J BUSN RES 1989:18:327-340 327 Opportunistic Behavior in Marketing Research Organizations Scott W. Kelley University of Kentucky Steven J. Skinner University of Kentucky 0. C. Ferrell Memphis State University This research considers employee perceptions of the interorganizational relation- ships that exist between three types of marketing research organizations. Significant findings from this study support previous work in the field of ethics and point out the importance of the relationships between opportunistic behavior, ethical cli- mates, and ethical profiles in different types of marketing research organizations. Introduction The empirical research on ethical issues in marketing has focused predominantly upon the examination of specific practices employed by marketers. Unfortunately, this approach has not resulted in an understanding of the ethical decision-making process. However, recent work in the field of marketing ethics has attempted to build upon previous research in an effort to provide an understanding of the ethical/ unethical decisions marketers make (Ferrell and Gresham, 1985; Hunt and Vitell, 1986; Robin and Reidenbach, 1987; Skinner et al., 1988). The purpose of this paper is to consider the relationship between the intra- and interorganizational perceptions of marketing research employees, and the level of opportunism existing in the exchange between research organizations. Our research tests aspects of the contingency framework proposed by Ferrell and Gresham (1985), the ethics model of Hunt and Vitell (1986), and the work of Skinner et al. (1988), while incorporating the work of Robin and Reidenbach (1987). These models, which are subsequently reviewed, state that specific individual moral eval- uations are influenced by intra- and interorganizational environments. In the pres- ent study, opportunistic behavior, a specific type of unethical behavior, is examined. Address correspondence to Scott W. Kelley, Marketing Department, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY 40506. Journal of Business Research 18, 327-340 (1989) 0 1989 Elsevier Science Publishing Co., Inc. 1989 655 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10010 0148-2963/89/$3.50