1. Introduction
1.1 Problem Statement
Today, it is difficult to pick up a newspaper or magazine that does not contain stories about questionable business behaviors, especially about the questionable marketing practices. The concept of culture recognizes that individuals from different backgrounds are exposed to different traditions, heritages, rituals, customs, and religions. All of these factors establish and provide human beings with various learning environments and histories, which in turn cause significant variations in moral standards, beliefs, and behaviors across cultures (Vitell, Nwachukwu, & Barnes, 1993). In other words, culture not only influences learning, but also impacts what is perceived as right/wrong, acceptable/unacceptable, and ethical/unethical. For example, individuals with different cultural backgrounds may view the following terms dramatically differently, such as bribes, sexual harassment, sexual orientation, abortion, individual espionage, and religious beliefs. Failure to recognize these differences across cultures may result in conflicts and negative business consequences.

While there are a number of conceptual frameworks for understanding cultural differences, such as the ones proposed by Hofstede (1980), Hall (Samovar, Porter& Stefani, 2000), Kluckhohn and Strodtbeck (ibid) and Trompennars and Hampden-Turner (1998), arguably the two most influential and widely known cultural pe英语论文网 【http://www.51lunwen.org】rspectives that have been applied to business management and organization are the one of Hofstede and the one of Trompenaars and Hampden-Turner (Dahl, 2004). However, contributions made by Trompenaars and Hampden-Turner (1998) that addressed the impact of cultural dynamic on human relationships have been virtually ignored by the scholars who have investigated the effect of national culture on ethics. This triggers the author of this study to utilize Trompenaars and Hampden-Turner's cultural dimension to explore the effect of national culture on ethics.