Title: Business ethical sensitivity of Chinese insurance agents: scale development and validation

Authors: Na Zhang; Jian Zhang

Addresses: School of Economics and Management, Beihang University, No. 37 Xueyuan Road, Haidian District, Beijing, 100191, China ' Donlinks School of Economics and Management, University of Science and Technology Beijing, No. 30 Xueyuan Road, Haidian District, Beijing, 100083, China

Abstract: An emerging strand of literature in behavioural ethics conceptualises ethical sensitivity as a critical part of the decision-making process. Compared with their peers in developed countries, Chinese insurance have more tendency to unethical behaviour. Interest in investigation of the Chinese insurance agents' ethical sensitivity is increasing. To the best of our knowledge, the present study is the first to empirically develop a structured measurement tool to test Chinese insurance agents' business ethical sensitivity (CIABES). The open investigation interviews, item analysis and exploratory factor analysis of 158 insurance agents and the confirmatory factor analysis of 417 insurance agents revealed that the 15-item CIABES scale contains four dimensions: cheating the company, misleading customers, providing false information and launching personal attacks. The results of reliability and validity tests showed that the psychometric qualities of the CIABES are satisfactory. Lastly, this study discusses implications for insurance practice and future research.

Keywords: scale development; item discrimination; exploratory factor analysis; EFA; confirmatory factor analysis; CFA; business ethics; ethical sensitivity; China; insurance agents; decision making; unethical behaviour; cheating; misleading customers; false information; personal attacks.

DOI: 10.1504/IJISCM.2016.077943

International Journal of Information Systems and Change Management, 2016 Vol.8 No.1, pp.3 - 22

Received: 05 Dec 2015
Accepted: 07 Mar 2016
Published online: 23 Jul 2016 *

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