Abstract
A 123 item survey of ethics perceptions of Farmers had 796 respondents. Of these, 517 (64.9%) felt that farm ethics had gotten worse. A discriminant analysis employed to offer insight into the extent and nature of group differences produced 22 independent variables along with an adequate increase in classification results above expectations due to chance. These variables reflect a division between the outside business and political world and the concerns of farmers. The responses suggest an appreciation by the respondents of the interdependence of their business actions with their neighbors. The results are also suggestive of both an absolute and a relative ethics component. Further research on the relevance of communitarian ethics is suggested.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Aiken, W.: 1984, ‘Value Conflicts in Argiculture’,Agriculture and Human Values I 1, Winter.
Altman, E. I., R. B. Avery, R. A. Eisenbeis and J. R. Sinkey: 1981,Application of Classification Techniques in Business, Banking and Finance.
Armstrong, P. S. and M. D. Schulman: 1990, ‘Financial Strain and Depression Among Farm Operators: The Role of Perceived Economic Hardship and Personal Control’,Rural Sociology, 475–493.
Beauchamp, T. L. and N. E. Bowie: 1983,Ethical Theory and Business.
Beus, C. E. and R. E. Dunlap: 1990, ‘Conventional Versus Alternative Agriculture: The Paradigmatic Roots of the Debate’,Rural Sociology, 590–616.
Brandt, R. B.: 1959,Ethical Theory, The Problems of Normative and Critical Ethics.
Breimyer, H. F.: 1985, ‘Agriculture's Problem Is Rooted in Washington’,Challenge, 53–54.
Broad, C. D.: 1916, ‘On the Function of False Hypothesis in Ethics’,International Journal of Ethics, 377–397.
Burkhardt, J.: 1986, ‘Agribusiness Ethics and Specifying the Terms of the Contract’,Journal of Business Ethics 5, 333–345.
Buttel, F. H. and W. L. Flinn: 1977, ‘Conceptions of Rural Life and Environmental Concern’,Rural Sociology, 545–555.
Buttel, F. H. and W. L. Flinn: 1976, ‘Sociopolitical Consequences of Agrarianism’,Rural Sociology, 472–483.
Buttel, F. H. and W. L. Flinn: 1975, ‘Sources and Consequences of Agrarian Values in American Society’,Rural Sociology, 135–151.
Cohen, J. and P. Cohen: 1983,Applied Multiple Regression/Correlation Analysis for the Behavioral Sciences, 2nd Ed.
Cooley, W. W. and P. R. Lohnes: 1971,Multivariate Data Analysis.
Derry, R. and R. M. Green: 1989, ‘Ethical Theory in Business Ethics’,Journal of Business Ethics, 521–533.
Dillon, W. R.: 1979, ‘The Performance of the Linear Discriminant Function in Nonoptimal Situations and the Estimation of Classification Error Rates: A Review of Recent Findings’,Journal of Marketing Research 16, 370–381.
Eisenbeis, R. A.: 1977, ‘Pitfalls in the Applications of Discriminant Analysis in Business, Finance, and Economics’,Journal of Finance 32(3), 875–900.
Eisenbeis, R. A. and R. B. Avery: 1972,Discriminant Analysis and Classification Procedures: Theory and Applications.
Etzioni, A.: 1988,The Moral Dimension. Toward a New Economics, New York.
Fatti, L., P. Hawkins, M. Douglas and E. L. Raath: 1982, ‘Discriminant Analysis’, in Hawkins, Douglas M. (ed.),Topics in Applied Multivariate Analysis.
Fienbery, S. W.: 1980,The Analysis of Cross-Classified Categorial Data.
Fishbein, M.: 1963, ‘An Investigation of the Relationship Between Beliefs About and Object and the Attitude Toward that Object’,Human Relationships 16, 238.
Frank, R. E., W. F. Massy, D. G. Morrison: 1965, ‘Bias in Multiple Discriminant Analysis’,Journal of Marketing Research 2(3), 250–258.
Gahr, E.: 1992, ‘A Common Sense of Community’,Insight, Aug. 3, 12–13, 38.
Gilbert, E. S.: 1968, ‘On Discrimination Using Qualitative Variables’,Journal of the American Statistical Association,63(324), 1399–1412.
Gilbert, E. S.: 1969, ‘The Effect of Unequal Variance-Covariance Matrices on Fisher's LDF’,Biometrics 25, 505–516.
