Virtue ethics in buyer-supplier relationships: A South African study

The purpose of this study is to test a measurement model of an organisational virtuousness construct in buyer-supplier relationships. In a nationwide survey, quantitative data was gathered from 250 large companies in South Africa. The data was analysed using structural equation modelling. The findings provide some support for the proposed measurement model. The research model indicates satisfactory goodness-of-fit measures for the model and satisfactory levels of construct reliability. The study provides a framework of constructs important for building and/or evaluating virtuous organisations in the context of business-to-business buyer-supplier relationships. This study contributes to theory on ethics and relationship marketing by presenting the first empirically tested measurement model of the organisational virtuousness construct in Africa.