the company.
2
MMM was promising return rates of 3,000 percent
resulting in the defrauding of millions of Russians (The
Economist, July 30, August 6, 1994). Similar financial
scams are being carried out in the region even today.
3
The Corruption Perception Index (CPI) is the lowest among the four counties studied (CPI = 2.4).
4
All four BEIs were calculated using weighted data.
Poland, Romania, and Bulgaria weighed the data on
gender and age while the Russian data did not need
weighting so none was provided.
5
Based on the formula for the BEI, numbers above
100 indicate consumer sentiments leaning towards an
ethical business perception.
6
One of the most traumatic results of the transformation of all these ex-communist countries is rampant
unemployment. Poland in 2005 had the highest unemployment rate of the EU countries (18 overall, 39 with
Poles less than 25 years old). And it is not only the
people that are suffering the consequences of the drastic
economic restructuring, companies are declaring bankruptcy at record rates because of payment backlogs
(Lewicka-Strzalecka, 2006).
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Department of Marketing,
Florida International University,
University Park, Miami, FL 33199, U.S.A.
E-mail: [email protected]