Hair, J. R., F. Joseph, R. E. Anderson and R. L. Tatham: 1987,Multivariate Data Analysis, 2nd Ed.
Holman, C. B.: 1988, ‘Farmers and their Partisan Affiliations’,Rural Sociology, 487–497.
Kendall, M. and A. Stuart: 1979,The Advanced Theory of Statistics, Vol. 2.
Knoke D. and P. J. Burke: 1980,Log-Linear Models.
Krozanowski, W. J.: 1975, ‘Discrimination and Classification Using Both Binary and Continuous Variables’,Journal of the American Statistical Association 70(352), 782–790.
Lachenbruch, P. A.: 1975,Discriminant Analysis.
Lachenbruch, P. A.: 1968, ‘On Expected Probabilities of Misclassification in Discriminant Analysis, Necessary Sample Size, and a Relation with Multiple Correlation Coefficient’,Biometrics 24, 823–834.
Lachenburch, P. A.: 1967, ‘An almost Unbiased Method of Obtaining Confidence Intervals for the Probability of Misclassification in Discriminant Analysis’,Biometrics 23, 639–645.
Lachenbruch, P. A. and M. A. Mickey: 1968, ‘Estimation of Error Rates in Discriminant Analysis’,Technometrics 10, 1–11.
Lachenbruch P. A., C. Sneeringer and L. T. Reno: 1973, ‘Robustness of the Linear and Quadratic Discriminant Function to Certain Types of Non-Normality’,Communications in Statistics 1, 39–56.
Lowe, G. C. and T. K. Pinhey: 1980, ‘Do Rural People Place a Lower Value on Formal Education?: New Evidence from National Surveys’,Rural Sociology, 325–331.
Marks, S. and O. J. Dunn: 1974, ‘Discriminant Functions When Covariance Matrices Are Unequal’,Journal of the American Statistical Association 69, 555–559.
Mclachlan, G. J.: 1976, ‘A Criterion for Selecting Variables for the Linear Discriminant Function’,Biometrics 32, 529–534.
Michaelis, J.: 1973, ‘Simulation Experiments with Multiple Group Linear and Quadratic Discriminant Analysis’, in Cacoullos, Theophilos (ed.),Discriminant Analysis and Applications.
Miller, M. K.: 1977, ‘Commentary on the Use and Interpretation of Multiple Discriminant Analysis’,Rural Sociology 42(2), 261–263.
Morrison, D. G.: 1969, ‘On the Interpretation of Discriminant Analysis’,J. Market Review, 156–163.
Pinches, G. E.: 1980, ‘Factors Influencing Classification Results from Multiple Discriminant Analysis’,Journal of Business Research 8, 429–456.
Press, S. J., and S. Wilson: 1978, ‘Choosing Between Logistics Regression and Discriminant Analysis’,Journal of the American Statistical Association 7, 699–703.
Randall, D. M., and A. M. Gibson: 1990, ‘Methodology in Business Research: A Review and Critical Assessment’,Journal of Business Ethics 9.
Searle, S. R. and J. G. Gudell: 1970, ‘The use of Regression on Dummy Variables in Management Research’,Management Science, 397–409.
Siegel S.: 1956,Non-Parametric Statistics.
Sigelman, L.: 1983, ‘Politics, Economics, and the American Farmer: The Case of 1980’,Rural Sociology, 367–385.
Survey Research Center: 1974,Panel Study of Income Dynamics, Wave 7 (Ann Arbor, MI), p. 83.
Tatsuoka, M. M.: 1970,Discriminant Analysis — The Study of Group Differences: Selected Topics in Advanced Statistics, No. 6.
Wolf C.: 1975, ‘Group Perspective Formation and Strategies of Identity in a Post-Threat Situation’,Sociology Quarterly, 412.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Additional information
Allen Rappaport is Professor of Finance at the University of Northern Iowa, Cedar Falls, IA. He is a former Managing Editor of the North American Journal of Economics and Finance and current Executive Director of the North American Economics and Finance Association. He has published extensively in Academic Journals.
Robert A. Himschoot is currently Real Estate Specialist with the Bureau of Indian Affairs. He was Instructor in Law, Management Department, at the University of Northern Iowa when this paper was written. He has worked in the mediation of Legal Disputes. He resides in Bethel, Alaska.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Rappaport, A., Himschoot, R.A. Ethics perceptions of American Farmers: An empirical analysis. J Bus Ethics 13, 795–802 (1994). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00876260
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00876260