Ethical miscues in the 21st century sport industry are more prominent and deliver greater impact than ever before. News outlets now offer programming and content sites specifically dedicated to tracking ethical failures that occur “Outside the Lines.” Unfortunately, this unparalleled media exposure aggressively paints sport heroes and the organizations they represent in shades of bad, ugly and reprehensible, replete with distressing coverage of questionable deeds and shameful failures. Negative fallout in sports often becomes the marketer's responsibility when they are called upon to resolve the damage created for their brand. But is there a remedy here? This article takes up this challenge and discusses the nature of ethics in sport business. A literature review is used to refine 15 directions for research that address three related areas. Essentially, these questions (1) the nature of ethical misconduct in sport business and why it can become an important public issue, (2) what it means for a sports marketer to be ethical (i.e., do good), and finally (3) how social expectation and personal conscience play a role in determining responses to ethical dilemmas that practitioners face.
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