Cure or sell: how do pharmaceutical industry marketers combine their dual mission? An approach using moral dissonance

Bénédicte Bourcier-Bequaert (), Loréa Baïada-Hirèche () and Anne Sachet-Milliat ()
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Bénédicte Bourcier-Bequaert: ESSCA - ESSCA – École supérieure des sciences commerciales d'Angers = ESSCA Business School
Loréa Baïada-Hirèche: IMT-BS - MMS - Département Management, Marketing et Stratégie - TEM - Télécom Ecole de Management - IMT - Institut Mines-Télécom [Paris] - IMT-BS - Institut Mines-Télécom Business School - IMT - Institut Mines-Télécom [Paris], LITEM - Laboratoire en Innovation, Technologies, Economie et Management (EA 7363) - UEVE - Université d'Évry-Val-d'Essonne - Université Paris-Saclay - IMT-BS - Institut Mines-Télécom Business School - IMT - Institut Mines-Télécom [Paris], DRM - Dauphine Recherches en Management - Université Paris Dauphine-PSL - PSL - Université Paris Sciences et Lettres - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique
Anne Sachet-Milliat: ISC Paris - Institut Supérieur du Commerce de Paris, GRANEM - Groupe de Recherche Angevin en Economie et Management - UA - Université d'Angers - AGROCAMPUS OUEST - Institut National de l'Horticulture et du Paysage

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Abstract: Pharmaceutical industry marketers are confronted with specific ethical issues linked to the tension between the economic interest being pursued and the health mission of this sector. Indeed this dual mission could be problematic for them when the two objectives contradict each other. We use the concept of moral dissonance to examine how marketers in the pharmaceutical industry perceive the profit/health tension inherent in their sector and how they deal with it. Based on narratives of 18 marketers working in the pharmaceutical sector, our qualitative study identifies ethical conflicts of varying intensity that generate differing degrees of moral dissonance among marketers. To cope with this moral dissonance, they use the following strategies: (1) minimize the sensitivity of their activity; (2) invoke the benefits to patients; and (3) avoid behaviors that conflict with their values.

Keywords: Marketing practitioner; Pharmaceutical industry; Moral dissonance; Self-justifications; Neutralization techniques; Narratives; Sustainable Development Goals (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022-01
Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://hal.science/hal-03023906v1
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Published in Journal of Business Ethics, 2022, 175 (3), pp.555-581. ⟨10.1007/s10551-020-04657-4⟩

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:journl:hal-03023906

DOI: 10.1007/s10551-020-04657-4

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